Merzig – Bettelainville railway line
| Merzig – Bettelainville | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 3213 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route number (SNCF) : | 175,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book range : | 167a (1927); 235e (1939), 267d (1944) |
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| Route length: | 40.5 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Merzig – Bettelainville railway was part of a strategic branch line of the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine , which led from Merzig via Waldwisse (Waldwiesen [Westmark]) and Bettelainville (Bettsdorf near Diedenhofen) to Metz .
history
The construction of the line as part of the Alsace-Lorraine railway construction program by the General Directorate in Strasbourg began in 1908. On November 1, 1917, the line was opened and placed under the Alsace-Lorraine Reich Railways . Even after the First World War , these still formed a unit under the name Chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine . They also still owned the section of the route on German territory, i.e. in the Saar region ; The operation was run by the Saar Railway Directorate along the entire route. In the Reich Course Book of 1927 (No. 167a) three pairs of trains are recorded daily on the 40-kilometer route Merzig – Bettsdorf (Bettelainville), plus daily trips between Merzig and Mondorf .
After the reintegration of the Saar area into the German Reich, border disputes arose with France in 1936, because a 621 meter long section of the Silwinger Tunnel (the longest railway tunnel ever in operation with a total of 1715 m, which is still in operation today, albeit in the meantime disused) was under French territory runs. As a result, the two tunnel portals located on German territory were bricked up in December 1936. The route now ended from Merzig at the new Silwingen stop . The German course book of May 15, 1939 contains no. 235e passenger trains from Merzig to Silwingen; eleven pairs of trains drove on weekdays. On September 3, 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, the Saar Bridge near Merzig was blown up by German pioneers and not rebuilt. As a result, the route between Merzig and Waldwisse has been idle since then. After the end of the French campaign , train operations between Mondorf and Bettelainville were resumed in October 1941. Among other things, limestone trains drove from Mondorf via Lorraine to the Saarhütten . Therefore, in 1941 there was only bus traffic from Merzig via Homburg-Bidingen to Bettsdorf; the timetable of July 3, 1944 again shows train traffic from Mondorf to Homburg-Bidingen (timetable no. 267d). On November 17, 1944, the route became impassable again when the three-arched concrete bridge near the southern portal of the Silwinger Tunnel was blown up. Seven other bridges along the route were also blown up on November 21, 1944 when the Wehrmacht withdrew. On November 25, 1944, US troops cleared the rubble on the route, made makeshift repairs to the route, and drove their supply trains to Mondorf. After the war there was still passenger rail traffic on the French side between Waldwisse and Hombourg-Budange; this was discontinued on May 5, 1948.
In 1956/1957 the route was returned or sold to the neighboring communities. In 1967 the last rails were dismantled. Since then, the Mettlacher Tunnel is no longer the longest tunnel in Saarland used for rail traffic.
Situation today
The reception buildings of the Mondorf, Grindorf and Dalstein train stations still exist today and are privately owned. The partly mighty railway embankments can still be seen in individual places.
Between Hombourg-Budange and Bettelainville and on to Vigy , the Chemin de Fer touristique de la Vallée de la Canner (see Metz – Anzeling railway line ) is currently in operation for twelve kilometers of French museum railways . The further route to Metz has also been interrupted since November 1944 after the Failly Viaduct was destroyed in the course of the war. The line from Thionville to Bouzonville , which touches the Hombourg-Budange train station, is electrified and will be used for passenger and freight traffic in 2007.
Hombourg-Budange train station
Path underpass at Dalstein
literature
- Kurt Hoppstädter : The origin of the Saarland railways (= publications of the Institute for Regional Studies of the Saarland . Volume 2 ). Saarbrücker Zeitung Verlag und Druckerei GmbH, 1961, ISSN 0018-263X , p. 153-155 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Hoppstädter: The origin of the Saarland railways. 1961, p. 153.
- ^ Hoppstädter: The origin of the Saarland railways. 1961, p. 154.
