Walldürn – Hardheim railway line
| Walldürn – Hardheim | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 4125 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 321h (1954) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 9.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 22 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 240 m | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 60 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway Walldürn-Hardheim was a 9.7 km long single-track branch line known as spur track in Walldürn by the railway Seckach-Miltenberg branched off ( "Madonnenlandbahn"). Operations began on December 23, 1911. Passenger traffic ended as early as May 23, 1954, and the entire line was closed on October 31, 1999.
course
The line left Walldürn station in a southerly direction to leave the route of the Madonnenlandbahn in a narrow curve facing east. Via the only on-the-way station in Höpfingen , the train ran parallel to Bundesstraße 27 through the Madonnenländchen .
The “Great Forest” was passed before Höpfingen. Parts of the route were led over high dams, which today still bear witness to the former route.
history
Prehistory, planning and construction
When planning the Odenwaldbahn Heidelberg – Würzburg , two of the six route variants examined in detail ran via Walldürn and Tauberbischofsheim . However, because of the high expected Bauaufwands neither variants came to the course, instead chose a more southern tour of the favor Kirnau - and Umpfer -Tal out.
In 1876 the neighboring communities submitted a petition for the first time to build a connection between Walldürn, Hardheim and Tauberbischofsheim. Later proposals also included an extended route Eberbach - Mudau - Walldürn or Buchen - Tauberbischofsheim as a northern competitor to the Odenwaldbahn. The Baden Ministry of Finance responded to these requests in 1882 by pointing out that either a route Seckach - Amorbach or Eberbach - Tauberbischofsheim could be realized, whereupon Walldürn withdrew his support, since there the interests in a connection to the Bavarian Miltenberg outweighed.
In 1884 the neighboring communities petitioned again but again unsuccessfully for the construction of a railway line Walldürn – Tauberbischofsheim via Hardheim and suggested sacrificing the planned connection from Walldürn to Miltenberg.
Eleven years later, in 1895, a "railway committee" from Tauberbischofsheim made another attempt to approve the desired railway connection, which, in contrast to two competing petitions from the same year for routes via Pülfringen and Gissigheim or via Külsheim to Bronnbach, was heard in the Baden Estates Assembly found. As part of the petition, the neighboring communities offered to provide the required land free of charge and added the request that in the event that the entire Walldürn – Tauberbischofsheim route would not be considered worth building, the route should at least be built to Hardheim.
In order to speed up a decision, Hardheim turned to the private railway company Lenz & Co.This , represented by the Westdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WeEG) and the Badische Lokal-Eisenbahnen (BLEAG), could be won over for the project. In March 1900, the Baden government presented the draft law for the construction of the Walldürn – Hardheim railway as a private railway , which was approved by the chambers of the Baden state parliament on May 25, 1900. The law stipulated that the line was to be completed by the end of 1906. On October 12, 1901, BLEAG received the concession to build and operate the Walldürn – Hardheim line.
Following successful further petitions from the railway committee, the Baden State Railways analyzed the building worthiness of the still desired extension to Tauberbischofsheim or Bronnbach on behalf of the government. The expert report submitted on December 13, 1903, confirmed that both route variants had high deficits to be expected due to the unfavorable inclination conditions, which also made supra-regional through traffic hopeless. Therefore, the Baden government refused to build an extension both as a state and a private railway.
If the construction of the Walldürn – Hardheim section initially appeared to be secured by the award of the concession, work did not get underway because BLEAG had meanwhile taken over other projects. As a result, Höpfingen and Hardheim petitioned for the construction of the line as a state railway in 1903. The government approved this initiative on February 27, 1906 after construction was still inactive. Since the costs estimated by BLEAG for the construction of the Krebsbachtalbahn (Neckarbischofsheim – Hüffenhardt line) had already turned out to be overpriced in order to receive a higher state subsidy, the estimated construction costs were not believed this time either and so they had to be recalculated first.
