Smidary – Vysoké Veselí railway line

Smidary – Vysoké Veselí
Course book range :	4b (1976)
Route length:	7.681 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Velký Osek (formerly ÖNWB ) 0.000 Smidary to Trutnov-Poříčí (formerly ÖNWB ) 2.168 Chotělice 5.228 Hrobičany Cidlina 6.328 Sběř Connection to the sugar factory 7,681 Vysoké Veselí

The Smidary – Vysoké Veselí railway was a regional railway connection in the Czech Republic that was originally built and operated by the Austrian Local Railway Company (ÖLEG) as the Smidar – Hochwessely local railway . It ran in Central Bohemia from Smidary to Vysoké Veselí .

history

The first plans for the construction of a railway via Vysoké Veselí originated as early as 1871, when the company of the Bohemian Central Railway planned a line from Kopidlno via Vysoké Veselí to Jičín . However, these plans came to nothing. At that time there was a sugar factory owned by Count Karl von Paar and a chicory factory in Vysoké Veselí . For the sugar factory in particular, the lack of modern transport links was a threat to its existence.

On August 28, 1880, the ÖLEG received " the right to build and operate a locomotive railway leading from the Smidar station of the priv. Austrian Northwest Railway between the places Hrobicar, Zbir and Wellesitz to Hochwessely ". The construction period was set to be one year from the granting of the license. The maximum speed was set at 21 km / h according to the planned local railway operation. The state also reserved the right to redeem the licensed railway for compensation at any time.

The Prague construction company Schön & Wessely took over the construction and completed the route in just over a year. The construction costs totaled 270,000 guilders . On November 1, 1881, the line was opened for freight traffic and on February 20, 1882 for passenger traffic. The ÖLEG carried out the operation itself.

On July 1, 1885, the local railway Smidar – Hochwessely came to the Bohemian Commercial Railway (BCB) as part of a route swap. The ÖLEG received the local railway Nusle-Modřan near Prague , which previously belonged to the BCB.

On January 1, 1910, the BCB was nationalized. The line now belonged to the network of the kk Staatsbahnen (kkStB), which had already taken over operations on October 15, 1909. In 1912, the local railroad's timetable showed a total of three mixed pairs of trains. You needed 36 minutes for the eight-kilometer route uphill and 34 minutes downhill.

After the First World War , which Austria-Hungary lost , the line became the property of the newly founded Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD). The chicory factory ceased operations in 1924, the sugar factory followed in 1932. As a result, the local railway lost a significant part of its previous freight traffic. At the beginning of the 1930s there was a significant consolidation of the timetable, which was due in particular to the use of modern motor trains . In the 1937/38 winter timetable, a total of eight pairs of passenger trains were listed, which required only 15 minutes for the entire route in both directions.

During the Second World War, the line remained in the administration of the now Protectorate Railways of Bohemia and Moravia (ČMD-BMB). Traffic ceased in June and July 1941 when the line was used by the German Wehrmacht for the temporary storage of nine empty trains with 50 freight wagons each. During this time, travel had to be handled by buses in the rail replacement service . Something similar happened at the end of the war in 1945. The Deutsche Reichsbahn used the track to park locomotives and tank cars that had been evacuated from the front in the east. A total of over 400 vehicles were parked, which could not be driven back until the end of 1945. On December 3, 1945, scheduled traffic by the ČSD was resumed.

In the last timetable from 1976, a total of ten train pairs were listed. Some of the trains went through to and from Chlumec nad Cidlinou or Křinec . On May 29, 1976, traffic on the route was stopped. At the end of the 1970s, the tracks were dismantled except for an 800 meter long section at Smidary station. This was used to park damaged cars until the end of the 1980s.

literature

• Miroslav Jelen: Zrušené železniční tratě v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku , Dokořán 2009, ISBN 978-80-7363-129-1 ; Pp. 70-71.

Web link

• Description (Czech)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zdeněk Hudec u. a .: Atlas drah České republiky 2006–2007 , 2nd edition; Publishing house Pavel Malkus, Praha, 2006, ISBN 80-87047-00-1
2. ↑ History of the city of Vysoké Veselí (Czech)
3. ^ Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and states represented in the Reichsrathe of October 9, 1880
4. ↑ 1912 timetable of the kkStB - valid from May 1, 1912
5. ↑ ČSD winter timetable 1937/38 - valid from October 3, 1937
6. ↑ ČSD winter timetable 1975/76