Porta Westfalica – Häverstädt railway line
| Porta Westfalica - Häverstädt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The railway bridge over the Weser
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| Route number (DB) : | 2991 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 4.3 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 40 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Porta Westfalica – Häverstädt railway line was a 4.3-kilometer secondary railway line in East Westphalia . It was mainly used to transport iron ore from the Porta iron ore mine in Häverstädt to Porta Westfalica on the Hamm – Minden railway line . For a short period after the Second World War, there was also passenger transport that ran from Häverstädt to Minden.
course
After branching off from the main line, the line led in a wide arc over a flood bridge to the Weser , which was crossed over a riveted steel arch bridge, which is now known as the Green Bridge Neesen . After that it was mostly in the embankment.
history
To reduce the dependence on foreign iron ore, which opened Klöckner-Werke on October 1, 1935 at Wittekindsberg in Wiehengebirge the iron ore mine Porta . In the long run, transporting the ore to Minden by truck proved to be too time-consuming. Production was relocated to Uphausen in 1938, and potts park was built on the former colliery site in 1969 .
At the Hamm-Minden railway which was branching point Porta Po built and built from there a branch line that ran almost due west. The line was opened on September 1, 1938 together with the Häverstädt train station and ended at the Häverstädt Dorf stop. This is where the coal mine railway connected to the Porta colliery in Uphausen.
From July 31 to September 23, 1950 there was passenger traffic for eight weeks, which was tied to Minden.
The ore mining had massive consequences for the water management. The water table sank, the Wittekindsquelle dried up, the Mühlenbach had so little water that four mills had to stop operating, and several wells dried up. At the same time, more and more water penetrated the pits. Since the mining of the lower quality ores was no longer profitable, the ore mine was closed in 1963. As a result, a forge and various businesses had to close.
The railway line could continue to operate for a while, until 1967 sand-lime brick was mined on the Dützer-Berg. At the beginning of the 1970s, the Federal Railroad Central Office based in Minden used the line as a test track for the central buffer and automatic coupling operation . On May 30, 1976, the end of the route finally came.
The dams on the western bank of the Weser have been interrupted and removed at several points for road construction. The Weser bridge is still there today and appears in the Weser landscape like a technical monument. It is neither drivable nor walkable, and a cycle path is always discussed as a use. Demolition work took place around the turn of the year 2013/2014, and the superstructures have not been complete since then.
Trivia
In the mid-1950s, the approximately four-kilometer branch line that leads over the Green Bridge Neesen was used twice to park a special train overnight. On the one hand, King Paul of Greece spent one night here, on the other hand, on the night of February 13, 1955, Chancellor Adenauer . Between 10:53 p.m. and 8:05 a.m. the following day, the special train, secured by ten police officers, was parked about 20 meters from the Häverstädt train station, before continuing in the direction of Hamm.
Web links
- Description of route 2991 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
- A short chronicle of Häverstädt ( Memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany 2007/2008 . 6th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9 .
- ↑ A short chronicle of Häverstädt ( memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Jürgen Langenkämper: Always on an election campaign tour: From Adenauer to Merkel, many heads of government come to Minden , in: Mindener Tageblatt, August 27, 2013
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