Schefflenz Valley Railway
| Oberschefflenz-Billigheim | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 303m (as of 1944) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 8.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 14 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 200 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Schefflenz Valley Railway (also Schefflenz Railway ) was a standard gauge private branch line in the northern Baden building land . It branched off as a branch line in Oberschefflenz from the Neckarelz – Osterburken line and followed the eponymous Schefflenz down the valley to Billigheim .
Vering & Waechter (V & W) started regular operation of the 8.6 km long route on June 12, 1908 and handed it over to the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebsgesellschaft (DEBG) in 1917 . In 1963, the Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SWEG) took over the railway, which had been in deficit for a short time until the line was closed on July 1, 1965.
history
Prehistory, planning and construction
The initiator for the construction of a railway line in the Schefflenztal was a consortium of Mannheim merchants, which in 1897 acquired newly discovered clay deposits near cheap home. To exploit them, they founded the “brick and mill factory cheap home”. A private railway was supposed to create a cross connection between the Neckarelz – Osterburken section of the Odenwaldbahn in the north and the Jagstfeld – Osterburken section of the Lower Jagstbahn and lead from Oberschefflenz via Billigheim and Allfeld to Neudenau . A first report from March 19, 1898 recommended a line construction as far as Allfeld at the most, since otherwise an elaborate tunnel from the lower Schefflenztal would have been necessary under the Pfaffenberg into the Jagsttal to Neudenau - then Baden. If the route had run along the entire lower Schefflenz Valley to the confluence with the Jagst near Untergriesheim, it would have reached the Württemberg region - such a route was therefore not considered.
On May 10, 1898, the consortium asked the Baden state for a concession for the entire route to Neudenau. The state was asked for a grant of 20,000 marks per train-kilometer. In the same month the surveying work began, and in 1898 a railway committee was founded. The neighboring communities agreed to make the required land available free of charge in order to reduce costs. The cheap home brickworks promised a grant of 33,000 marks and gave freight guarantees. In the same year, further preparations stalled because the acquisition of some private properties was difficult and the financing of ongoing operations was not yet secured.
As a private entrepreneur, the committee was able to win Vering & Waechter (V & W), which at that time was already being discussed for the nearby planned narrow-gauge railway from Mosbach to Mudau . In 1901, V & W estimated the construction costs for the entire route without the purchase of land at 1.067 million marks. The descent from Oberschefflenz down into the Schefflenz valley to Unterschefflenz had a significant influence on the costs. In view of the high construction costs, the entire railway was not worth building, but with projected costs of 880,000 marks, V & W considered a branch line leading only to Billigheim as feasible. At the same time, V&W offered to build and operate the line, provided that the neighboring communities made a grant of around 119,900 marks.
Since V & W only expected a return of 2% based on the necessary investment capital, the company demanded a state subsidy of 35,000 marks per kilometer and thus more than the usual and initially required 20,000 marks per kilometer. V&W was finally able to agree with the Baden state on an amount of 30,000 marks per kilometer. Although the financing and the route were not yet fully clarified, on July 27, 1902, a Baden law for the construction of the line as a private railway came into being, which stipulated this amount and completion by the end of 1907.
In February 1903 the railway committee dealt with the location of the Billigheim train station, which resulted in a conflict that lasted until 1906. Finally, the neighboring communities, Billigheimer Ziegelei and V & W signed a contract for the construction of the Schefflenz Valley Railway on September 15, 1906: the communities ceded the required areas to V & W free of charge and the brickworks guaranteed a one-time grant of 33,000 marks as well as annual freight deliveries in the amount of 2,000 marks. V & W then applied for the license, which was granted on January 31, 1907. Because it was already planned to hand over the operation of the V&W lines to the subsidiary Deutsche Eisenbahn Betriebs-Gesellschaft (DEBG), the license was applied for on behalf of both companies from the outset. In addition, the Baden state extended the deadline for completion, which expired at the end of 1907, by a further year.
V&W started construction work in mid-July 1907. By the end of 1907, the substructure , the high-rise structures , culverts and abutments were largely completed, and construction work was completed in mid-May 1908. The inauguration of the railway line from Oberschefflenz to Billigheim took place on June 10, 1908, and regular operations began two days later. This made the Schefflenz Valley Railway - before the Staufen – Münstertal line - the penultimate standard gauge private railway in Baden.
Further development
After the line to Billigheim was opened, the municipality of Allfeld first submitted a petition for an extension of the line in 1909 . V & W refused to continue building after the existing line was barely profitable in the years before the First World War and no significant additional income was expected from an extension. On March 26, 1910, the Baden state explained to the municipality in detail that the high cost of an extension - some houses would have had to give way in Billigheim, and the Schefflenz would have had to be crossed three times in the further course - did not justify further construction. Further submissions in 1911 and 1913 were equally unsuccessful.
With effect from April 1, 1917, V&W transferred the route to its subsidiary DEBG.