On July 27, 1906, a law was finally passed for the second time to build the Walldürn – Hardheim line, but this time as a state railway . Construction could begin in October 1906. The large number of engineering structures required, in particular dams, disputes with a contracted building contractor and finally dam slide meant that construction dragged on until the end of 1911, so that the route could be opened on December 23, 1911. After the start of operations there were often subsidence and dam slides, so that reworking was necessary again and again until 1918.
The planned connection of the Tauberbischofsheim – Königheim line to Hardheim could never be completed.
Second World War
During the Nazi era was from 1937 to 1945 the airbase Dornberg on the denunciation of Höpfingen. He had a siding on the Walldürn – Hardheim line.
Decline
Without the necessary approval from the Federal Ministry of Transport , the Deutsche Bundesbahn ceased passenger traffic between Walldürn and Hardheim on May 23, 1954; a subsequent approval was granted on May 10, 1955. Due to the Bundeswehr depot in Hardheim, the route continued to be of great strategic importance, so that regular freight traffic continued. As the last freight customer, only the Hardheim company Eirich remained loyal to the railway until the end. They received semi-finished steel products several times a week via their own siding.
In 1986 the state planned to take over the railway through the state-owned Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahnen AG (SWEG), but this was not realized. On January 12, 1998, Deutsche Bahn gave up its Hardheim freight station. This initially ended the regular traffic on the route. In the 1998/1999 timetable, there was a revival of passenger traffic: Since the state of Bavaria canceled public transport services on the Madonnenlandbahn on weekends, the trains ran between Walldürn and Hardheim to take advantage of the rest periods that had arisen without this offer being popular.
After the line was unused, no long-term concept was available and the region showed no interest in continued operation, Deutsche Bahn shut it down on October 31, 1999. A concept of the state for a reactivation by the RP-Eisenbahn , which envisaged the shift of the school traffic Hardheim-Buchen to the rail, failed because of the refusal of the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis to contribute the required 50,000 DM per year for route maintenance. In September 2004 the tracks between Walldürn and Hardheim were dismantled.
business
passenger traffic
In passenger transport, trains were only ever offered that commuted between Walldürn and Hardheim. As of 1953, eight pairs of trains ran on weekdays. The passenger trains were hauled by Lauda tank locomotives of the Baden type VI b until the mid-1930s , then by Neckarelzer locomotives of the same type. The last DB passenger train was hauled by a class 94 5–17 locomotive in 1955 .
The shuttle service in the 1998/1999 timetable was operated by class 628 railcars .
Freight transport
In the last few years of operation, a class 365 shunting locomotive served the Walldürn – Hardheim route together with the Neckarelz – Osterburken line and the Madonnenlandbahn from Neckarelz if required. Before that, freight was served by class 211 or 212 diesel locomotives . In the 1950s, class 74 4–13 , 94.5–17 and 50 steam locomotives were used.
literature
- Municipal council of Tauberbischofsheim: Request from the municipalities of Tauberbischofsheim, Königheim, Dittwar, Gissigheim, Pülfringen, Heckfeld, Brehmen ,gerichtstetten, Erfeld, Waldstetten, Bretzingen and Hardheim to build a railway from Königheim via Gissigheim to Hardheim: High Second Chamber of Estates! , Tauberbischofsheim Municipal Council, Tauberbischofsheim 1913.
- Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 15-17 .
- Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 1 : Historical development and railway construction . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-766-4 .
- Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 2 : Design, operation and machine service . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-768-0 .
Web links
- Walldürn – Hardheim route at verkehrsrelektiven.de
- Excerpt from the course book from 1944
- Route history Walldürn-Hardheim
Individual evidence
- ↑ Uwe Büttner: 100 years of the Tauberbischofsheim - Königheim railway line: look back to the “Brehmbachtalblitz”. Fränkische Nachrichten Verlags-GmbH, January 4, 2014, accessed on October 19, 2014 .
- ↑ http://www.vergessene-bahnen.de : connecting railway to the military airfield Dornberg-Schlempertshof. Retrieved March 26, 2014 .