Niederwaldbahn

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Rüdesheim – Niederwald Monument
Route of the Niederwaldbahn
Overview map of the cog railways to the Niederwald
Route length: 2.3 km
Gauge : 1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope : 200  ‰
Legend
   
 0.0 Rudesheim
   
 Cow path
   
 Evasion
   
 2.3 Niederwald Monument

The Rüdesheim – Niederwalddenkmal railway line was a 2.3-kilometer-long meter-gauge rack railway from the valley station of Rüdesheim am Rhein to the mountain station at the Niederwalddenkmal , operated by the Niederwald-Bahn-Gesellschaft (NWB). It was in operation from 1884 to 1917 and from 1925 to 1939 in the summer season. After war damage, it was not rebuilt and demolished. The Rüdesheim cable car , a gondola lift , has been taking over traffic since 1954 .

technology

The Riggenbach cogwheel system was used to overcome the steep section up to the Niederwald Monument, a height difference of 223 meters with a maximum gradient of 20 percent . The trains were pushed by steam locomotives . Shortly before the Second World War , considerations began to electrify the line , but were no longer implemented. In the city of Rüdesheim, the route of the railway ran 400 meters in the street position. The reception buildings were originally built using lightweight construction. The mountain station was rebuilt in solid construction in 1935.

The valley station had a stump track. The branch to the remise was via a rack and pinion switch. The locomotive and wagon shed were connected to it by means of a transfer table. The turnout on the route (location at the quarry) had two rack and pinion turnouts. The mountain station also had two stump tracks.

History of the route

Orientation sketch from 1884

The city of Rüdesheim and the Jacob S. H. Stern bank , Cologne, were behind the project of a cog railway to the Niederwald monument . The construction was accompanied by the Swiss engineer Niklaus Riggenbach .

The line went into operation on May 30, 1884, even before the entire route and the buildings were completed.

With the First World War , tourism and with it the demand for trains collapsed drastically, traffic had to be restricted and stopped entirely on August 6, 1917.

Only in 1925 - now under municipal control - could operations be resumed and exceeded all expectations. With 300,000 passengers in 1928, the pre-war record was even exceeded. However, shortly afterwards the global economic crisis and the emergence of the motor vehicle caused considerable cuts. As in 1914, the outbreak of World War II caused demand to dry up. On August 30, 1939, operations were stopped - as it turned out later: for good. In an air raid on the Hindenburg Bridge on November 25, 1944, the Niederwaldbahn railway in the city of Rüdesheim was also damaged.

In 1952 the city of Rüdesheim decided against rebuilding the railway. It was replaced by a gondola lift. The railway systems were demolished, rails and vehicles scrapped. One of the presentation cars was handed over to the Drachenfelsbahn , where it was added to the vehicle fleet with the company number 3 ".

History of the company

Share over 500 Reichsmarks in the Niederwald-Bahn-Gesellschaft on July 1, 1884

The official Niederwald Railway Company called Aktiengesellschaft was founded on July 1, 1884, based in Rudesheim. It took over the operating rights of the meter-gauge rack railways Rüdesheim – Niederwalddenkmal and Assmannshausen – Jagdschloss , built using the same technology but without any connection to one another , from the Jacob SH Stern bank . In 1920 the city of Rüdersheim took over the majority of the shares and dissolved the company.

In 1900 the company's headquarters were relocated to Berlin, where the main shareholder at the time, the banker G. Lilienthal, had his place of business. In 1911 G. Lilienthal caused his bank to go into fraudulent bankruptcy, which left the company in debt of 70,000 marks.

The demand for the supply of the rail business, which is geared towards the summer season, fluctuated strongly and, depending on the weather, remained economically problematic. The company tried to compensate for this by purchasing a steam boat that ran between Rüdesheim and Assmannshausen and also opened up the important tourist destinations of Bingen and Rheinstein Castle. This enabled tours on the company's two own railway lines as well as a crossing of the Rhine. However, this business expansion was unsuccessful and resulted in further losses.

With the sale of the majority of the shares to the city of Rüdesheim, the stock corporation was dissolved in 1920.

Cog railway path

Cog railway path

At the end of Grabenstrasse in Rüdesheim a buffer stop reminds of the railway and a cog wheel set up as a technical monument , which - together with a sign - was set up at the cable car valley station. There is also a workshop building at the level of the large parking lot, with a NWB weather vane on the roof. This is also where the cog railway path begins , a 1.8 kilometer long information path with information boards that was set up by the city of Rüdesheim along the former route. It leads in the vineyards past the former viaduct over the Kuhweg to the Niederwald monument.

literature

Web links

Commons : Niederwaldbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files