Malente-Gremsmühlen-Lütjenburg railway line

Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen-Lütjenburg
Standard gauge meets narrow gauge in Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen station (2007).
Route number (DB) :	1112
Course book range :	147 (1976)
Route length:	17.26 km
Gauge :	1435 mm / 600 mm
Route class :	C4
Top speed:	50 km / h
Legend from Lübeck 0.00 Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen to Kiel 2.01 Malente-North 3.89 Holstein Switzerland 5.49 Bruhnskoppel 6.72 Malkwitz 8.32 Benz 9.60 Flehm 11.15 Kletkamp 13.00 Blekendorf 15.20 Friederikenthal 16.57 Blacksmith village Small train from Preetz 17.26 Luetjenburg

The Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen-Lütjenburg railway line is a disused standard-gauge branch line in Schleswig-Holstein . The operator for the construction was the businessman Janus, who ran the Hotel Holsteinische Schweiz , which also gave its name to the station of the same name on the route.

The route has a length of around 17 kilometers. It connects the Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen train station with Lütjenburg in Holstein Switzerland .

history

The contract to build the line was signed on May 15, 1888. The route was opened in several sections.

The track chain in 1866 built station Gremsmühlen by the Altona-Kiel Railway Company built East Holstein Railroad (now the railway Neumünster-Ascheberg , Kiel-Lübeck railway and Eutin-Neustadt railway ) between Neumuenster and Neustadt in Holstein from. The Gremsmühlen station had to be rebuilt in 1893 to build the line.

Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen station in March 2006, track towards Lütjenburg

After that, the newly built station was a wedge station between the platform tracks for the trains in the direction of Lütjenburg or in the direction of Kiel and Lübeck. On November 17, 1905, the Altona management changed the name of the Gremsmühlen station to Malente-Gremsmühlen . In the summer of 2004, the connection point was expanded in the direction of Lütjenburg.

The first end point of the line was the Kletkamp stop from the opening on December 8, 1890 to June 1, 1891. From then on, the route was extended to the Schmiedendorf stop on the outskirts of Lütjenburg. It was the end of the line until October 14, 1892. Then the rest of the section up to the Lütjenburg terminus was opened and Schmiedendorf was closed. The only siding in the route was in Malkwitz (km 6.90). It served a brick factory , was put into operation around 1890 and served until the early 1970s.

Holsteinische Schweiz train station on Lake Kellersee was opened on May 25, 1890. Track 1 had a platform roof that was dismantled in 1896 in order to rebuild it at the Plön Prinzenbahnhof (correct: Plön parking station). This canopy has stood at Plön train station since 1910. From 1910, the Kleinbahn Kirchbarkau – Preetz – Lütjenburg (KPL), whose line ended at the Lütjenburg house platform, opened into the Lütjenburg station with turntable , engine shed with treatment systems, head and side ramp with crane . Since then there has been a second platform. The Kleinbahn owned a locomotive shed with treatment facilities in Lütjenburg. The KPL had to pay a usage fee for the use of the state railway tracks. After the Kleinbahn ceased operations in 1938, the military took over the Lütjenburg – Neuhaus section as a siding for the Bellin Seefliegerhorst on Lake Selenter . The Deutsche Reichsbahn operated the sidings until 1942, after which the tracks were demolished.

At the former Malente-Nord stop in 2006.

After the end of the war , the administration of the Stettin Railway Directorate found its home in Benz station . The management was dissolved in July 1945. A plaque on the station building reminds of the dissolution.

There were major changes on the line in the 1960s when the line had to be renewed for the military trains weighing up to 1,400 tons that served the military training area in Todendorf near Lütjenburg. For the rails previously lashed in the sand bed, rails with the S 54 profile were laid in a new ballast bed over the entire route in 1962/63 and welded throughout.

For the summer schedule from May 23, 1954, the rail bus was introduced on the route. The VT 95 series with VB 142 and later the VT 98 series with VS 98 dominated the route until passenger traffic ceased on May 29, 1976.

Military goods traffic ended in the mid-1990s. The line was officially closed in 1996. Seasonal steam trains on the Hamburg –Lütjenburg – Hamburg route operated with a special permit until 2000. The line was saved from demolition by the Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Immobiliengesellschaft in April 2005. From 2006 to 2008 there was draisine traffic between Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen and Benz. The Mittenwald railway real estate company sold the line on September 15, 2008 to the Deutsche Privatbahn in Hameln. In 2008, a large part of the Lütjenburg station area was demolished in favor of a new supermarket.

In March 2011 the entire route was cleared of vegetation. In media reports the resumption of operation of the line was announced and from May 2012 the Deutsche Privatbahn GmbH wanted to have trains from the 1950s run daily on the line between Malente-Gremsmühlen and Lütjenburg. However, these plans could not be implemented and the EBC Eisenbahnbetriebs- und Consulting GmbH , as the responsible railway infrastructure company , applied for the line to be closed at the beginning of July 2012.