In the interwar period , the economic situation on the line deteriorated, and it only made losses. With the support of the community of Billigheim, the Reichspost set up a power post line from Mosbach to Billigheim, which withdrew passengers from the route. In 1929 the trains were occupied by an average of only 54 people on weekdays. In the early 1930s, the Billigheim brickworks went bankrupt. The new owner switched shipping from rail to road in 1935. In the 1930s, the railway incurred annual losses of between 7,000 and 25,000 RM .
In 1936 the DEBG considered extending the route via Allfeld to the Jagsttal again in order to attract additional traffic - but now along the entire lower Schefflenz to Untergriesheim . Due to the associated risks, she did not implement the plans, but instead set up a parallel bus line from Oberschefflenz to Billigheim and then on to Untergriesheim on October 10, 1937. Until 1938, the bus replaced three of the four previous pairs of trains a day.
At the end of the 1930s, DEBG first planned to shut down the line, which was initially prevented by the Second World War . The route was not damaged during the war. In 1945 traffic was idle from the second week of April until September 7th. In the post-war period, traffic on the route flourished again, as elsewhere, and up to 150,000 passengers were transported annually. However, the volume sank again to the level of the 1930s by 1963. The route was only of certain importance for school traffic . In 1961, an expanded bus network served the Waldmühlbach - Neckarsulm and Oberschefflenz - Untergriesheim lines. In the meantime DEBG had procured a truck for freight transport .
Decline
On May 1, 1963, the Schefflenz Valley Railway was transferred to the Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SWEG) together with the other south-west German DEBG routes .
In the 1960s, operations could only be maintained with high subsidies from the state of Baden-Württemberg. In 1961 - at that time there was only one pair of passenger trains running in the morning - the income was only a quarter of that of 1949. In addition, the railway systems, which had not undergone any renovation since they opened, were now in dire need of renovation. In addition, the Schefflenz Valley Railway was the only DEBG or SWEG route on which only steam-hauled trains were used at the time and where operations were not rationalized either by railcars or diesel locomotives . The rolling stock still came from the opening times, the estimated costs for renewing the tracks were around 1,200,000 DM , another 80,000 DM would have been necessary for renewed general inspections of the two steam locomotives.
In view of this desperate situation, the SWEG applied on May 1, 1964 to release the operating obligation and thus to close the Schefflenz Valley Railway. Against the vehement resistance of the community of Billigheim, which saw its position as a business location endangered, the state granted the application on May 27, 1965. The last day of operation between Oberschefflenz and Billigheim was June 30, 1965. The track system was dismantled until the end of 1965, and the rolling stock was scrapped on site by January 1966. After the closure of the railway bus, passenger traffic took over .
business
Operating points
- Oberschefflenz
The starting point of the train to Billigheim consisted of a four-track system on the station forecourt . It was connected to the Neckarelz – Osterburken line on both sides until the post-war period, so that the station building of the state railway was located on an island . In the last few years of operation, the connecting track in the direction of Neckarelz was dismantled. Up until the 1920s there was a single-track carriage depot .
- Mittelschefflenz and Katzental
The stations in Mittelschefflenz and Katzental each had a small reception building and a loading platform with a loading ramp .
- Underefficiency
The Unterschefflenz reception building was two-story, with a goods shed attached to it. There was also a loading platform here.
- Cheap home
The end of the line was the four-track station in Billigheim, where initially three tracks - analogous to the V&W terminus in Oberbühlertal and Ottenhöfen - ran together in a turntable . A siding led to the brickworks. For the steam locomotives there was a single-track shed for two locomotives and a workshop, and in 1938 an annex for the omnibus and a truck was added. In addition, in Billigheim there was a loading line, a free-standing slewing crane, a weighbridge and a loading gauge . The management of the Schefflenz Valley Railway was also based in Billigheim.
vehicles
- Locomotives
During the years of railway operation, two steam locomotives were always stationed in Billigheim to handle all traffic. Two couplers with a B wheel arrangement were sufficient to cope with the low volume of traffic .
The first two locomotives had the operating numbers 1 and 2, later in the DEBG numbering scheme 6 and 8. The DEBG often swapped the locomotives between their routes, which also had an effect on the cheap home locations. Therefore, the stationings are no longer completely comprehensible and sometimes contradictory given in the literature. In the 1940s, locomotive 8 was used on other railways, in return, locomotive 70 came to Billigheim, initially as a replacement for locomotive 8, and later it returned as a replacement for the decommissioned locomotive 6. The DEBG locomotive 7, which is now a memorial at the Staufen Faust high school, was also in use in the Schefflenz Valley for a while . There was no rationalization through the use of railcars or diesel locomotives until the shutdown.
