Graefenbergbahn

Nuremberg northeast - Graefenberg
Route number (DB) :	5920
Course book section (DB) :	861
Route length:	27.878 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	C2 (Nuremberg northeast - Eschenau) B1 (Eschenau - Graefenberg)
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Minimum radius :	250 m
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend Ringbahn from Fürth (Bay) Hbf 0.150 Nuremberg northeast 321 m Ringbahn to Nuremberg East Ringbahn to Abzw Eichelberg 1.300 Outer Bayreuther Strasse ( Bundesstrasse 2 ) 2.300 Anst Nuremberg Brick 2.900 Brick (until 1926) 4.300 Nürnberg-Buchenbühl (1926–1983) 4.800 Federal motorway 3 5.600 Anst Nürnberg Nordost Holzwerk Gründlach 9.162 Heroldsberg 353 m 11,162 Heroldsberg Nord (since 2002) 13,587 Kalchreuth (formerly Bf) 410 m 16,360 Großgeschaidt 366 m 18.300 Brander Hauptstrasse (Bundesstrasse 2) from Erlangen 18.710 Eschenau (Middle Fr) 340 m 19.400 First Miele 19.600 Bundesstrasse 2 (since 2008) 21,354 Forth (formerly Bf) 324 m 21.700 Bundesstrasse 2 23,543 Rüsselbach 24,903 Igensdorf (Bf until 1984) 335 m 26,433 Weißenohe 28,028 Graefenberg 388 m Swell:

Graefenbergbahn is a name for the railway line Nürnberg Nordost – Graefenberg . The Bavarian branch line branches off from the Nuremberg ring line at Nuremberg Northeast station and runs via Heroldsberg , Kalchreuth and Eschenau to Graefenberg . The line is considered a successful reference project for the revitalization of secondary lines threatened with closure.

history

The forerunner of the railway line was an omnibus line from Nürnberg-Plärrer via Hallplatz and Maxfeld to Heroldsberg, the First Bavarian Motor-Omnibuslinien-Gesellschaft mbH, which was entered in the commercial register on March 19, 1903. This line opened on May 23, 1903. In December 1903, the company concluded a contract with the postal administration for mail and parcel delivery to Eschenau. The first mail items were transported on January 1, 1904, but the volume of mail was so extensive that passengers could no longer be transported. For this reason, mail was stopped again on October 1, 1905 and the Omnibus Company was dissolved on September 22, 1905. Ludwig Maurer , Nuremberg's first and only automobile manufacturer (Maurer Union) as well as operator and liquidator of the line, operated the line until 1906.

The construction of the line began in 1904. On February 1, 1908, the Royal Bavarian State Railways were able to start traffic from Nuremberg Northeast to Heroldsberg. After the line had been extended to Eschenau on May 1, 1908, there was a connection to the Erlangen – Eschenau (–Gräfenberg) railway that had already opened on November 12, 1886 . In 1926, the Ziegelstein stop was given up after the tram was extended to what is now the Ziegelstein district of Nuremberg .

In the 1939 summer timetable, seven pairs of passenger trains were listed on weekdays and eight on Sundays. Other trains only ran between Nuremberg Northeast and Heroldsberg or Eschenau. Another pair of trains was tied through from Erlangen via Eschenau to Graefenberg. The travel time from Nuremberg northeast to Graefenberg was about one hour, which corresponds to a cruising speed of about 28 km / h.

Local train in the terminal station Graefenberg (1991)

In the last decades of the 20th century, traffic on the Graefenberg Railway was initially greatly reduced. In 1983 there were only five pairs of trains running daily. The weekend traffic was carried out three times a day by Omnibusverkehr Franken in rail replacement traffic . After the completion of the Nordostbahnhof subway station , it was decided to greatly expand the offer and modernize the railway line in 1998 for around 27 million euros. Since then, it has been operated in signaled train control mode (SZB) of the Sig L 90 design from an electronic operator station in Heroldsberg. After two years of construction, train operations were resumed in 2000 on the regular schedule and in summer 2001 they were completely converted to new class 642 railcars for 11 million euros . Since 2003, trains have also been running every hour on weekends.

Since the construction of the additional Heroldsberg Nord stop in connection with the relocation of the Schwan-Stabilo company in Heroldsberg, the route has been increasingly used by commuters from the direction of Nuremberg since August 2002.

Class 642 between Großgeschaidt and Eschenau (2019)

The services on the route were put out to tender in 2005 by the Bavarian Railway Company as part of the “ Nuremberg Diesel Network ” for ten years. The German train was awarded the contract in March 2006 and ran from 14 December 2008 under the name "Central Franconia railway" with new railcars of series 648 . Since the timetable change on December 13, 2009, class 642 diesel multiple units have been operating again.

In mid-August 2007, the dispatcher workstation of the Graefenbergbahn was relocated from Heroldsberg station to Zirndorf station on the Fürth – Cadolzburg railway line .

An extension of the regional railway line R21 over the ring railway to Fürth Hbf and a connection to the Rangaubahn to Cadolzburg was examined by the Bavarian railway company and classified as uneconomical.

