Lathen – Werlte railway line
| Lathen – Werlte | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route number (DB) : | 9200 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 223f (1963) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 28.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm, until 1957: 750 mm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | D4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 28 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 190 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 40 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Lathen – Werlte railway is a single-track, non-electrified branch line in the Emsland district of Lower Saxony . It was built and operated by the Hümmlinger Kreisbahn until 1992 . Since 1993 the infrastructure company has been called Emsländische Eisenbahn (EEB).
history
The small railway line from Lathen to Werlte was built at the instigation of the district administrator of the Hümmling district , August Peus . On August 13, 1898, the narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 750 mm for passenger and goods traffic began operations. The modest expectations of the traffic were exceeded, so that new equipment soon had to be procured. It was also planned to extend the line beyond Werlte to the Oldenburg border, from where there was a railway line to Cloppenburg ; However, this was never realized.
From 1934 a diesel multiple unit was used for passenger transport. In 1935, trolley traffic was introduced. In order to keep the axle load low, six-axle trolleys were procured; Standard-gauge detachment tracks were built at four stations.
After the Second World War was at Ostenwalde the oilfield Ostenwalde developed. A loading station was built at Ostenwalde station. The standard-gauge loading track was connected to the narrow -gauge track on both sides with a trolley pit .
The oil deposit was then the reason to carry out the gauging to standard gauge that had been planned since the 1920s . With the funds of the Emsland program , the gauging was made possible from 1955 to 1957. The route was re-routed in some sections over a total of ten kilometers. The two-kilometer siding from Lathener train station to the port on the Dortmund-Ems Canal fell off. A workshop was set up in Werlte.
Around 70,000 people were transported annually in passenger traffic, with five pairs of trains running every day. On May 30, 1970, rail passenger traffic was discontinued.
Goods traffic reached its peak in 1959 at almost 100,000 t, 40,000 t of which was oil. In 1970 it was only around 50,000 t.
On January 1, 1993, the Hümmlinger Kreisbahn and the Meppen-Haselünner Railway were merged under the name Emsland Railway (EEB).
In 1995 the oil traffic ended. The rest of the transport of goods, mainly agricultural products such as fertilizer, was also little; Freight trains only ran irregularly. From 2004 onwards, freight traffic was significantly increased by the removal of wood.
At the end of 2010, for safety reasons, the transport of people and goods was prohibited on the entire route.
On December 16, 2013, the district council of the Emsland district decided that the railway line should be rehabilitated in two steps (initially to Sögel) and put back into operation. In this context, the route was temporarily restored. In January 2014, a freight train reached Werlte for the first time since the line was closed in 2011. On October 17, 2015, the repaired route in the Lathen – Sögel section was ceremoniously reopened with a special steam train.
In December 2016, work began on the rehabilitation of the Sögel – Werlte section. All construction work, which cost around ten million euros, was completed in autumn 2017. In Werlte, the new freight yard is also to be completed by 2020 so that the previous location in the village can be abandoned. On April 5, 2019, the first freight train with truck trailer racks was unloaded in Werlte. The train was driven by the Ostfriesland-Oldenburg railway company , which delivered the freight for the Bernard Krone vehicle factory from Italy.
route
The line begins in Lathen on the Rheine – Norddeich Mole railway line . After a short drive, the magnetic levitation train line of the Transrapid test facility in Emsland is crossed twice.
It then runs through the restricted military area of the Wehrtechnischen Dienststelle 91 ; The Bundeswehr tests guns and projectiles there. The Meppen shooting range is characterized by heather and forest areas. Trains are only allowed to run during breaks in shooting.
The only larger town between Lathen and Werlte is Sögel . From Waldhöfe the railway line runs parallel to state road 53 to Werlte.
The premises of the Werlte railway station, which was privatized and renovated in 1999, have moved into a hairdressing salon, a cosmetic studio and a tax consultancy company. The central workshop of EEB is also located in Werlte, where the current nine locomotives, railcars and auxiliary vehicles are maintained.
vehicles
The traffic was started with two two-axle steam locomotives of the corporation for locomotive construction Hohenzollern ; But they were not up to the growing traffic. First a third locomotive was procured, later they were replaced by three-axle locomotives from O&K . In 1934 the first diesel multiple unit was purchased. Three diesel locomotives, three railcars and two sidecars were procured brand new or as good as new for the standard gauge line.
Museum traffic
In addition to goods traffic, there are occasional journeys on the route that the association “Museumseisenbahn Hümmlinger Kreisbahn e. V. "carries out. The vehicles used are the Talbot VT 1 (built in 1957) of the EEB and the club's own Uerdinger railcar (ex DB 798 514-6, built in 1955), designated as the VT 2. A baggage car (Pwi 123, built in 1910, built by van der Zypen & Charlier , formerly Bentheimer Eisenbahn ) can also be used to transport bicycles so that you can go on bike tours in the surrounding area, for example to the Hüvener mill . The train is popularly known as “Pingel-Anton” after the striking bell of the steam locomotives that ran on the line until 1957.
In the last few years before the total closure, the museum trains only ran between Lathen (museum platform on the east side of the DB tracks) and Ostenwalde, as the EEB had closed the Ostenwalde – Werlte section to passenger traffic for safety reasons. After the transport of people and goods on the entire route had been banned for safety reasons at the end of 2010, the last rail bus journey on the Ostwalde – Rupennest section took place on Easter Monday 2011.
On the occasion of the weekend at the Jade , the association's rail bus was first used in 2011 on the Sande - Wilhelmshaven ( pumping station ) route, the southern route of the former Wilhelmshaven suburban railway , as the "Sande Express".
With the completion of the construction work in October 2017, the club can drive the entire route again.
literature
- Evert Heusinkveld: Bahn im Hümmling. In: Railway magazine. 11/98, pp. 54-57.
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 9: Lower Saxony 1 . Eisenbahn-Kurier, Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-88255-668-4 , p. 273-298 .
- Lothar Riedel: The Hümmlinger Kreisbahn. The traffic history of the narrow-gauge small train Lathen - Sögel - Werlte , ISBN 3-88490-138-9 .
Web links
- Homepage of the Emsland Railways
- Homepage of the “Museumseisenbahn Hümmlinger Kreisbahn e. V. "
- Private homepage about the Pingel-Anton museum railway
Individual evidence
- ^ History. (No longer available online.) Emsland district , archived from the original on November 4, 2011 ; Retrieved November 21, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Daniel Hopkins: Railway fans continue to fight for the rehabilitation of the Werlte – Lathen line . In: New Osnabrück Newspaper . May 8, 2011.
- ↑ Lahn company handles goods in Werlte. In: New Osnabrück Newspaper. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
- ↑ Christian Belling: The renovation is proceeding quickly: the first trains between Sögel and Werlte should start rolling in autumn . ( noz.de [accessed on July 26, 2017]).
- ↑ No trains: Refurbished route a "millionaire grave"? In: ndr.de. October 18, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Gerd Schade: City director outlines the schedule: Werlter freight yard should be ready by 2020 . ( noz.de [accessed on July 26, 2017]).
- ↑ Gerd Schade: Krone sends the first train over the Hümmling . In: Lingen daily mail . April 6, 2019, p. 9 .
- ↑ Norddeutscher Rundfunk: Pingel Anton is on the last trip ( Memento from September 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Hello Lower Saxony . April 23, 2011.
- ^ Railway courier: Hümmlinger Kreisbahn: special trips from Wilhelmshaven to Sande
