Lutherstadt Wittenberg – Straach railway line

Lutherstadt Wittenberg West – Straach

Route number (DB) :

6829

Course book section (DB) :

181a (1959)

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Route class :

B2

Legend

		from Falkenberg / Elster
		to Rosslau
	0.0	Lutherstadt Wittenberg West
		Connection curve to Piesteritz
		Reinsdorf way
		Connection to Feldbinder Spezialfahrzeuge GmbH
	3.5	Reinsdorf (b Lutherstadt Wittenberg)
	6.4	Reinsdorf-Braunsdorf
	8.0	Nudersdorf
		Connection to Quarzsand GmbH Nudersdorf
	10.2	Straach

The Lutherstadt Wittenberg – Straach railway is a single-track branch line in Saxony-Anhalt that is not electrified except for a short stretch and connects Lutherstadt Wittenberg with today's Straach district. Today it is largely closed and is only used for a short stretch as a connecting railway.

Route

The branch line branches off the main line Dessau - Falkenberg in the area of today's Wittenberg-West station and runs in a northerly direction largely in the valley of the Rischebach. After crossing the districts of Reinsdorf and Braunsdorf, the (original) route ends in the Straach district on the area of a farm.

history

The line was opened in 1911 - for both passenger and freight traffic.

In local traffic, the route was particularly important for Nudersdorf. The place (similar to Zörnigall and Abtsdorf ) was designed as a workers' settlement mainly for the workers of the WASAG explosives plant near Wittenberg . The factory was destroyed in an explosion in 1935. After the end of the Second World War , the route became less and less important for commuters, so that passenger traffic was discontinued on May 31, 1959. On the occasion of the anniversary of the route, a passenger train - specifically a steam-hauled special train - ran the route for the last time on July 14, 1991.

The route is still important in freight transport today. There were two important industrial connections on the line: on the one hand the plant for special vehicles of the Feldbinder company located in the district of Reinsdorf, on which an agrochemical plant was housed in GDR times. And secondly, Quarzsand GmbH, based in the Nudersdorf district. In the past, this also had its own light rail network to transport the quartz sands from the surrounding sand pits to the conveyor system. The light railways were dismantled in the 1980s and replaced by a conveyor belt system.

Until the 1990s, there was also another siding in the Braunsdorf district for a chipboard plant. The plant was closed and demolished after the fall of the Wall, as was the stump track and the associated switch. On the site, which has meanwhile been developed in terms of infrastructure, there are now single-family houses.

Current condition

Freight traffic was officially suspended on December 31, 1994 between Nudersdorf and Straach and on March 31, 1998 between Lutherstadt Wittenberg West and Nudersdorf, on the same date the entire route was shut down. Until Reinsdorf it is still operated as a railway station track.

Feldbinder GmbH is currently the sole user of the line and uses its siding to transport completed freight wagons for removal onto the main line. There is no more vehicle traffic on the remaining section. Quarzsand GmbH shifted its transport logistics to trucks at the end of the 20th century, despite the existing track systems. The existing route also ends at the plant. On the section to Straach, the tracks and sleepers have now been dismantled and removed, and in the area of the Nudersdorf plant, parts of the rails of the main and shunting tracks have also been removed.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ STREDA - Total distance directory DBAG; Status: February 1, 2003.
↑ Urs Kramer, Matthias Brodkorb: Farewell to the rail - freight lines 1994 to today. Transpress, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-71333-8 , p. 152.

[1] STREDA - Total distance directory DBAG; Status: February 1, 2003.

[2] Urs Kramer, Matthias Brodkorb: Farewell to the rail - freight lines 1994 to today. Transpress, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-71333-8 , p. 152.