Pirna – Gottleuba railway line

Pirna-Gottleuba
Section of the route map of Saxony from 1902
Route number :	6603; sä. PGl
Course book range :	313 (1971)
Route length:	17.610 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	CM4 (1999)
Maximum slope :	27  ‰
Minimum radius :	180 m
Legend from Kamenz (Sachs) from Děčín hl.n. 0.000 Pirna ( wedge station ) 118 m to Dresden-Neustadt 1.065 Pirna solidarity from 1950 120 m 1.603 1.600 Kilometer jump +3 m 1.704 Abzw Pirna South after Großcotta 1,879 Pirna South from 1894 122 m ~ 2.0 Pirna Hp until 1894 122 m 2.178 Mühlgraben Bridge (11 m) 2.266 Flood bridge 2.594 Gottleubabrücke (70 m) 3.89 Pirna East 133 m 6.044 Mühlgraben Bridge 6.45 Pirna- Rottwerndorf 148 m 7.488 Anst Textilchemie agrotex GmbH 7,590 Pirna- Neundorf 159 m 8,362 Gottleubabrücke (41 m) 8,980 Mühlgraben Bridge 10,432 Init VEB hard cardboard and fiber casting plant 11,443 Gottleubabrücke (70 m) 11.658 Langenhennersdorf 234 m 11.985 Werkgraben bridge 12.025 Gottleubabrücke (49 m) 13.74 Berggießhübel-Zwiesel 284 m 14,927 Berggießhübel 290 m 14,957 Mühlgraben passage 15.036 Gottleubabrücke (22 m) 15,146 Berggießhübel Bridge (52 m) 15,344 Passage through a commercial road 15,486 Gottleubabrücke (62 m) 16,586 Giesenstein until 1922 314 m 16.848 Gottleubabrücke (12 m) 16.878 Mühlgraben Bridge 16,947 passage 17.187 passage 17,547 passage 17.607 Gottleuba 328 m 17.725 End of the route

The Pirna – Gottleuba railway line (also: Gottleubatalbahn ) was a branch line in Saxony . It ran in the Gottleubatal from Pirna via Berggießhübel to Bad Gottleuba and was shut down outside Pirna in 1976.

history

prehistory

In Saxony, an intensive industrialization process began in the 1830s , which, in terms of energy, relied primarily on the extensive lignite deposits in the North Bohemian Basin . Between 1859 and 1868 the proportion of coal imported from the North Bohemian Basin around Aussig and Dux to Saxony increased from 1,950 tons to 275,000 tons. Although built in 1847-51 facilitated Elbe Valley train transporting coal to Saxony, but the circuitous lines in the Elbe Valley drove the transport costs up. In addition, the sandstone crusher operated in Gottleubatal and Lohmgrund also experienced a strong boom in the course of industrialization and the quarry owners demanded an improvement in transport options. The Berggießhübeler magnetite mining, which was resumed to a notable extent from 1870, also required better transport routes for the removal of the ores.

In 1859 a master stonemason from Dresden developed the first plans for a product railway leading from Neundorf to the Elbe Valley Railway , but these were not implemented due to lack of capital. The plan, presented in 1868, of a railway line leading through the Gottleuba and Bahratal from Pirna via Peterswald to Dux, which Berggießhübel would have connected with a branch line, was much more mature . Although this route was over 70 km shorter than the Elbe Valley Railway, it was not implemented due to the disagreement about the route when crossing the Ore Mountains and the onset of economic stagnation due to the founder crash . Planning was discontinued in 1874.

Sandstone quarry in Lohmgrund

At that time the economy in Gottleubatal was developing extremely positively. In 1875 there were over 60 sandstone quarries in operation here, transporting 225,000 tons of sandstone annually in 125 loads on increasingly broken roads into the Elbe Valley. In Lohmgrund alone, around 800 workers worked in 37 quarries in 1880. Before the Gottleubatalbahn was built, up to 200 sandstone transports were on the road every day on the Rottwerndorf - Pirna road. The Berggießhübel mines produced 41,500 tons of magnetite between 1870 and 1875. Forecasts predicted a long-term recoverable amount of ore of two million tons.

With reference to the economic development, the towns of Berggießhübel and Gottleuba applied for the construction of a branch line leading from Pirna through the Gottleubatal in 1877. On November 14, 1877, the construction of the railway was again discussed in the Saxon state parliament. On February 18, 1878, the construction of a secondary railway from Pirna to Berggießhübel was approved; the corresponding law on the construction of the secondary railway from Pirna to Berggießhübel was passed on March 29, 1879. The required continuation to Gottleuba was initially rejected because of insufficient freight traffic, objections from two landowners and the difficult route through the urban area of ​​Berggießhübel. Since the Gottleubatalbahn was primarily intended to transport heavy goods beyond Pirna and the terrain did not lead to any difficulties in construction, a narrow-gauge version of the Gottleubatalbahn was not considered in contrast to the neighboring routes of the Müglitztalbahn and Weißeritztalbahn .

