Pirna – Herrenleite railway line

Abzw Copitz – Herrenleite
Section of the route map of Saxony from 1902
Route number :	6602; sä. PH
Course book range :	-
Route length:	4.825 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Minimum radius :	180 m
Legend from Pirna 0.000 Abzw Copitz 136 m to Arnsdorf – Kamenz 0.80 Anst Chemical plants Zimmermann 0.99 Pirna - Copitz 156 m 1.06 Established Eisenwerk Copitz / Edelstahlwerke Schmees GmbH 1.10 Anst sawmill Hantzsch & Co. 1.25 As a tank farm 1.82 Mockethal 156 m 1.25 On the Pirna grain farm 2.77 Initially Steibruch Förster / NVA 3.53 Anst Steibruch Förster / NVA / Bundeswehr depot 3.78 Anst Steibruch Karsch / NVA / Bundeswehr depot 4.64 Anst Mineralölwerk Herrenleite NVA / Bundeswehr 4.83 End of the route 197 m

The Pirna – Herrenleite railway was a branch line in Saxony that only served freight . It began in Pirna at kilometer 44.504 of the Kamenz – Pirna railway line and led to the quarries in the Herrenleite . The line was closed in 1998.

history

Sandstone has been mined in the Herrenleite since the middle of the 19th century , and is characterized by its particular strength and weather resistance. In January 1900 the neighboring communities sent a petition to the Saxon state parliament to build an industrial railway from Copitz through the Herrenleite to Dorf Wehlen . Since the planned route promised a profitable volume of traffic, the route was finally approved by the Saxon state parliament as a standard-gauge industrial railway.

disused line in Mockethal (as of April 2010)

Construction work began on January 2, 1906 and was completed after a year. Apart from the relocation of the stream in the valley floor, no major earthworks or engineering structures were necessary. On March 20, 1907, the new line was put into operation. However, public charging only took place up to the Mockethal charging point.

From August 1944, gasoline distillation plants were built in the Herrenleite under the code name “ Carnallit ”. The oil required for this was delivered by tank wagons from Zistersdorf in Austria during the Second World War . Even after the Second World War, the plants were still in operation as VEB Mineralölwerk Herrenleite .

From 1964 the National People's Army took over the area and used it mainly as a fuel and oil store. In the course of time, however, it became more important to repair the tank technology of the air forces and defense, and the NVA continued to use it for the production of antifreeze. For the removal of sandstones, the route was no longer important, especially since most of the quarries were now closed.

Even after the political change in eastern Germany in 1989, the line remained in operation as a connecting line to what is now the Bundeswehr depot .

On September 9, 1996, the line received the status of a siding of the Pirna station. Regular train journeys no longer took place at this point in time. In 1998 the branch switch from the Kamenz – Pirna line was expanded. The route experienced one last extraordinary train journey two years earlier, when a rail bus was traveling on the tracks that were not yet overgrown at the time. In 2005 the track systems were dismantled between kilometers 0.15 and 1.58.

View of the area of ​​the field railway museum

The club Historic Feldbahn Dresden took over the remaining track and the associated premises between 2.1 kilometers and the route end in the Herrenleite and it wants to use as a feeder to the newly created Feldbahnmuseum. Draisine rides with guest vehicles are currently taking place on the occasion of larger events. In the future, gauging to 600 mm is planned. You can see locomotives and wagons in different gauges that were mainly used to transport building materials such as clay, gravel and bricks.

Web links

• Description of the route on www.sachsenschiene.de
• Historic Feldbahn Dresden e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Route towards Mockethal. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .