Stolberg – Kohlscheid railway line
| Stolberg – Würselen – Kohlscheid | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 2544 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | ex 245 b / e / g | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 12.2 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| State: | North Rhine-Westphalia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Stolberg – Kohlscheid railway line is a railway line in the Aachen city region that ran from Stolberg via Würselen to Kohlscheid and was in operation from 1853 to 2004. Partial reactivation is being discussed.
history
On January 27, 1853, the Royal Directorate of the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Railway put the extension of its line from Mönchengladbach to Aachen, which had previously ended in Herzogenrath, into operation; At the same time, it opened a pit connecting line to the Kämpchen pit in Rumpen (later called Kohlscheid Süd), which was about 2 km away in Kohlscheid (formerly an independent municipality in the Aachen district , since 1972 a district of Herzogenrath ). This pit was the first mine in the Wurmrevier to have a direct rail connection. The Aachen - Richterich - Kohlscheid - Kämpchen section was operated jointly with the Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company and belonged to both companies. In 1866 the network of the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter railway was taken over by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , which at that time was already majority owned by the Prussian state.
Most of the later Stolberg – Kohlscheid line, however, was created on the private initiative of Aachener Industriebahn AG and did not go into operation until 1875. The industrial railway line initially only ran from Stolberg via Würselen to Morsbach (later called Würselen Nord) as a connection to the Teut , Gouley and Königsgrube collieries ; the connection to Rumpen (Kohlscheid) was still missing. In 1887, the industrial railway, which had been trading as Aachen-Jülich Railway since 1882, was nationalized. In November 1890, the line was connected to the new Quinx junction on the Saubach near today's Hochwaldweg with the Stolberg – Herzogenrath railway line , which previously ran on the other side of the Saubach to the Stolberg station of the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , and from the Aachen-Jülich station Railway extended to Rheinischer Bahnhof. The section between the Rheinischer Bahnhof and the Quinx junction was also assigned to the Stolberg – Herzogenrath line. On June 1, 1892, the line was extended to Kohlscheid, including the old Kämpchen mine connection. For this purpose, a three-arched masonry viaduct was built between Kohlscheid Süd and Würselen Nord over the Wurmtal near today's Teuterhof.
For decades, Würselen station had extensive track and workshop facilities, as neither Aachen Nord nor Mariagrube , but Würselen had been designed as the operating center during the construction of the industrial railway , which together with the Aachen Nord – Jülich railway also formed a traffic junction. In the summer of 1939, three pairs of passenger trains ran between Kohlscheid and Würselen on weekdays and one on Sundays (only early in the morning); In addition, two more pairs of trains ran between Würselen Nord and Würselen on weekdays and a train from Aachen Nord to Würselen Nord (no return train) on Monday through Friday afternoons. There were six pairs of trains between Würselen and Stolberg on weekdays and three on Sundays. For comparison: every working day 22 trains departed from Würselen to Aachen North, 14 to Jülich, 3 to Mariagrube and 2 to Herzogenrath via Mariadorf and Alsdorf. In 1939 there were no continuous passenger trains between Kohlscheid and Stolberg via Würselen.
After the Second World War , passenger traffic between Kohlscheid and Würselen Nord was apparently no longer started. The official discontinuation did not take place until May 20, 1951, but the winter 1948/49 and summer 1950 timetables, for example, do not show any passenger trains between Kohlscheid and Würselen Nord. In the winter of 1952/53, three pairs of trains ran between Stolberg and Würselen Nord on weekdays, as well as a single afternoon train from Stolberg to Würselen Bahnhof without a return train on Mondays to Fridays. On Sundays only one pair of trains ran early in the morning. By the summer timetable in 1959, the offer had shrunk to a single lunch train from Würselen Nord via Würselen to Stolberg; In the opposite direction there was no longer any train. On May 29, 1960, passenger traffic between Würselen and Stolberg ended.
The eastern branch from the Quinx junction to Weiden was relocated further north in 1959 due to the upcoming construction of the Aachen motorway junction and has been preserved until the Saint-Gobain company was connected .
Freight traffic between Kohlscheid and Würselen Nord was given up on November 1, 1965, the Wurmtal viaduct at Teuterhof was blown up in 1966 as part of the route dismantling. Freight traffic between Würselen Nord and Würselen did not end until July 1, 1980. Until the early 1980s, coal trains still ran between the Siersdorf mine Emil Mayrisch via Mariagrube and Würselen to Stolberg, as this route did not require a change of direction, which is when using the Mariagrube route - Merzbrück - Stolberg would have been the case.
The section from Würselen to Kohlscheid has now been dismantled and partially filled in.
Route description
Stolberg (Rhineland) Central Station
The Stolberg main station is on the high-speed line Cologne – Aachen . The route to Kohlscheid began in the northeast area of the station east of the reception building. There was the transition to the main line Aachen - Cologne in the track field. Starting from the rear of the reception building, the route first crossed Probsteistrasse and Rhenaniastrasse and the Stolberg – Walheim railway line and passed the reception building to the south. Since 1888 there was also an introduction to the northern tracks of the main train station. Today (2019) the line at the western end of the station, right before the intersection with the line to Aachen, will be unthreaded from the station, the original line is partially built over.
Stolberg has been a railway junction in the region and especially in the Aachen district since the 19th century . Here met or meet alongside the tracks Stolberg-Kohlscheid and Cologne-Aachen nor the railway Stolberg-Herzogenrath on Alsdorf, the Mönchengladbach-Stolberg railway , the railway Stolberg-Walheim and the railway Stolberg-Münsterbusch each other.