The decision to build the Gottleubatalbahn marked the beginning of a phase in which the Royal Saxon State Railways supplemented the main network based on a foreign model with a network of secondary railways, in particular to enable previously remote cities and regions to have an economically necessary route connection.

Construction of the line to Berggießhübel

The Gottleubatalbahn was primarily designed for freight traffic. Therefore, apart from the Berggießhübel terminus, only one traffic stop was planned in Rottwerndorf . From here, a branch line should enable the sandstones to be removed from the Lohmgrund. Following a request from the local council and an inn owner, breakpoints were also set up in Langenhennersdorf and Neundorf .

After the route was surveyed in the summer of 1878, the earthworks began at the end of May 1879. The railway construction was in the hands of Romulus Späte (Dresden) and Robert Berndt (Chemnitz), who worked together with local construction companies. Czech workers were also employed. By November 1879, the superstructure was completed over a length of almost eight kilometers to Neundorf. At the end of 1879, the Königin-Marien-Hütte in Cainsdorf completed the necessary bridge structures. The steel head rails also came from here.

Train the Gottleubatalbahn with a sä. VII T in Berggießhübel train station (photo taken before the route extension to Bad Gottleuba)

After a construction period of a good year, the test drive took place on July 15, 1880, during which no defects were found. The line was then officially put into operation on July 19, 1880, although the construction work was not officially finished until September 1880. A total of 81,000 m³ of earth was moved for the almost 15 km long route, 17.8 km of track and 19 points were laid, and two arched stone bridges (70 m and 49 m long) and eight smaller iron bridges were built. There were 258 telegraph poles along the route . An average of 200 to 300 workers were employed when the line was built. The construction costs amounted to 760,688  marks . At just under 51,000 marks per kilometer, they were well below the costs of the single-track lines previously built in Saxony, which cost 123,000 to 180,000 marks per kilometer. This proved that building secondary railways was actually significantly cheaper.

The railway opened up the Pirna hinterland, which had been remote until then, and improved the transport connections for around 3500 people who lived along the route in Rottwerndorf, Neundorf, Kleincotta, Langenhennersdorf and Berggießhübel. One of the main goals of the route construction, however, was not achieved - the connection of the sandstone quarries in Lohmgrund. This quarry area was about 25 meters above the level of the Gottleubatal and was to be connected by a 3 km long 600 mm towing track (cost: 35,000 marks). Disagreements among the quarry owners prevented this plan, so that the important quarry area was initially not connected to the railway. The economically necessary connection was not made until the Pirna – Großcotta railway was built in 1894.

Operation until 1905

As with narrow-gauge secondary railways, a railroad manager was responsible for the Gottleubatalbahn. He was subordinate to the general management of the Royal Saxon State Railways in Dresden and was almost solely responsible for the operation of the line (vehicle use, minor construction work, etc.) on site. The conception as a secondary railway allowed an extremely economical operation for the line. As early as 1884, the Gottleubatalbahn was the most profitable route of the Royal Saxon State Railways. Income of 138,660 marks, including 81,366 marks from freight traffic, was offset by expenditures of only 45,515 marks. With the surplus achieved, the investment capital could earn interest at 10.13%. In 1900 the surplus amounted to 140,123 marks, which yielded interest of 7.25% on the investment capital. Other Saxon railway lines only achieved an interest rate of 3.7% on average. At the turn of the century, the Gottleubatalbahn was still the third most profitable line of the Royal Saxon State Railways.

The profitability was based on an intensive freight traffic, which was carried in particular by sandstone transports from the quarries around Rottwerndorf and Neundorf and which in the early years represented the backbone of rail transport. The cheap transport route improved the sales opportunities and brought the quarries an economic boom. The main loading point for the sandstone transport was the Rottwerndorf station. Other transport shares were accounted for by various companies, primarily sandstone, wood, glass, paper and metal processing industries, which settled along the route, particularly in the urban area of ​​Pirna, but also in Langenhennersdorf. Pirna experienced industrial growth from 1885 onwards, in the course of which the development of the city, especially in the Gottleubatal, rapidly expanded southwards. Up until the extension to Gottleuba in 1905, 17 connecting and branch tracks were built along the railway line, the majority of which branched off the line between Pirna and Pirna Ost. Because of the busy connection operations, a special train ran from 1890 onwards, which exclusively served the sidings between Pirna and the Pirna stop (from 1894: Pirna Süd).