The signal box in Heroldsberg has been manned again since December 2015.

Deutsche Bahn plans to invest around 10 million euros by 2020 to improve reliability and the quality of the route. In autumn 2019, two old railway bridges on Demmerweg and Schleifweg in Heroldsberg were replaced by new buildings as part of these measures. The financing of a necessary modernization of the signal box in Heroldsberg with around 20 million euros is still outstanding.

Route description

Nuremberg Northeast train station

The travel time for the entire single-track route is around 40 minutes. The trains meet in Eschenau and Heroldsberg. During rush hour, the maximum capacity of the route is used with one train in each of the three route sections. One of the three trains only runs between Nuremberg and Eschenau in the afternoon, but this only allows a "crooked" 31-minute cycle on this section. In addition, some stops are not served by these trains.

A special feature of the route is that - with a few short-term exceptions - it is used in isolated passenger traffic. The connection with the other Nuremberg train stations used to be by tram and today by subway at the Nordostbahnhof subway station. The exit station Nürnberg Nordost used to be a junction on the Nürnberg Ringbahn . To the east, a line branched off to the Nürnberg Ost station on the Nuremberg – Cheb railway line until it was closed on May 31, 1992 , and a second line ran through the Reichswald to the Eichelberg block point between Nürnberg- Erlenstegen and Behringersdorf on the same line until 1980 . In the west there is still a connection to this ring line, on which the vehicles for the Graefenbergbahn are fed from Fürth via the Nuremberg North freight yard .

The historic station building in Kalchreuth is a listed building and has been restored since 2002. Today it houses a small theater. The former locomotive shed in Eschenau has been renovated and is maintained by the Eschenau cultural locomotive shed "Seku".

At the Graefenberg terminus, the bypass track secured with switch locks allows locomotives to bypass train sets. Steam locomotives can be supplied at a water extraction point.

Vehicle use

In the first years of operation from 1906, the Bavarian steam locomotive series DXI and GtL 4/4 with Bavarian local railcars shaped the operation.

After the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) in 1920, the GtL 4/4 locomotives were run as the 98 ⁸ series and additional rolling stock from the former Prussian and Baden railways was used. The rolling stock was supplemented by Donnerbüchsen from the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

The Länderbahn wagons could be found until the end of the 1950s. From then on, three-axle, later four-axle, conversion wagons of the Deutsche Bundesbahn were used. Individual train services were also taken over by diesel multiple units of the VT 70 series .

Class 86 with three-axle conversion car in Nuremberg-Buchenbühl (1965)

The Bavarian local railway locomotives were replaced by the class 86 , and in some cases also the class 64 on the line. With the timetable change on September 30, 1965, the regular steam locomotive operation ended.

The then newly developed diesel locomotive of the V 100 series (211, 212 series) took over passenger train services, while the V 60 (260) and V 90 (290) series handled freight traffic. At the end of the 1960s, the VT 24 (624) series of railcars was also in service , and the 614 series from 1971 .

The use of the conversion wagons ended in the 1980s, and from then until 2001 , n-wagons formed two- to four-part trains. At the end of the 1990s, former UIC-X express train passenger cars , which were also used in regional transport in their final years of operation, were rarely used. After the closure of the United Paper Works in Heroldsberg (1993) and the end of the Miele plant in Eschenau (2001), freight traffic ended.

After the line was repaired in 2000, the trains were made up of two class 212, 212 and 213 diesel locomotives as well as three to four n-cars. To ensure that the approach and travel speed specified by the new timetable after the route renovation could be adhered to, a locomotive was located at the front and rear of the train and formed a so-called sandwich set. The Graefenbergbahn was one of the last areas in which the V 100 series was used in Germany.

criticism

There are always major operational disruptions on the route. According to Deutsche Bahn, there were around 30 major incidents in the first eleven months of 2017 alone. 15 of these were due to external influences such as accidents at level crossings, about ten to vehicle damage and the rest to problems with the infrastructure. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn said that the renovation of the branch line in 1998 would probably have had to invest more. After the accumulation of incidents in 2018, politicians are calling the route a “breakdown train”.

The susceptibility to interference and its effects on residents, employees, schoolchildren and schoolchildren is also the content of a satirical contribution to the program across the Bavarian radio . The Süddeutsche Zeitung speaks of "commuting like in the 19th century."

With an online petition, around 5,600 people (as of April 2020) are demanding a general renovation and electrification of the route.

In December 2018, Deutsche Bahn announced that it would invest millions of euros to increase reliability on the route. A five-step plan was presented for this purpose.