Stolberg-Atsch station
The station Stolberg-Atsch the Aachen industrial railway is the historical starting point of the track and was in 1875 at the Steinbachstraße in the district Atsch . Its facilities were merged with those of the Stolberg main station in 1888 and its reception building was demolished in 1968. To the west of the station, the line ran under the Aachen – Cologne line.
Junction Quinx
The branching point Quinx was 1890, the connection to the railway line Stolberg-Herzogenrath set whose original, parallel route was abandoned. Since then, the Stolberg – Kohlscheid line officially began at the junction, as the line south of it was assigned to the line to Herzogenrath. When the routes to Kohlscheid and Herzogenrath were relocated in preparation for the construction of the Aachen motorway junction in 1959, a new Quinx junction was built further north directly behind the underpass under the A4 motorway .
The kilometer counting starts here with the distance kilometer 0.0. The branch led in the direction of the Kaninsberg / Aachener Kreuz industrial park, past the St. Gobain company (car glass production ), which had a siding there. Since 1986 the route ended after 2.1 km after this connection shortly before the bypass road K30 (Willy-Brandt-Ring), with which the further course was built over. In 2000, EVS took over the route. The siding was served until 2004. A planned reactivation of the line should lead the Euregiobahn via Würselen , the Aachen North Station to the Aachen city center to the Elisenbrunnen . These plans have not yet been implemented. As part of the track renewal work to reactivate the Stolberg – Herzogenrath railway line in 2015, the points were not reinstalled and the first meters of the branching track were removed.
Quinx junction in April 2014. The track of the Stolberg – Herzogenrath railway line was dismantled. On the left you can still see the overgrown route beginning. In the background the former signal box.
April 2015: On the right the renewed track towards St. Jöris. The switch was not reinstalled and the beginning of the Stolberg – Kohlscheid line was removed.
Weiden train station
The track system ends shortly after the siding to the St. Gobain company. The Weiden train station in Würselen was 600 m away (km 3.2). From 1951 the station building was located on the main street. Various mills, sawmills and a country trade were connected to the station.
Würselen train station
The Würselen station was at km 4.6; in it crossed the Aachen North – Jülich line of the Aachen industrial railway company. As a result, the track systems were very extensive. In addition to a station building, Würselen also had a railway depot and two signal boxes between 1875 and 1950 . The originally large station building at the Würselen crossing station was destroyed in the Second World War and replaced by a smaller new building in 1952. The building is still preserved today and is used as a cinema and daycare center. After the railway facilities were demolished in the 1980s and 1990s, a bypass road, the K30 (Willy-Brandt-Ring) was built over the station area. The Aquana leisure pool is located on the former site of the railway depot .
Grevenberg station
Grevenberg station was on today's B 57 with a distance of 5.5 kilometers. The reception building is now used as a Chinese restaurant. About 100 m behind the intersection, the siding to the Teut mine branched off to the left. The main route ran in a right curve from the junction and then continued in a straight line through the village, partly along Bardenberger Straße, in the direction of the Gouley mine.
Würselen Nord stop
At the level crossing on Gouleystraße, the Würselen-Nord stop (km 6.2) was directly at the Gouley pit. The route crossed the mine yard of the colliery.
Rumpen / Kohlscheid Süd stop
At the intersection of the route with Kircheichstrasse, there used to be the Kohlscheid-Süd stop with a distance of 10.1 kilometers. At the breakpoint there used to be the siding of the Kämpchen mine, which was located in the area of Kämpchenstrasse and Klosterstrasse. The line to Kohlscheid station was the oldest part of the line, the original connecting line to the Kämpchen mine.
Kohlscheid station
The station was built in 1853 by the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft on the Aachen – Mönchengladbach railway in Kohlscheid (since 1972 part of Herzogenrath). On June 1, 1892, the station was also connected to the line to Stolberg. Passenger traffic in the direction of Stolberg ceased on May 20, 1951.
future plans
According to the expansion plans for the Euregiobahn, part of the line should be reactivated in the long term. It was planned that trains of the Euregiobahn would run to the Elisenbrunnen in Aachen city center . To do this, they should use the remaining part of the route from the Quinx junction. Since from Broichweiden the route from Willy-Brandt-Ring is occupied today, a new route would be required from there, which according to the original plans should lead to the center of Würselen and from there follow the route of the Aachen North – Jülich line. Since the route through the center of Würselen is controversial among the city's residents, this realization is very questionable.
literature
- Hans Schweers and Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen . 1st edition. Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 .
- Bernd Franco Hoffmann: Disused railway lines in the Rhineland. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-95400-396-9 .
Web links
- André Joost: Description of the route 2544 Stolberg Quinx - Kohlscheid. In: NRWbahnarchiv. André Joost, accessed April 29, 2015 .
- Roland Keller: Stolberg Hbf - Würselen - Kohlscheid. In: Railway in Stolberg. Roland Keller, accessed April 29, 2015 .
- Reinhard Gessen: Stolberg - Kohlscheid. In: Mining and railways in the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg region. Reinhard Gessen, accessed on April 29, 2015 .
- Stefan von der Ruhren: Course book route 225e Stolberg - Würselen. In: Railways in Aachen and the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Stefan von der Ruhren, accessed on April 29, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arnd Gottschalk: The railway started to soar. In: Aachener Nachrichten . January 30, 2003, accessed April 29, 2015 .
- ^ Roland Keller: Stolberg-Atsch train station (AI). In: Railway in Stolberg. Roland Keller, accessed April 29, 2015 .
- ↑ Guido Rademacher: Bw Würselen. In: Railway in the Aachen area. Guido Rademacher, accessed on April 29, 2015 .
- ↑ Reinhard Gessen: Railway stations in the region - Würselen railway station. In: Mining and railways in the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg region. Reinhard Gessen, accessed on April 29, 2015 .