The locomotives named below were based in cheap home as regular locomotives for a longer period of time:
| operation number |
design type | Manufacturer | Construction year | Factory number |
Entry / exit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (until 1925) 6 (from 1925) |
Bn2t | Borsig | 1904 | 5330 | Stationed continuously in Billigheim, retired in 1951, dismantled in Billigheim in January 1956 |
| 2 (until 1925) 8 (from 1925) |
Bn2t | Borsig | 1908 | 6769 | 1941 to Wiesloch , 1948 back, taken out of service in 1965 and dismantled on site |
| 70 former DEBG numbers: 10 in Bodenwerder 1926–32, 22 in Menzingen 1932–35 |
Bh2t | Henschel | 1926 | 20693 | originally Bodenwerder , via Menzingen and Neckarbischofsheim in 1941 to Billigheim, from 1948 deployments in Neckarbischofsheim Nord, Duingen and Bodenwerder, back in the 1950s, decommissioned in 1965 and dismantled on site |
- dare
When it opened, the Schefflenz Valley Railway's rolling stock comprised three two-axle, second-class passenger cars and a mail car. The passenger cars came over the years in exchange for other DEBG routes. In the last few years of operation, two passenger cars with road numbers 20 and 102 were still in use. The post car PwPost 87, built in 1907, ran between Oberschefflenz and Billigheim during its entire operating life and was scrapped on site in 1965.
At times, the railway had three of its own freight wagons and one explosive wagon .
passenger traffic
In 1929 four pairs of trains ran daily on the route , in 1925 the railroad carried 41,180 people, after the establishment of the parallel post bus route in 1930 there were only 28,900 passengers. After DEBG had reduced the number of journeys to one in each direction with the introduction of the bus line, the train counted 15,417 travelers in 1939. Between 1930 and 1939, income from passenger transport fell from around 10,000 RM to around 2,500 RM.
In the last few years of operation there was only one morning train pair from Billigheim to Oberschefflenz and back. Because of the low volume of traffic, the train only carried one passenger car and one boxcar for general cargo.
Freight transport
In the early years, the railway generated around 60% of its income from the Billigheimer brickworks. After the change of ownership, the line lost its most important customer and the volume of goods fell from 27,000 t to 15,000 t. The remaining cargo consisted mainly of coal , wood and agricultural goods ; after the Second World War, sugar beets were also sent off seasonally . In the mid-1950s, the railway was still transporting around 14,000 t of goods a year, around 6,000 t of which were sugar beets.
History and relics
Although the Schefflenz Valley Railway was shut down over 40 years ago, some traces of the Schefflenz Valley Railway have been preserved to this day. The railway line ran from its starting point in Oberschefflenz, initially in a westerly direction, parallel to the state railway in the direction of Neckarelz, crossed Sattelbachstrasse with it and then turned on a dam to the south into the Schefflenz valley. The overpass is still the width required for three tracks. In the course have been preserved in many places dams or terrain cuts, sometimes there are also abutment of bridges. On a section up to Mittelschefflenz today a dirt road runs along the old route. When the Schefflenztallandstraße ( Landesstraße 536) was expanded between Mittel- and Unterschefflenz after 1965, the new line was laid on the former railway line. A cycle path runs along it between Katzental and Billigheim .
The station building in Katzental was taken over by the local volunteer fire brigade in 1991 and is in good condition today. A Raiffeisen market has set up shop on the site of the former Billigheim terminus . The old station building is still standing, but has been heavily rebuilt. The locomotive shed with its bus and truck annex has also been preserved. The name of the restaurant "Zum Bahnhof" near the former train station is also reminiscent of the Schefflenz Valley Railway.
literature
- Theodor Horn: From Oberschefflenz to Billigheim - history and decline of the Schefflenz Valley Railway . In: Modern Railway . No. 12 , 1969, p. 14-17 .
- Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 21-23 .
- Gerd Wolff, Hans-Dieter Menges: German small and private railways. Volume 2: Bathing . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-653-6 , p. 395-399 .
- Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 1 : Historical development and railway construction . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-766-4 , p. 276-279 .
- Wilhelm Seussler: The Oberschefflenz – Billigheim railway line . In: Our country . 2008, p. 211-214 .
Web links
- Description of the route in "Forgotten Railways"
- At the edge of the Odenwald: branch line Oberschefflenz – Billigheim at verkehrsrelektiven.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Wolff / Menges 1992, p. 395
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Scharf 2001, p. 276
- ↑ Seussler 2008, p. 211
- ↑ a b Horn 1969, p. 15
- ↑ a b c d e f g Wolff / Menges 1992, p. 396
- ↑ a b Seussler 2008, p. 212
- ↑ a b Seussler 2008, p. 214
- ↑ Scharf 2001, p. 278
- ↑ a b c d e f g Scharf 2001, p. 279
- ↑ a b c d e Wolff / Menges 1992, p. 397
- ↑ a b Horn 1969, p. 16
- ^ Moritz Scherzinger: ex SWEG locomotive 7 as a monument locomotive. March 24, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Wolff / Menges 1992, p. 399
- ↑ Horn 1969, p. 16f
- ^ Ingo Hütter: Contributions to the history of locomotives and railways: Vorwohle-Emmerthaler Eisenbahn. Retrieved March 25, 2012 .
- ↑ Horn 1969, p. 17
