Pressath – Kirchenthumbach railway line
| Pressath – Kirchenthumbach | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 5052 (Pressath – Grafenwöhr) 5053 (Grafenwöhr – Grafenwöhr camp) |
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| Course book section (DB) : | 421d | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 20.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | C4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 50 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Pressath – Kirchenthumbach railway is a branch line in Bavaria . It branches off the Weiden – Bayreuth railway line in Pressath and leads via Grafenwöhr to Kirchenthumbach . Only the section from Pressath to Grafenwöhr including the short branch line to Grafenwöhr Lager is in operation today. Today it serves exclusively the military transport needs of the Grafenwöhr military training area .
history
From the Weiden – Bayreuth railway line, which was opened in 1863 by the AG der Bayerische Ostbahnen , the then Bavarian District Office Eschenbach was only connected to the rail network after the turn of the century. A local railway line ran from the small town of Pressath in a westerly direction via Grafenwöhr to Eschenbach , which was put into operation on July 20, 1904 by the Bavarian State Railway . On December 7, 1904, after 21 kilometers, it reached the end point of Kirchenthumbach , at that time a market with little more than 900 inhabitants.
For purely military reasons, the Bavarian army opened a 2.5-kilometer branch line on October 1, 1910 from Grafenwöhr station to the camp station of the Grafenwöhr military training area, which is still important today. However, this was initially not available to public transport and is now a "private track" of the Federal Republic.
In the fifties the local railway experienced its heyday. Five pairs of trains ran daily, some of them from and to Weiden. In the winter timetable of 1949/50 there was civil traffic to Grafenwoehr camp for the first time. This was an express train for the US Army (DUS) with the addition: "Only for season ticket holders". It was an express train for the US Army that carried additional cars for German travelers. In the following summer timetable in 1950, two pairs of express trains ran from Nuremberg via Neukirchen and Weiden to Grafenwöhr Lager. From there there were passenger trains to Kirchenlaibach.
The decline in passenger numbers began early and, on July 1, 1962, led to the cessation of passenger traffic between Grafenwöhr and Kirchenthumbach. There was a meager supply of trains on the rest of the route. Passenger trains ran on the Pressath – Grafenwöhr Lager route until May 23, 1966, after which they ended at Grafenwöhr station. On May 30, 1976, travel was completely stopped. At the same time, the Grafenwöhr – Eschenbach freight traffic ended, while Kirchenthumbach was no longer served from June 1, 1969.
Today the Pressath – Grafenwöhr Lager section is reserved for temporarily heavy military traffic, the remaining section has been dismantled.
literature
- Gerald Hoch, Andreas Kuhfahl: Branch lines in the Upper Palatinate . 1st edition 2000. Resch-Verlag, Neustadt bei Coburg, 2000, ISBN 3-9805967-7-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .