Frose – Quedlinburg railway line

Frose – Quedlinburg
Crossing at Gernrode station in the direction of Quedlinburg
Route number (DB) :	6862
Course book section (DB) :	332 (2004)
Route length:	30.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm / Gernrode – Quedlinburg since 2006 1000 mm
Route class :	ex C4
Legend -0.70 from Halberstadt -0.30 Frose to Aschersleben A 36 3.27 Reinstedt Selke B 185 7.84 Experience Selke 10.56 Meisdorf 13.51 Ballenstedt East B 185 15.38 Ballenstedt West 19.43 Rieder (Harz) 20.85 Gernrode (Harz) (standard gauge) 210 m Selketalbahn from Hasselfelde ( meter gauge ) 22.29 Bad Suderode (previously Bf) 187 m At the Quarmbeck barracks 24.90 Quedlinburg-Quarmbeck 152 m von Thale (standard gauge, parallel routes) from Blankenburg 29.52 Quedlinburg (end of meter gauge) 122 m to Magdeburg

So-called piglet tax at Gernrode train station (looking towards Quedlinburg)

The Frose – Quedlinburg railway, also popularly referred to as the Balkans , was a standard-gauge branch line on the northern edge of the Harz in Saxony-Anhalt . The route led from Frose via Gernrode to Quedlinburg . It was shut down in 2004 and then rebuilt in the Gernrode – Quedlinburg section from the Harz narrow-gauge railways to meter gauge. This section has been in operation again as part of the Selke Valley Railway since June 26, 2006 .

history

Prehistory and construction

On July 28, 1864, the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft (MHE) received from the Duchy of Anhalt the approval to purchase the Anhalt-Cöthen-Bernburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and the concession to build the Halberstadt-Aschersleben-Bernburg-Halle line . Part of the concession was the requirement to build a branch line from Frose to Ballenstedt to the summer residence of the Anhalt dukes.

In 1865, work began on the route from Frose to Ballenstedt, but was soon delayed because of the German War between Prussia and Austria that broke out in 1866 . On January 7, 1868, the Frose – Ballenstedt Schloß (later: Ballenstedt West) line was officially opened.

In 1878 the line was downgraded to a branch line . On July 1, 1885, the extension to Quedlinburg was put into operation. The construction of the line made it possible to realize plans cherished a few years earlier to develop the Eastern Harz by rail. In 1887 the narrow-gauge Selketalbahn was put into operation, which connected to the standard gauge line from Frose in Gernrode. Because of the tight curve radii, a trestle or trolley traffic on the narrow-gauge railway was not possible, the goods had to be reloaded in Gernrode.

After the Second World War

In 1951, the Frose – Quedlinburg line was also affected by the measures to extract construction materials for the Berlin outer ring . In addition to the dismantling of side tracks, weaker types of type S33 were installed instead of the existing type S49 rails . a. came from the partially shut down Windbergbahn in Saxony. As a result, the permissible axle masses and the line speed had to be reduced, which led to longer travel times.

Freight traffic was discontinued in sections. There has been no freight train between Gernrode and Frose since January 1, 1998, and between Quedlinburg and Gernrode since June 10, 2001. The route was operated by regular local rail transport until 2003. The 2003 annual timetable indicated a total of eight pairs of trains running daily on the Quedlinburg – Aschersleben route under KBS 332 Quedlinburg – Gernrode – Aschersleben . Due to the route, these trains had to change direction in Frose . On weekdays, further trains increased the offer between Quedlinburg and Ballenstedt Ost to an hourly service .

On June 28, 2003, the Ballenstedt Ost signal box was badly damaged by arson. Attempts to repair were not made by Deutsche Bahn AG, and requests from the districts were rejected. Instead, the rail replacement service between Ermsleben and Gernrode was maintained. At the same time, preparations began to close this line. After operations between Aschersleben and Ermsleben ceased on December 13, 2003, the last train between Gernrode and Quedlinburg ran on January 31, 2004. Traffic on the railway line between Quedlinburg and Aschersleben was formally canceled by the state on December 31, 2004, after the parallel bus service had meanwhile been expanded.

On June 15, 2004, the Federal Railway Authority approved the closure of the Frose – Gernrode section; it was legally enforced on July 31, 2004. At some level crossings (including on the L85, at Roseburg and most recently in June 2012 in Ballenstedt and Ermsleben) the rails have already been cut out and the transition has been paved. In 2016, almost all of the rails between Gernrode and Ballenstedt were removed. Since 2014 there was a plan to build a cycle path on the route. Construction began on the cycle path between Ballenstedt and Rieder in spring 2019.

Conversion of the Quedlinburg – Gernrode section

Plans and documents for a three- rail track between Gernrode and Quedlinburg had existed since 1990, but they failed for a long time due to the lack of financial support from the state and Deutsche Bahn AG. After the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways bought the section and set up their own financing for the conversion to meter gauge and the renovation of all level crossings, the state of Saxony-Anhalt also funded the project with a total of 6.5 million euros. Construction work began on April 18th, 2005.

On February 17, 2006, the converted line was approved by the Saxony-Anhalt railway supervisory authority. It was opened on March 4, 2006 with a festive event with special trains. Since various remaining work still had to be carried out, only a few special trains ran until the scheduled passenger train service began on June 26, 2006.

The timetable shows six pairs of trains between Gernrode and Quedlinburg every day, two of which are pairs of trains hauled by steam locomotives.

Names

The route was popularly known as the Balkans , apparently a modification of the derisively used term “ Balkan Express ”.

Operating points

Bad Suderode

In order to convert the Quarmbeck airfield, which has been in use since 1927, into the Römergraben air base for the German Air Force from 1934 , a three-kilometer connecting line was built from Bad Suderode station. This ran parallel to the line to Quedlinburg until shortly before the Quedlinburg-Quarmbeck stop, before it led in a right curve to the barracks area.

Quedlinburg-Quarmbeck

The breakpoint, located directly on Landesstraße 239 (Quedlinburg – Bad Suderode), was put into operation on October 2, 1936 under the name Römergraben.

Quedlinburg

→ Main article : Quedlinburg train station

The Quedlinburger Bahnhof was built in 1863 as a through station. Before the conversion to a narrow-gauge track, track 3 had a connection in the direction of Halberstadt; today, a bypass track enables the locomotives to be moved. From 1908 to 1969, the so - called Quäke ran from track 1 west to Blankenburg (Harz) via Thale-Bodetal .

literature

• Dirk Endisch: The "Balkans" - the branch line Frose-Gernrode-Quedlinburg. Dirk Endisch, Leonberg-Höfingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-936893-21-2 .
• Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz . EK-Verlag GmbH, 2007, ISBN 3-88255-722-2 .

Web links

• History of the Quedlinburg – Gernrode section
• Interest group HSB with numerous press articles on the reconstruction of the Gernrode – Quedlinburg section
• Inspection of the connecting line Bad Suderode – Barracks Quarmbeck
• Inspection of the Frose – Gernrode section in July 2008 (with numerous photos)
• Timetable 1944
• Tradition on the Frose – Quedlinburg railway line in the holdings of the Magdeburg Railway Directorate in the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives, Dessau department

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chronicle on www.selketalbahn.de
2. ^ HJ Kirsche: Bahnland DDR , transpress
3. ↑ Urs Kramer , Matthias Brodkorb: Farewell to the rail. Freight routes from 1994 to today . Transpress, Stuttgart 2008
4. ↑ DBAG course book - valid from December 15, 2002 to December 13, 2003
5. ↑ NASA press release 11/2004 (PDF)
6. ^ Hendrik Kranert: Closure of the Quedlinburg-Frose-Aschersleben railway line: Small station, great feelings. In: mz-web.de. February 1, 2004, accessed August 21, 2019 . 
7. ↑ List of federal lines closed since 1994 (Germany as a whole). ( MS Excel ; 147 kB) (No longer available online.) December 13, 2012, archived from the original on November 4, 2016 ; Retrieved January 6, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Holger Hadinga: Out for moguls. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . June 11, 2012, accessed October 17, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Petra Korn: Idea in Ballenstedt: Focus on a new cycle path. In: mz-web.de. February 28, 2014, accessed July 19, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Dennis Lotzmann: Green light for a new cycle path in Ballenstedt . In: Volksstimme . 3rd July 2018.
11. ↑ Summer timetable 2015

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