Malchin – Dargun railway line
| Malchin – Dargun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Neukalen station in 1907
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| Route number : | 6783 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 177 (1996) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 24.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 12.5 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 50 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Malchin – Dargun line is a disused single-track branch line in the Mecklenburg Lake District of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The approximately 25-kilometer connection was used for passenger and freight traffic between 1907 and 1996, was shut down in 1997 and has been operated as a draisine route since 2002 .
Route
The railway leaves the main line Bützow – Stettin west of Malchin and runs in a long curve to the northeast. At Pisede, the route passes Landesstraße 20; the first stop on the way was also here. The level crossing with the L 20 was removed after the line was closed when the road was rebuilt. The route then passes the Malchin district of Jettschenshof, before the next train station is reached between Gorschendorf and Salem. The station was originally called Gorschendorf and was renamed Salem after the draisine operation began . It is the starting point for trips with the bicycle draisine.
Behind Salem, the train leads in a curve that measures almost 90 degrees towards the northwest, passes the L 20 again - with an existing level crossing - and reaches the next train station west of the town of Neukalen . The train passes the Peene about 700 meters further on . After Neukalen, the route initially heads more west, after the following station Lelkendorf to the Neukalen district of Schörrentin again northwards. The next almost five-kilometer stretch then leads almost in a straight line to Dargun , passes the L 20 one more time between the Klostersee and the castle and ends a few hundred meters further on on the eastern edge of the city.
history
As early as 1883, the first plans arose to build a secondary railway from Malchin in the direction of Neukalen and from there on to Gnoien . After the company Lenz & Co. was won over for the construction and management, the Malchin-Neukalen-Gnoien corporation was founded on May 30, 1883 . However, construction did not begin because, on the one hand, the city of Malchin did not decide to co-finance the railway and, on the other hand, the Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn (MFFE) demanded a fee of 150,000 marks for the integration of the line into the Malchiner station . The law, which was also published at that time, which prescribed the use of heavy rail profiles for military transports on secondary railways, also caused construction costs to rise further, so that the project threatened to fail.
The Teterow – Gnoien railway line proposed by the neighboring town of Teterow could, due to these circumstances, raise hopes of implementation; the MFFE only demanded a fee of 50,000 marks for this route; In addition, the Teterowern succeeded in convincing the Gnoien mayor of their project. After the Schwerin state parliament decided on December 15, 1883 in favor of the Teterow variant, the plans for the Neukalen route were changed and the end of the line moved to Dargun. The first survey work began in 1884; However, there was a lack of money for the necessary implementation.
On May 15, 1903, the Mecklenburg government finally approved the construction of the line. After the first favored opening date on 1 October 1907 could not be met, was put into operation the line on December 1, 1907. The management was for the MFFE that with the abolition of the monarchy in Mecklenburg State Railways has been renamed. After the regional railways were "made available" in 1920, they became part of the Deutsche Reichsbahn . The passenger trains were now tied through as a 119m course book, mostly on the Waren – Malchin line to Waren (Müritz) . Freight traffic was mainly characterized by local products and timber transport. This led to an average utilization of the route; Neukalen station had an average of 68 trains per week in 1929, i.e. around 10 trains per day. The Reich curriculum from 1944 recorded four pairs of trains between Dargun, Malchin and Waren every day.
Like other lines in Mecklenburg, the Malchin – Dargun connection was to be dismantled for reparation purposes after the end of the Second World War in 1945 on the orders of SMAD . However, massive objections from Dargun and Neukalen prevented the implementation. At the time of the return, tracks 3 and 5 had already been dismantled and loaded at Dargun station.
In 1951 the route again had four pairs of passenger trains. Freight traffic also recorded an increase in revenue. Above all, grain and livestock transports now shaped the picture. In 1955 the Deutsche Reichsbahn had several branch lines examined for their profitability. The Malchin – Dargun connection was also included; however, decommissioning was only considered in the long term, as local freight traffic prevented its rapid implementation. Since general cargo traffic was shifted to the road from the 1960s, traffic has decreased since that time. The Reichsbahn reacted accordingly and removed systems that were no longer needed. A renovation of the railway was also omitted. After a passenger train derailed at Neukalen station in 1976 due to the poor superstructure, the Reichsbahn tried again to shut down the line. The freight transport customers along the route filed a complaint, however, so that the Neubrandenburg district was ultimately able to prevent this project. The Reichsbahn therefore began gradually renovating the line in the 1980s.
The route experienced a further decline after German reunification . Due to the drastic increase in motor vehicles in the new federal states , the number of passengers fell sharply. The German train therefore as the legal successor of the Reichsbahn introduced 31 May 1996 the operation. On August 18, 1997, the 25 kilometer long line was shut down.
On July 27, 2002, a trolley line was put into operation on the Salem – Dargun section. Continuous operation up to Malchin could not be realized due to the new construction of the L 20 and the associated abandonment of a level crossing near Pisede. The route has since been marketed under the name Naturpark-Draisine . Part of the former station building was also given a new use. There is a residential building with a restaurant in the station building of Dargun; the Neukalen station building, on the other hand, is used by a railway museum.
The tracks have now been dismantled on the Malchin – Salem section.