Waldheim – Kriebethal railway line

Waldheim – Kriebethal
Excerpt from route map of Saxony (1902)
Route number (DB) :	6627; sä. WK
Course book range :	-
Route length:	3,020 km
Gauge :	Since 2004: 600 mm to 2004: 1435 mm
Route class :	A.
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Minimum radius :	250 m
Legend from Rochlitz (Sachs) from Riesa 0.000 Waldheim 236 m to Chemnitz Hbf 0.142 Bahnhofstrasse 0.208 0.345 1.150 Lindenhof Viaduct 2.041 For wood storage area 2.150 Rauschenthal 200 m 2.678 Zschopau 3.020 Kriebethal 194 m 3.121 At the paper mill BT Krittenau 3.150 3.241 At the paper mill BT Kriebethal 3.331 At the BT Kriebstein paper mill 3.520 Zschopau 3.752

The Waldheim – Kriebethal railway was a standard-gauge branch line in Saxony that was used almost exclusively for freight traffic and was converted into a narrow -gauge railway in 2004 . It led from Waldheim station on the Riesa – Chemnitz railway line to the paper mills in Kriebethal on the Zschopau .

Lindenhof Viaduct

history

In the late 19th century, numerous factories settled in the Zschopautal, almost all of which required a rail connection, as road transport was difficult. Therefore, around 1880, planning began for a 45 km long, narrow-gauge “Zschopautalbahn”. It should connect Niederwiesa with Chub along the Zschopau . However, two requests to the Saxon state parliament to build this route were rejected. However, the need for a railway line in the Zschopautal was still there. Finally, the construction of a standard gauge branch line from Waldheim to Kriebethal was allowed. The company was ceremoniously started on December 10, 1896. From 1897 passenger traffic also took place, but this was abandoned in 1919.

At the end of the Second World War in 1945, all bridges on this route across the Zschopau were blown up; however, the route was open to traffic again a few months later. During the GDR era, the volume of goods was high; About four trains ran daily. After the political change in eastern Germany, however, the transport of goods was increasingly shifted to the road, so that the route lost its importance. On December 31, 1998 the line was closed.

In 2003 the association IG Kleinbahn Waldheim-Kriebstein e. V. and rebuilt it in 2004 between the Schillerhöhe in Waldheim and Krittenau (on the Zschopau bridge before Kriebethal) to a 600 mm gauge. Since then, until around 2009, passenger transport has taken place on weekends. There have been no tracks on the site of the paper mill since 2003.

At the moment (2015) there are no trains running, because IG Kleinbahn has withdrawn its official requirements and the technical condition of the line does not allow any journeys. In 2013 the Waldheimer Eisenbahnfreunde eV association took over the line, renovated it and intends to extend the narrow-gauge track to the Waldheim freight yard.

Route description

End of the route below Kriebstein Castle around 1900

The line connected the small town of Waldheim on the Riesa – Chemnitz railway line with Kriebethal station ⊙ . It branched off the main line to Chemnitz at the southern end of Waldheim station ⊙ . The Richzenhainer Bach, also called Sauergrasbach, and the road to Reinsdorf are crossed on a 171 m long steel lattice bridge, the Lindenhof Viaduct ⊙ . The route leads along the west bank of the Zschopau. The only stopover was the Rauschenthal ⊙ loading point with a wood storage area. In Kriebethal, the Zschopau is bridged on a steel lattice bridge. There were several industrial connections in the Kriebstein area. After today's paper mill, the route crossed the Zschopau again and finally ended below Kriebstein Castle on a factory site ⊙ .

literature

• Erich Preuß , Reiner Preuß : Saxon State Railways . transpress Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70700-0 .
• Rudolf Paul Roßberg: Kriebsteintalsperre - Waldheim · Mittweida - hiking booklet . VEB Tourist Verlag, Berlin et al. 1979

Web links

Commons : Waldheim – Kriebethal railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sachsenschiene: Waldheim – Kriebethal railway line
• Description of the situation by the end of 2013
• Continued use of the Waldheim-Kriebstein railway line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ STREDA - Total distance directory DBAG; Status: February 1, 2003
2. ^ Sachsenschiene: Waldheim – Kriebethal railway line , accessed on July 23, 2015.
3. ^ Rauschenthalbahn: History , accessed on July 23, 2015.
4. ↑ Rauschenthalbahn: Current and Inventory , accessed on July 23, 2015.
5. ↑ Rauschenthalbahn: Targets 2015 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 23, 2015