The railway line was bought back by the Mittenwalder Eisenbahn-Immobiliengesellschaft and is to be used again as a draisine railway by the Draisinenbahn Berlin / Brandenburg GmbH & Co. KG. Both Malente-Gremsmühlen and Lütjenburg are planned as starting points for the trolley rides. From Malente, the trolley service should start in May 2018. The rails have been exposed again since September 2019 and provisional trolley traffic has been set up on the open sections of the route.

Railway stations and stops

The following stations and stops were served:

• Gremskamp (flea market hall) (formerly Malente freight yard)
• 0.00 Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen; formerly operating wedge station between the Kiel – Lübeck railway line and the line covered here; from May 31, 1866
• 2.01 Malente-Nord (since September 13, 2008 Eggersdorf); from summer 1954
• 3.89 Holstein Switzerland; from May 25, 1890: The train station on the Kellersee was named after the hotel of the same name. Track 1 had a platform canopy, the 1896 Prince Ploen Bahnhof and 1910 to the station Ploen was implemented.
• 5.49 Bruhnskoppel; from 1890
• 6.72 Malkwitz; from summer 1954
• 8.32 benz; from 1890
• 9.60 flehm; from summer 1955
• 11.15 Kletkamp; from December 8, 1890
• 13.00 Blekendorf; from summer 1954
• 15.20 Friederikenthal; from summer 1954
• 16.57 Schmiedendorf; from June 1, 1891 to October 1, 1892
• 17.26 Lütjenburg

The "Hein Schüttelborg" project and the Kleinbahn Betriebsgesellschaft

Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen station in June 2007, track towards Lütjenburg

In 2006, the 1,435 mm track to the former freight yard in Malente was recalibrated to 600 mm

The line owners leased the line from 2006-2010 to Feld- und Kleinbahn Betriebsgesellschaft gGmbH (FKBG, later KLBG), which previously operated the museum field railway " Wilde Erika " and had meanwhile tried in vain to rebuild the Ellrich – Zorge railway line . In 2006, the FKBG re-tracked the track to the former freight yard in Malente to 600 mm and planned to re-track the entire route from 2009 and operate it as the "Hein Schüttelborg" project. For this, the FKBG received approval as a railway infrastructure company in November 2008 . In April 2009, the company's approval was withdrawn at its own request because it was organizationally, financially and technically not in a position to meet the security requirements associated with this status. Then the FKBG wanted to operate the line as a special type of railway without official approval. Part of the route was actually re-gauged and operations began in June 2009. The municipality of Malente prohibited this operation on June 19, 2009 because of a threat to public safety and order. The KLBG's appeal against this was initially successful. The restart on July 3, 2010 was banned on July 6 by the competent railway supervisory authority. Traffic has been idle since then, and the line that had been re-tracked as far as Bruhnskoppel was reduced to the regular gauge by the Westfälische Almetalbahn (WAB). Although the regional court forbade the re-gauging, the WAB and the KLBG agreed to subsequently cancel the lease. The "Hein Schüttelborg" project will not be pursued any further.

The FKBG / KLBG used two Deutz OMZ 122 F locomotives . There were two covered wagons of the former small railways in Ortelsburg and Znin , as well as four open goods wagons with benches from Poland .

According to the specialist magazine “Die Museums-Eisenbahn”, the failed business activities of the FKBG / KLBG in Malente left a lot of excitement and anger because the railway was operated without a permit and the law had been broken. There was no public interest in the 600 mm run, nor had the company achieved anything in terms of museological aspects. The project, which is characterized by naivety, is said to be "less fun to be had".

literature

• Wolfram Bäumer: Project "Hein Schüttelborg." In: Die Museums-Eisenbahn, issue 4/2010, p. 14ff.
• Olaf Hamelau: Hein Lüttenborg. The Malente-Gremsmühlen-Lütjenburg branch line . Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-337-4 .
• Olaf Hamelau: The railway in Ostholstein . Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-589-7 .

Web links

• History of the route, track plans and video. IG Eisenbahn in Lütjenburg, accessed on January 5, 2016 . 
• hein-luettenborg.de: Small railways in 600 mm gauge

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Closure of the public railway infrastructure from Malente-Gremsmühlen (km 0.100) to Lütjenburg (km 17.155) in accordance with Section 11 AEG. In: Bundesanzeiger.de. July 2, 2012, accessed August 26, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Railway line has new owner. Kieler Nachrichten, accessed on August 26, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Draisine rolls between Malente and Jütjenburg. Retrieved October 13, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Closure of the Schmiedendorf station
5. ↑ Length of the Schmiedendorf – Lütjenburg route
6. ↑ Bäumer, in: Die Museums-Eisenbahn Heft 4/2010, pp. 14ff., 23.