A typical mixed train of the Gottleubatalbahn runs through with two Saxon VII T Zwiesel (around 1905).

Compared to the sandstone industry, the freight volume of Berggießhübel mining and the local ironworks fell short of expectations. The pits have produced only 117,103 t of ore since 1880, before mining was largely stopped in 1892. The freight volume of the Gottleubatalbahn in 1884 amounted to 87,598 t wagonload, 2,238 t general cargo and 41 t service goods. In 1889 100,424 t of freight were transported, with sandstone being the main cargo.

Although the Gottleubatalbahn was designed primarily for freight traffic, passenger transport also gained importance. In the five and a half months of the opening year, 31,171 passengers were carried (187 per day), in 1884 there were already 113,570 (311 per day). A growing number of day trippers and hikers found their way to the Gottleubatal by train. A contemporary hiking guide noted: “Before you could get into the valley before the opening of this railway, a further tiring path to Berggießhübel was necessary for the most part on a hard, dusty road ... and you had to ... at least 3 - 3 ½ hours on partly very impassable paths following the valley ... march upwards to finally get to Berggießhübel and Gottleuba. Now the train takes us in a short time (1 hour 5 minutes) from Pirna to ... Berggießhübel. "

The number of spa guests coming to the Gottleubatal also grew steadily. Although Berggießhübel has been cure since the beginning of the 18th century, the upswing of the spa business in Gottleuba only began with the construction of a bathing establishment in 1880/81. Due to the favorable climatic conditions, the Insurance Company for the Kingdom of Saxony sent an increasing number of patients to Gottleuba in connection with the establishment of the social insurance system . In the 1890s Gottleuba counted around 600 spa guests per year. A third group of passengers were the commuters from and to the industrial companies in Pirna. The opening of the Pirna Haltpunkt station on Zehistaer Strasse on May 15, 1881, was a welcome addition. The station was relocated after the Pirna – Großcotta railway line opened in 1894 and renamed Pirna Süd in 1910 .

According to the timetable, four pairs of trains ran in summer and three in winter from 1880 as mixed trains . The journey time in the summer timetable of 1881 was between 60 and 68 minutes (cruising speed: 13-15 km / h). Between Berggießhübel and Gottleuba, buses ran with a journey time of just a few minutes , coordinated with the arrival and departure times of the train . In Pirna the timetable was coordinated with the trains of the Elbe Valley Railway, so that Berggießhübel and Gottleuba could be reached from Dresden in just over two hours. Because of the increasing passenger traffic, an additional pair of trains was used in the winter timetable in 1886 and in the summer timetable in 1887. From 1890 there was a daily passenger train. The 1894 summer timetable recorded six pairs of trains.

Extension of the route to Gottleuba (1905)

Newspaper report from June 29, 1905 about the extension of the route

In Gottleuba the traders and city leaders were by no means happy that the railway line ended just 2.5 km from the city, especially since Gottleuba developed better than Berggießhübel from 1880 onwards. While Berggießhübel suffered an economic setback due to the extensive cessation of magnetite mining in 1892, Gottleuba experienced an, albeit modest, industrial boom, which led to growing general cargo and wagonload traffic since 1895. The spa industry was also on the upswing, in 1887 the spa was expanded and the city was added to the list of Saxon baths as a spa . In 1902 the state insurance institute began to carry out cures for the "common people" (workers, employees). So Gottleuba tried repeatedly to find a rail connection, for which various routes were considered against the background of a railway line over the Eastern Ore Mountains to Bohemia, which is still being discussed. A plan drawn up in 1899 even provided for the construction of a central train station near Vorderzinnwald (Přední Cínovec), from which the Weißeritztalbahn , Müglitztalbahn , Gottleubatalbahn and a railway line through the Seidewitztal to Pirna should be connected (estimated total construction costs: 17 million marks).

The opening move with a sä. IIIb T as a leader locomotive reached Gottleuba station on June 30, 1905.

Train in Berggießhübel station (photo from 1915)

From the discussion, the extension of the route through the Gottleubatal to Gottleuba emerged as the preferred option. All further plans to continue to Bohemia were rejected for reasons of profitability. An expert opinion said that the extension would not generate any profit, despite Gottleuba's booming economic development, but would remain a grant business. However, since positive effects were expected for the entire route, preparatory work began in 1897 for the extension of the railway line. Berggießhübel had refused to continue the railway through the Gottleubatal. They feared disadvantages for their own spa system, as the narrow Gottleubatal in the city area only allowed one route in the immediate vicinity of the Johann-Georgen-Bad and the spa hotel "Sächsisches Haus". A tunnel was not built in the city for cost reasons.