Gallery (railway line and structures)

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  Former Nuremberg-Buchenbühl stop

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  Railway bridge Kohlengasse Heroldsberg (YOC 1908)

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  Demmerweg Heroldsberg Railway Bridge (YOC 2019)

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  Kalchreuth stop

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  Locomotive shed in Eschenau

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  Weissenohe stop

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  Graefenberg train station

Gallery (rail traffic)

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  Class 98 ⁸ with Bavarian local railway cars in Graefenberg (1930)

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  Railcar VT 70 near Igensdorf (1959)

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  Class 86 with conversion and baggage cars in Nuremberg Northeast (1965)

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  Class 290 when maneuvering in Nuremberg Northeast (1990)

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  Class 211 with two n-cars at Graefenberg station (1991)

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  Class 614 in Eschenau station (2001)

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  Class 642 in Graefenberg (2011)

literature

• Description of the railway line. Nuremberg northeast train station - Eschenau . In: Annual report of the Royal Bavarian State Railway Administration for the year of operation 1908 . E. Mühlthaler's book and art print AG, Munich 1908 ( online version ).
• Wilhelm Barthel, Johannes Scharf, Hans Wörnlein: 75 years of the Nürnberg-Nordost – Eschenau – Graefenberg local railway . Working group 75 years of local railway Nuremberg-Nordost-Eschenau-Graefenberg, Nuremberg 1983.
• Günther Klebes: The "manatee": secondary railway Erlangen-Graefenberg u. Erlangen-Herzogenaurach local railway . Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1978, ISBN 3-88255-852-0 .
• Günther Klebes, Friedemann Kliesch-Brandes: The manatee. The history of the local railway from Erlangen to Graefenberg. Junge & Sohn, Erlangen 1989, ISBN 3-87388-014-8 (1st edition) or ISBN 3-87388-015-6 (2nd, revised edition)
• Manfred Bräunlein: Nürnberg-Nordost – Graefenberg . In: 150 Years of the Railway in Nuremberg . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1985, ISBN 3-922138-20-2  ( formally incorrect ) , p. 117-120 .

Web links

Commons : Graefenbergbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Roadmap from 1944
• Page about the Graefenbergbahn (private)
• Route description on local traffic Franconia (private)

Individual evidence

1. ^ DB Netz AG: Infrastructure Register. In: geovdbn.deutschebahn.com , accessed on July 2, 2020.
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
3. ↑ Map of the Federal Railway Directorate Nuremberg 1985
4. ^ First Bayerische Motor-Omnibuslinien-Gesellschaft mbH In: nuernberginfos.de. Retrieved March 4, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Summer timetable 1939
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Rolf Syrigos: Heroldsberg station no longer occupied as of today . In: Nürnberger Zeitung . August 13, 2011.
7. ^ Competition on the rails in the Nuremberg metropolitan area. (No longer available online.) Bavarian Railway Company, March 2, 2005, archived from the original on February 11, 2006 ; Retrieved September 26, 2008 . 
8. ↑ Claudia Ziob: connecting Gräfenberg- and rangau railway in the distance. In: nordbayern.de. Retrieved July 23, 2017 . 
9. ↑ State Ministry of the Interior, for Building and Transport: Disruptions and train cancellations on the Graefenberg Railway. In: https://www.bayern.landtag.de . Bavarian State Parliament, February 17, 2016, accessed on November 27, 2018 . 
10. ^ Heroldsberg: New bridge used for Graefenbergbahn . ( nordbayern.de [accessed on November 13, 2018]).
11. ↑ Two new bridges for the Graefenbergbahn. Retrieved on March 25, 2020 (German). 
12. ↑ There is no money for further renovation of the Graefenbergbahn. Retrieved August 29, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Homepage of the Kulturbahnhof Kalchreuth association
14. ↑ Homepage of the Eschenauer Kulturlokschuppen association
15. ^ Wilhelm Bartel, Johannes Scharf, Hans Wörnlein: 75 years of local railway Nuremberg-Northeast - Eschenau - Graefenberg . Ed .: Working group 75 years of local railways. 1983.
16. ↑ admin: industrial history. In: Heroldsberg community. Retrieved on May 1, 2020 (German). 
17. ^ Railway line Nuremberg Northeast - Graefenberg - www.bahnrelict.net. Retrieved May 1, 2020 . 
18. ^ Farewell to the V100. Retrieved May 1, 2020 . 
19. ↑ Gräfenbergbahn: Problems lie more profoundly at: nordbayern.de, accessed on December 8, 2017
20. ↑ Scott Johnston: Graefenbergbahn: "Pannenbahn" confirms its reputation . ( nordbayern.de [accessed on October 8, 2018]).
21. ^ BR television: Video "Graefenbergbahn annoys commuters" - across with Christoph Süß. November 22, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018 . 
22. ^ Column by Olaf Przybilla: Pendulum like in the 19th century . In: sueddeutsche.de . 2019, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on April 13, 2019]).
23. ↑ General renovation , electrification and expansion of the Graefenbergbahn - online petition. Retrieved April 28, 2020 . 
24. ↑ Gräfenbergbahn is to be renovated in five stages. Retrieved January 9, 2019 . 
25. ↑ New signal box: Graefenbergbahn protests are successful. Retrieved December 18, 2018 . 
26. ↑ Five-step plan for the Graefenbergbahn. In: N-LAND. January 4, 2019, accessed January 9, 2019 .