Marienwerder – Schmentau railway line
| Marienwerder-Schmentau | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The pillars of the bridge still stand in the Vistula today
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| Route length: | 22.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Marienwerder – Schmentau (Kwidzyn – Smętowo) railway was part of an originally planned two-track east – west connection from Miswalde (Myślice) to Czersk on the Eastern Railway . While other sections of this line had been in operation since 1902 and 1908, it was only opened on September 1, 1909.
history
The reasons for this long period of time were the enormous difference in height between the Marienwerder (62.5 m) and Neuhöfen (19 m) stations, which are only seven kilometers apart, and the construction time of the 1000 m long steel bridge across the Vistula near Münsterwalde. Construction lasted from 1905 to 1909. The traffic on the now only single-track line was only of local importance. It was not until the First World War that the route was used to a higher degree by military transports to the east. Therefore, expansion work began in 1915, which was discontinued in 1918 when the war ended.
Boundaries drawn after the First World War
When the border was drawn through the Polish corridor , operations between Poland and Marienwerder in East Prussia were stopped. The Vistula Bridge and some places on the east side of the river came to Poland. The shutdown for freight and passenger traffic for the section between Marienwerder and Neuhöfen took place in 1926 with the decision to dismantle the Vistula Bridge due to lack of demand. The bridge was dismantled from 1927 to 1929. Parts of it were used in 1934 for the Piłsudski Bridge up the Vistula River near Thorn .
During the Second World War , the former Vistula crossing was rediscovered as a means of transport to the east. Reconstruction on the German side only began in August 1944. Since the planned steel bridge could not have been put into operation until 1945, a wooden temporary bridge was built, which was first used on October 6, 1944. On January 27, 1945 this was blown up in view of the approaching front of the Soviet Army. After the capture of Marienwerder, the Red Army immediately began to rebuild the heavily damaged wooden bridge.
After the Second World War
In July 1945, operations between Kwidzyn and Opalenie Tczewskie were resumed because at that time the routes via Malbork and Tczew were not passable. From 1945 to 1947 two passenger trains ran daily between Prabuty and Smętowo and two to three trains on the Warsaw - Gdynia route .
After the construction of the Vistula crossings on the main lines, this temporary bridge was dismantled on March 1, 1947 and the Vistula crossing was shut down for passenger and freight traffic.
In the 1960s, an auxiliary bridge of the type KD-66 was deposited at Nowy Dwór Kwidzyński station.
The remaining passenger traffic on the section between Opalenie Tczewskie and Smętowo existed until November 27, 1962, freight traffic finally ended before November 28, 2005. The tracks are still up to the station in Opalenie Tczewskie.
Schmentau station
Front view of the Münsterwalde train station
Platform of the Münsterwalde train station
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Web links
- Area map and description of the railway facilities in Marienwerder (Polish). Archived from the original on April 15, 2013 ; accessed on October 9, 2015 .
- Marienwerder station plan (6.7 MB; PDF file)
- Route description (pol.)
- Pictures of the Vistula Bridge and its dismantling. Archived from the original on January 4, 2007 ; accessed on October 9, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Linia Myślice - Szlachta (218/238). Ogólnopolska Baza Kolejowa, accessed September 14, 2018 (Polish). Dates at www.kolej.one.pl
- ^ Linia kolejowa Kwidzyn - Smętowo. Kwidzynopedia, accessed October 9, 2015 (Polish).