In the spring of 1900, the extension of the Berggießhübel - Gottleuba route was approved by the Saxon state parliament. Construction work began on July 14, 1904 and ended with the inspection run on June 29, 1905. Three bridges over the Gottleuba and a concrete viaduct in the Berggießhübel urban area were built for the almost three-kilometer extension; the construction costs amounted to 585,000 marks. The new terminus in Gottleuba was designed so generously that it was possible to continue the route to Bohemia. The inauguration took place on June 30, 1905.

Operation until decommissioning

The extension of the route led to an increase in passenger traffic due to the arrival of spa guests and an increase in hiking and excursion traffic. Overall, however, and in comparison to other routes, no major transport services were provided. At the end of the 1960s, it was decided to discontinue rail traffic in Gottleubatal, especially since a comprehensive renewal of tracks and systems would have been necessary. For the time being, however, the route was still needed for the transport of building materials to the Gottleuba dam , so that even the station facilities in Gottleuba were expanded.

Several derailments ultimately led to the cessation of passenger traffic on August 24, 1970. In freight traffic, the entire line remained in operation until April 1, 1976. After that, the hardboard factory connection in Langenhennersdorf was served until 1977, when the Pirna-Neundorf-Gottleuba section was dismantled.

The section located in the city of Pirna was initially retained as an industrial line. The Rottwerndorf station experienced a significant expansion in connection with the start of uranium ore mining by WISMUT in Königstein / Leupoldishain . Due to the height difference of 150 m, the Königstein mine could not be connected directly to the Elbe Valley Railway , so that Rottwerndorf was expanded to become the central material and ore loading station. Starting in 1967, the ore was transported from the mine to the train station via a 4.4 km long cable car (175 gondolas each 1 m³). In the 1970s, seven ore block trains, each with 13 wagons, went from here to the processing plants in Crossen and Seelingstädt . From 1983 the station was no longer needed due to a change in the extraction method for the removal of uranium ores, and the cable car was dismantled.

After the political change in eastern Germany in 1989/90, the remaining route lost its importance after most of the freight customers on the route had stopped their production. For a short time, the reconstruction of the line to Bad Gottleuba as a modern regional train connection was under discussion. The mass motorization that followed after 1990 made such a plan unrealistic. Until the mid-1990s, the Pirna-Rottwerndorf station was still used for unloading cement block trains. On January 1, 1997 the freight traffic was stopped.

On February 24, 1999 the Federal Railway Authority approved the closure of the Pirna – Pirna-Rottwerndorf section; it was legally enforced on February 28, 1999. In 2002, the tracks were dismantled.

Route description

Operating points

Pirna railway station

→ Main article : Pirna railway station

Pirna railway station

In Pirna there was a train station on the Elbe Valley Railway since 1848 . In connection with the construction of the railway line to Arnsdorf and Kamenz , it was moved to its current location in 1875. The Gottleubatalbahn used the existing facilities on this route. Until operations ceased, the departure and arrival track was track 4 on the south side of the station.

Pirna Solidarity stop

The Pirna Solidarity stop was built in 1949 for rush hour traffic. It was created at the expense of the surrounding factories and was therefore given the name Solidarity . At first it only consisted of the platform and a booth for the line telephone. In the 1960s, a waiting room was built from precast concrete parts.

Pirna Süd stop

Pirna-Süd stop (2008)

The Pirna Süd stop was established in 1896 in connection with the construction of the line to Großcotta at the junction. The station building was in the wedge between the tracks of both lines. Pirna Süd was manned by a dispatcher until 1976 to secure the junction.

Pirna stop

When planning the route, the citizens of Pirna had already advocated a stop in the south of the city near the Kohlmühle. However, the area in the area was still undeveloped at the time, so that the breakpoint was not implemented for reasons of profitability. The necessary traffic facilities were later financed privately and opened on May 15, 1881 as the Pirna stop. With the establishment of the new Pirna Süd stop, it was closed again in 1894.

Pirna Ost stop

The Pirna Ost stop (until 1945: Pirna von Richthofenstraße ) was built in 1940 by Wehrmacht soldiers as an access point for the Pirna southern suburb . It consisted only of a narrow platform between the track and Rottwerndorfer Strasse. Until 1965, ticket sales took place in a log cabin across the street.

