Wałbrzych Szczawienko – Meziměstí railway line

Wałbrzych Szczawienko – Meziměstí
Route number :	291 (D 29)
Course book range :	-
Route length:	34.497 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	until 1945: 15 kV, 16 2/3 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	14.3  ‰
Top speed:	70 km / h
Legend from Wrocław 0.000 Wałbrzych Szczawienko formerly Nieder Salzbrunn to Wałbrzych Głowny 3,400 Wałbrzych Zespół Bocznic 4,985 Szczawno Zdrój formerly Ober Salzbrunn 10.495 Biały Kamień formerly white stone from Wałbrzych Głowny 17,706 Boguszów Gorce Wschód formerly Fellhammer to Jelenia Góra 18,389 Boguszów Gorce towarowy Podlesie tunnel (262 m) 22.664 Unisław Śląski formerly Langwaltersdorf Stones Stones Stones 28.033 Mieroszów formerly Friedland ~ 31.3 Golińsk formerly Göhlenau 32.563 92.77 State border Poland - Czech Republic 90.836 Meziměstí formerly a half-town to Broumov (–Ścinawka Średnia) (formerly StEG ) to Choceň (formerly StEG )

The Wałbrzych Szczawienko – Meziměstí railway is a main line in Poland and the Czech Republic , originally built and operated by the Breslau-Schweidnitz-Freiburg Railway Company . It originally ran from Wałbrzych ( Waldenburg ) / Szczawienko ( Nieder Salzbrunn ) via Boguszów Gorce Wschód ( Fellhammer ) to Meziměstí ( Halbstadt ). Only the section Boguszów Gorce Wschód – Meziměstí is in operation today. The line was one of the first electrified rail connections in Germany, and electric rail operations began before the First World War .

history

The Breslau-Schweidnitz-Freiburg Railway Company (BSF-EG) opened the railway line from Nieder Salzbrunn to Halbstadt on May 15, 1878.

On March 1, 1884, the BSG was handed over to the state, and the line came to the Prussian State Railways .

Preparations for the electrification of the line with 15 kV, 16 2/3 Hz began in 1911. On June 1, 1914, the scheduled electric train service began. This made the Nieder Salzbrunn – Halbstadt connection the first electrified railway line in Silesia and the first line in Central Europe to use this later standardized electricity system. The traction current was supplied by a steam power station in Mittelsteine, from which it was conducted to the substation in Nieder Salzbrunn.

When Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918, Halbstadt was on its national territory, and traffic declined. The end of the line was under the control of the Czech State Railways (ČSD). In order to save compensatory payments, which were based on axle kilometers, the trains in Friedland were shortened to include the control cars, and second end driver's cabs were built into the railcars. With the Munich Agreement , Meziměstí became part of the Greater German Reich, so from 1938 the state border was no longer applicable.

After the Second World War, Silesia came under Polish administration and most of the route became the property of the Polish State Railways PKP, while the Czech part returned to the ČSD. In 1945 the electrical contact lines were dismantled as a reparation payment for the Soviet Union .

Until around 1950, passenger trains also ran across the state border under the direction of the PKP, after which there was no longer any cross-border travel. From then on, PKP passenger trains only served the Wałbrzych Głowny - Mieroszów ( Friedland ) route. In contrast, freight transport remained important.

It was not until the 1990s that cross-border passenger traffic was resumed. In addition to three pairs of Wałbrzych Głowny – Meziměstí passenger trains, there was also an express train from Prague via Wałbrzych Głowny to Wroclaw . On December 14, 2003, however, cross-border passenger traffic was stopped again.

On the first section from Wałbrzych- Szczawienko to Boguszów-Gorce Wschód, passenger traffic has been suspended since 1960, and the line has been closed since 1995 with the exception of a connection with route number 869.

On April 28, 2018 the passenger train service between Wałbrzych and Meziměstí in the Czech Republic was reactivated. There are four pairs of trains running on weekends and public holidays, which are intended to serve tourist traffic in particular. Two of these couples are therefore tied to the popular hiking destination Adršpach. The commissioned railway company is Koleje Dolnośląskie (KD) in cooperation with the Czech EVU GW Train Regio as

Weekend seasonal traffic from the end of April to the end of September is also planned for 2019. This year three out of four trains will be tied through to the rock town of Adršpach.

Vehicle use

In passenger train traffic, electric multiple units were used on the Niedersalzbrunn – Halbstadt route, which the Prussian State Railroad procured as 501 Breslau to 506 Breslau specifically for the electrified routes in Silesia. These three-part railcars consisted of a centrally arranged motor car, which also carried a service compartment, and two three-axle control cars with compartments of 2nd and 3rd class. The Deutsche Reichsbahn later referred to the vehicles as the ET 87 series.

After the First World War, four-axle electric railcars, which were originally intended for the Berlin S-Bahn traffic, also ran. These vehicles, later designated as ET 88 , were mainly used across borders to Halbstadt, as they offered more seats per axis, which required fewer compensation payments to the Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD).

In the thirties ET 51 were also used, the ET 51.1 were built for this route. The existing customs compartments were no longer needed upon delivery, however, as the entire route to Halbstadt was on German territory from October 1939 as a result of the Munich Agreement .

With the restart of the Wałbrzych Głowny – Meziměstí line in 2018, two-part SA134 (PESA 218Md) railcars built between 2007 and 2012 are mostly used in double traction.

See also

• Silesian Mountain Railway
• Electric railway operation in Silesia
• History of the electric drive of rail vehicles

literature

• H.-J. Wenzel, G. Greß: The Railway in Silesia, Eisenbahnkurier Special 3/2005 . EK-Verlag, 2005, ISSN  0170-5288 .
• Heinz Jochen Kuhnt: Breslau-Schweidnitz-Freiburg Railway Company: Founding, planning, construction, opening and initial operation of the railway lines Breslau-Königszelt-Freiburg, Königszelt-Schweidnitz and Königszelt-Liegnitz, nationalization (=  Groß Rosener Schriftenreihe; 22 ). Altenmedingen 2011.
• Ryszard Stankiewicz and Marcin Stiasny: Atlas Linii Kolejowych Polski 2014 . Eurosprinter, Rybnik 2014, ISBN 978-83-63652-12-8

Web links

• Description (Polish)
• Timetable 1944
• Timetable 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christian Tietze: Heart pacemaker. In: eisenbahn-magazin 7/2014, p. 33.
2. ↑ "Vzkříšení česko-polského přechodu v Meziměstí. Díky novým vlakům do Adršpachu ”on www.zdopravy.cz