Pirna-Rottwerndorf train station

Pirna-Rottwerndorf railway station (2008)

The Rottwerndorf station was the most important on-route station of the Gottleubatalbahn. In the early years, the sandstones broken in the Lohmgrund were loaded here. The station has therefore been expanded several times over the decades. Starting in 1967, a six-track loading facility for loading uranium ore was built on the former sandstone industry dump site. After the Bismut transports stopped in 1976, the excess tracks were then used to park damaged wagons.

Stop Pirna-Neundorf

The Pirna-Neundorf stop has existed since the line opened. Initially there was only a single branch track to an inn, later two more were set up for the stone saws that existed there. In 1917 the previous stop was declared a train station. Until recently, there was still a siding to Textilchemie Agrotex GmbH.

Langenhennersdorf stop

Langenhennersdorf stop (2008)

The Langenhennersdorf stop has been a stopping point since the opening of operations. The loading track with cattle and wooden ramp was built in 1883. Directly opposite the stop, a paper and cardboard factory was built in 1885 and 1886, which was given its own siding in 1887. Another branch track was used by Schmidt & Co. From January 1, 1905 until the 1960s, Langenhennersdorf was classified as a train station.

The reception building has been preserved in its original form until today. It has been owned by the Bahnhof Langenhennersdorf e.V. association since 2004 . V. and is now used as a guesthouse and restaurant.

Berggießhübel-Zwiesel stop

Shortly after the line opened, the city of Berggießhübel tried to find a stop in Zwiesel in order to shorten the way to the train for the residents there. This was initially rejected because of the expected low volume of traffic. It was not until 1910 that another request was successful and the halt was opened on May 1, 1911. The ticket sales took place until the end in the nearby Gasthaus Zum Echo .

Berggießhübel station

Berggießhübel station (2009)

The station went into operation when the railway line opened in 1880 as the terminus and seat of the railway administration. Its construction costs amounted to almost 27,000 marks. Due to the rapidly growing volume of traffic, the station building was increased by one floor as early as 1887. With the opening of the Pirna – Großcotta railway line (1894), the state railway administration moved the railway administration to Pirna Süd. The two-tier locomotive shed was implemented in 1906 with the extension of the route to the new terminus at Gottleuba. From then on, only four railway employees were employed at Berggießhübel station, compared to 18 in Bad Gottleuba.

After freight traffic had been shifted to the road, all the sidings were torn down in 1968, and in 1970 the station had lost its function with the cessation of passenger traffic. The reception building was retained and is now used as a residential and commercial building.

Giesenstein stop

The Giesenstein stop was set up in 1907 at the expense of the landowner Arnold. In the following years, however, it was only used to a limited extent. In all of 1921, only 1,684 tickets were sold, which was an average of four to five travelers a day. On December 11, 1922, the halt was closed.

Gottleuba station

Bad Gottleuba station (2008)

The Gottleubatalbahn ended at Gottleuba station. It was designed in such a way that a possible extension of the route towards Bohemia would have been possible without any structural changes. At the beginning it consisted only of the platform, the bypass and the loading track. Another track led to the two-tier locomotive shed, which had been moved from Berggießhübel. During its existence, the station was expanded several times, most recently at the end of the 1960s to handle the transport of building materials to the Gottleuba dam . In 1967 and 1969, a total of 400 meters of station tracks and three points were relocated. A gantry crane was set up on the loading road. Today part of the station area is included in a park. The reception building and the farm building are still there. The reception building was renovated from 2012 and has housed a cafe since April 2014.

Vehicle use

Locomotives and railcars

VII TS BERGGIESSHÜBEL (Hartmann factory photo , 1880)

IIIb T (Hartmann photo, 1875)

The 86 270 in the Dresden-Friedrichstadt depot (1952)

DR class 106 (DB 346)

• sä. VII TS : The locomotives of type VII TS were specially designed for branch line operation and are therefore the Saxon secondary railway locomotives par excellence. When the Gottleubatalbahn went into operation in 1880, the first two locomotives of the series built by the Sächsische Maschinenfabrik came into operation. They were named BERGGIESSHÜBEL and ROTTWERNDORF after locations on the Gottleubatalbahn and were in use in the Gottleubatal until 1891 and 1888, respectively.
• sä. VII T : Locomotives of the slightly stronger type VII T replaced the two locomotives of type VII TS from 1888. At the end of the 19th century, at least 15 different locomotives of type VII T were in use on the Gottleubatalbahn.
• sä. IIIb T : The IIIb T were originally built for the Chemnitz-Aue-Adorfer Eisenbahn (CAAd) and the Muldenthal-Eisenbahngesellschaft . The Royal Saxon State Railways later procured additional locomotives for their regular-gauge secondary railways. The use of these double-coupled locomotives has also been proven on the Gottleubatalbahn. Old pictures particularly show former CAAd locomotives, which can be recognized by their spherically rounded steam dome.
• BR 91.3 (pr. Type T9.3): When the Deutsche Reichsbahn was founded in 1920, former Prussian locomotives were also stationed in Saxony. In the Dresden area, the T9.3 in particular replaced the Saxon locomotives on the branch lines. They were used on all types of trains on the Gottleubatalbahn until the end of the 1930s.
• BR 86 : The class 86 locomotives were used on the Gottleubatalbahn from 1934. However, they did not become a regular locomotive until after the Second World War. In 1963 the Pirna depot was home to a total of 23 locomotives of this series, which were also used on the routes to Arnsdorf and Neustadt (Sachs).
• BR 64 : Class 64 locomotives were used between 1936 and 1939 before passenger trains. Because of their low output, they were then replaced by the larger 86 series.
• BR 110 : The 110 series (until 1970 V100) replaced the 86 series in passenger and freight transport from 1968. It also hauled the last passenger trains and was in use on the route until the 1980s.
• BR 106 : Since the 1960s, the 106 series was used in front of light transfer trains. After the WISMUT ore transports stopped, this type handled the traffic on the Gottleubatalbahn alone.
• BR 171/172 : In the 1970 summer timetable, a railcar of this series served a pair of weekday passenger trains on the Gottleubatalbahn. The deployment was limited to a few weeks due to the suspension of passenger traffic that same year.
• BR 50 , BR 52 , BR 58.30 : Locomotives of these three series were used from 1967 onwards before the WISMUT ore was transported from Rottwerndorf to Pirna.
• BR 118 : The 118 series hauled the ore trains of WISMUT from 1976 before these transports were discontinued in 1983.

dare

Inside view of a bag cart

For the operation of their secondary railways, the Royal Saxon State Railways also procured corresponding lighter wagons from 1879 onwards. Both the low-floor design and the " intercommunication system " adopted by the American railways were new . For the first time, these cars had large rooms that could be accessed via platforms at the ends of the cars.

After the Second World War, the trains on the Gottleubatalbahn consisted of four-axle compartment and open-plan cars of various types. For a while, a four-axle open-plan car of type C4i from the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine also ran on the Gottleubatalbahn . It was not until the last year of passenger traffic, 1970, that the two- and three-axle Reko wagons of the Bag and Baag types were also used.

Disruptions in operations

Accidents

The Gottleubatalbahn remained free of major railway accidents during its operating time . However, accidents occurred again and again at the numerous level crossings of roads and streets . The main accident areas were the level crossings on Dresdner Strasse (now Bundesstrasse 172 ), Dippoldiswalder Strasse and Zehistaer Strasse (now Staatsstrasse 174 ) in Pirna and, after the route was extended, the intersections with Hellendorfer Strasse and Kirchbergstrasse in Berggießhübel. A fatal accident occurred at Kirchberg in 1925. Because of the heavy traffic at the crossroads, the route between Pirna and Zehistaer Straße should be raised over a length of around two kilometers to remove level crossings. The First World War prevented the implementation of the plan. The increasing motor vehicle traffic in the coming decades led to the safety of the most important level crossings with warning lights and barrier systems.

Flood

The old bridge at the upper station exit in Langenhennersdorf was left standing after the flood and replaced by a steel one

The poorly forested headwaters of the Gottleuba in the area of ​​the Sattelberg (Špičák) are one of the potential flood development areas in Saxony. According to records, over 50 severe floods have occurred here over the past 500 years . In the course of its operating time, the Gottleubatalbahn was repeatedly hit by floods, with the floods in 1897, 1927 and 1957 causing severe damage and in some cases bringing the railway to a standstill for several weeks.

• 1897: Days of rain and a downpour on the Erzgebirgskamm resulted on 29./30. July 1897 to a severe flood in the Eastern Ore Mountains. The water masses of the Gottleuba damaged the railway line and its bridges in numerous places. Between the rail kilometers 5.7 and 8.9, the route was totally destroyed over a length of 750 meters: "The rails hung freely in the air over deep ravines and holes, bent in all directions ..." . The masses of water were so strong that a railway wagon loaded with 12.5 t of coal was carried away from Rottwerndorf for over a kilometer. In Langenhennersdorf, the flood undermined a pillar of the Gottleubatal bridge. Parts of the railway embankment were also destroyed in Berggießhübel. Only on August 22nd was the entire route open again.
• 1926: After a downpour, the line in Neundorf was under water on July 5th, so that only the Langenhennersdorf - Bad Gottleuba section could be used. Continuous traffic was already possible again the next day. On July 13, the Pirna - Langenhennersdorf section had to be closed again after another thunderstorm and used as a replacement rail service. Three days later, on July 16, the Pirna-Süd - Rottwerndorf line was flooded again. There was no major damage from these floods.
• 1927: On the night of July 8th to 9th, one of the worst flood disasters in Germany's recent past occurred in the river valleys of Gottleuba and Müglitz . Within a few hours, a quarter of the normal annual precipitation fell in the headwaters of the two rivers. The Gottleuba swelled into a torrent that swept everything with it. On the railway bridge above Berggiesshuebel there was a Verklausung , resulting in an approximately four meters high tide (outflow Berggiesshuebel: 400 m³ / s) dissolved. In the tidal wave, 88 people died in Berggießhübel alone. The water masses destroyed seven smaller railway bridges and damaged and silted up the railway buildings and ancillary facilities, especially in Berggießhübel and Rottwerndorf. The track's superstructure was partly completely washed away in numerous places, in Rottwerndorf the track was totally destroyed over a length of about 400 meters. The line was fully operational again by September 10th. The two larger bridges in Langenhennersdorf (rail kilometers 11.4 and 12.0) were replaced by new buildings in 1927/28.
• 1957: A low rain with heavy rain caused heavy flooding in the Gottleubatal again on July 22nd and 23rd. The evening train reached Bad Gottleuba on already partially flooded tracks. In numerous places, the track was washed away or blocked by landslides , the track systems in Rottwerndorf and Berggießhübel were sometimes half a meter high covered with mud and debris. The flood caused a total of 26 severe damage, the damage totaled 7.4 million marks. Continuous operation was resumed on August 23.

The route today

The old railway line in Berggießhübel (2007)

Large parts of the old railway line are accessible to the public, but are not subject to any regulated subsequent use. In the city of Pirna, the old route between Dresdner Straße and the former Pirna Ost stop is largely used as a beaten path . Only in the area of ​​the Geibeltbad Pirna was an asphalt bike path on a 500 m long section . The track body that runs mostly next to the valley road to Neundorf is largely overgrown by grass . In the section to Zwiesel, the route is partly overgrown with young trees. From Zwiesel, the route was prepared as a predominantly asphalted footpath and cycle path ( Terinkurweg ) in the 1990s until shortly before the former Bad Gottleuba terminus . Between Zwiesel and Berggießhübel, the Berggießhübeler Heimatverein has re-installed part of the historical signs and signals.

In the 1990s, there were plans in Pirna to use the route to bypass the federal highway 172 close to the city center . These plans were abandoned in favor of a large southern bypass of Pirna . One of the main regional cycle routes of the SachsenNetz Rad runs through the Gottleubatal , which connects the Tyssa walls to the Bastei via Pirna . For an expansion of the cycle path, it would be advisable to use the railway line to increase traffic safety and because of the low incline. Corresponding plans, which the city of Pirna in particular pursued, have so far failed due to the land acquisition costs for the route.

An after hundred year flood 2002 of the Landestalsperrenverwaltung axes earned flood protection concept was to create in the city of Pirna along the railway line (lane kilometers from 0.3 to 2.9) a flow channel at high water the water of Seidewitz receives in order the Gottleuba and To relieve Pirna city center.

See also

• List of disused railway lines in Saxony

literature

• Moritz Fischer: Hikes through the Gottleubatal. Verlag Friedrich Axt, Dresden 1881
• Rainer Fischer: Pirna - Gottleuba and Pirna - Großcotta. in: Wolf-Dietger Machel (ed.): Branch and narrow-gauge railways in Germany. GeraNova Zeitschriftenverlag, Munich 1996
• Rainer Fischer: Secondary railways from Pirna to Großcotta and Gottleuba. Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1998, ISBN 3-927587-38-9 .
• Tobias Nitsche, Jens Herbach: 100 years of the Pirna - Gottleuba railway. Dresden 2005 (self-published)
• Erich Preuß , Reiner Preuß : Saxon State Railways. transpress Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin 1991

Web links

Commons : Gottleubatalbahn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• The former branch line in the Gottleubatal
• Information about the route at www.sachsenschiene.de
• Information about the route at www.lokomotive.de ( Memento from June 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• Association for the maintenance of the Langenhennersdorf train station

Individual evidence

1. ↑ STREDA - Total distance directory DBAG; Status: February 1, 2003
2. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 13
3. ↑ FISCHER 1996, p. 1f.
4. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 16
5. ↑ FISCHER 1881, p. 6
6. ↑ Yearbooks for the mining and metallurgical industry of Saxony 1872ff.
7. ↑ Pirnaer Anzeiger No. 278/1871, p. 3
8. ↑ FISCHER 1996, p. 2
9. ↑ FISCHER 1998, pp. 20f.
10. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 27
11. ↑ Route Abzw Pirna Süd - Lohmgrund on Sachsenschiene.de
12. ↑ Gottleubatalbahn.de: A secondary railway
13. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 38
14. ^ Hugo Jensch: On the industrial history of Pirna. In: Pirnaer Hefte. Issue 2-1998 / 99. Pirna 1999. pp. 63–110 (here: p. 78ff.)
15. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 45
16. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 35
17. ↑ Yearbooks for the mining and metallurgical industry of Saxony 1882ff.
18. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 38
19. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 38f.
20. ↑ FISCHER 1881, p. 3
21. ↑ Klinik Bad Gottleuba (ed.): From the sanatorium to the health park 1913–1993. Bad Gottleuba 1993. p. 9
22. ^ The railway in Saxony and Saxon Switzerland: Pirna Süd ( Memento from March 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
23. ↑ FISCHER 1881, p. 50
24. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 35f.
25. ↑ route Pirna - Gottleuba on Sachsenschiene.de
26. ^ Heide Beichler: On the development of the spa and bathing system in Bad Gottleuba-Berggießhübel. in: Stadtmuseum Pirna (Hrsg.): Century retrospectives. Pirna 2001. pp. 97-106. (here: p. 98f.)
27. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 24
28. ↑ Gottleubatalbahn.de: Construction can begin
29. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 24f.
30. ^ WISMUT GmbH: Chronicle of WISMUT. CD-ROM. Chemnitz, p. 1864ff.
31. ↑ List of federally closed lines in the state of Saxony that have been closed since 1994. ( MS Excel ; 27 kB) (No longer available online.) August 21, 2012, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved January 5, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
32. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 47f
33. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 50
34. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 52
35. ↑ FISCHER 1998, pp. 55f
36. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 57f
37. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 64
38. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 64f
39. ^ " The guests can come ", Sächsische Zeitung (Pirna edition) from April 17, 2014
40. ^ Günther Reiche: Richard Hartmann and his locomotives . Oberbaum Verlag, Chemnitz 1998, p. 122
41. ↑ Der Modelleisenbahner No. 3/75, transpress-Verlag für Verkehrwesen, p. 80
42. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 77
43. ↑ FISCHER 1996, p. 9
44. ↑ FISCHER 1996, p. 9
45. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 77
46. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 77
47. ^ Rainer Fischer, Sven Hoyer, Joachim Schulz: The wagons of the Saxon secondary railways. ; P. 45ff; EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1998 ISBN 3-88255-682-X
48. ^ Günther Meyer: Verbotene Reichsbahn p. 87; EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-88255-257-3
49. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 73
50. ↑ Collective of authors: The great water shortage in Saxony 1897. Described according to reports from eyewitnesses. Saxon publisher. Leipzig 1897. p. 33 (reprint Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2002, ISBN 3-89876-071-5 )
51. ^ The flood catastrophe in Saxony in 1897 on Sachsenschiene.de
52. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 30
53. ↑ Verkehrsverband Saxon Switzerland / Eastern Ore Mountains: Help! It is still the greatest need in the flood areas of the Eastern Ore Mountains. Pirna 1927.
54. ↑ FISCHER 1998, p. 31f.
55. ^ The flood catastrophe in Saxony in 1927 on Sachsenschiene.de
56. ^ Railway bridges in Saxony on Sachsenschiene.de
57. ↑ The flood disaster in Saxony in 1957 on Sachsenschiene.de
58. ↑ Wolfgang Dörschel / Volkmar Köckeritz: Flood hazard and flood protection of the railways in the eastern Ore Mountains. in: transpress publishing house for traffic (ed.): Eisenbahn Jahrbuch 1980. Berlin 1979. P. 123–132, here: P. 126ff.
59. ↑ Photo gallery 2002–2004. In: gottleubatalbahn.de. Retrieved November 1, 2013 . 
60. ^ Regional planning association Upper Elbe Valley / Eastern Ore Mountains: Regional plan Upper Elbe Valley / Eastern Ore Mountains. Participation draft of the 1st overall update. Status July 2007. Radebeul 2007.
61. ↑ Study of the flood protection concept in the damage area of ​​the flowing waters, 1st order: hazard maps, lot 1 - Biela and Gottleuba with tributaries. Location Pirna Gottleuba / Seidewitz / Bahre (PDF; 450 kB)