Weimar – Kranichfeld railway line

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Weimar – Kranichfeld
Bad Berka – Blankenhain
Railcar for the Weimar – Kranichfeld route in the Weimar station area
Railcar for the Weimar – Kranichfeld route in the Weimar
station area
Route number : 6711 (Weimar – Weimar Berkaer Bf)
6681 (Weimar Berkaer Bf – Kranichfeld)
Course book section (DB) : 579
Route length: 25.36 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class : CE (Weimar – Weimar Berkaer Bf)
B2 (Weimar Berkaer Bf – Kranichfeld)
Top speed: 50 km / h
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from Rastenberg
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from Halle (Saale) Hbf
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0.262 Weimar (formerly Weimar Reichsbahn)
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according to Bebra
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1.258 Weimar West
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2.474 Weimar Berka train station
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3.200 Weimar Erfurt Gate
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6,054 Nohra (b Weimar)
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7.730 Obergrunstedt
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9,392 Holzdorf (b Weimar)
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11.628 Laying field
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13.800 Hetschburg
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Awanst. Bad Berka cement works (electrical operation)
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15.330 Cement works (b Bad Berka)
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16.732 Bad Berka Zeughausplatz
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17,263
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Bad Berka (former wedge train station )
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3.220 Saalborn
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6.150 Blankenhain
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18.600 Martinswerk
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20.897 Munich (b Bad Berka)
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21,913 Tannroda
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25,316 Crane field

The Weimar-Berka-Blankenhainer Railway (WBBE) , or Berka Railway for short, was originally the state railway of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach . It was built and operated by the Herrmann Bachstein company. On April 1, 1899, the Central Administration for Secundairbahnen Herrmann Bachstein also acquired ownership of it. In 1923, through the restructuring of the Bachstein Group, the railway became part of the Thuringian Railway Company .

history

The building and operating agreement was approved by the state parliament on February 2, 1886. Due to differences of opinion regarding the financing of 1,620,000 marks, construction could only begin now. In the summer of 1886 the grand ducal government demanded that the railway line be extended to Kranichfeld at an additional cost of 70,000 marks. The Weimar state government granted the Central German railway cortium the concession to operate the line. The top speed was initially 30 km / h. When continuous air brakes were later introduced for all trains, the speed was increased to 40 km / h. The railway line is not a small railway, but a standard-gauge branch line.

Passenger traffic began on May 15, 1887 on the standard-gauge line Weimar Staatsbahnhof – Weimar Berkaer Bf – Bad Berka – Blankenhain with the Bad Berka – Tannroda branch; Freight traffic followed on June 13, 1887. In addition, a 700 m long branch line led initially in Weimar from Berka train station to Erfurter Tor, which was shut down and dismantled again in 1908 at the insistence of the residents. The WBBE was completed when on October 14, 1888 the remnant Tannroda – Kranichfeld and thus a total of 32 km of route could be driven.

After the Second World War it belonged to the state-owned Thuringian Railways, from where it came to the Deutsche Reichsbahn on April 1, 1949 . On the section to Blankenhain, which required a change of direction of the trains in Bad Berka, passenger traffic ended on May 22, 1966, goods traffic on September 24, 1967. Goods were carried on the Weimar – Kranichfeld route until May 27, 1995, passenger traffic continues to this day.

Route near Nohra (2017)

Around 2000 the line was rebuilt and modernized, since then there has been a train control operation between Weimar Berkaer Bahnhof and Kranichfeld. The terminus at Kranichfeld became a stop at the end of the line, with all the sidings being removed . There are crossroads at the Holzdorf (b Weimar) and Bad Berka train stations. The directional platforms are one behind the other in both stations. The remaining two points each are fallback points, local staff is no longer necessary apart from the train conductor, who is also the dispatcher at the Weimar Berkaer Bahnhof station. The DB AG marketed the distance since 1994 under the name Ilmtalbahn and sailed it to 2012 railcars 641 series .

As part of the new tender for the East Thuringian diesel network , traffic on the Berkaer Bahn route has been carried out by the Erfurt Bahn since June 2012 . Since then, Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 railcars have been in use. The trains run every hour . The train crossings take place a little after the usual symmetry minute at half an hour in Holzdorf.

Track connections

From the years 1887/88 the freight traffic developed very strongly. The useful lengths of the trains were limited by the Berka train station in Weimar. A connecting curve to the bypass of the train station, which had meanwhile been considered, was never implemented. There were several loading ramps at almost every station along the route . Several sidings were added later.

Route near Munich (2017)

km 1.1 : In the area of ​​the city of Weimar there was a rail connection to the gas works at km 1.1. During the GDR era, this was operated by VEB Kohlenhandel Erfurt . There were also more neighboring connections. The successor to the coal trade is the North Thuringian fuel trade "Rheinbraun", which still regularly loads goods today. He is now the last to join the entire route.

km 2.1 : Until February 1992 there was a connection at km 2.1. Initially, it was operated by VVB Elektromaschinen-Ost, Repair Plant Weimar and later used by Minol . In 1917 the connection with a length of 2.1 kilometers to Nohra Air Base was built. In this form, however, it only existed until 1929. A similar connection in a different location was created for the Soviet armed forces after the Second World War . After the turnaround with the withdrawal of the troops, there was no longer any use for it. In 1992 410 wagons were added. A year later, however, there was almost no traffic at all. The truckload tariff point Nohra was abandoned at the end of 1994. The entire siding was shut down in the spring of 1995.

Km 9.4 : When construction of the Reichsautobahn began in the 1930s , a siding was built near Holzdorf. The tracks that were between the Holzdorf train station and the motorway construction site were later used to form heavy trains to the Munich tank farm . Remnants of the track were still there until the renovation work in Holzdorf. At the beginning of 1994, the wagonload tariff point in Holzdorf was officially closed.

km 15.3 : The connection to the Bad Berka cement works was one of the first on the entire route, on which electric traction vehicles with 220 volts ran until the end. A vehicle used there was converted from a three-phase test locomotive from Siemens & Halske from 1898. From 1901 until at least 1972 it was used in the cement works. The sidings were expanded in the course of the conversion to the mineral wool plant, as the transports were increasingly being carried out by rail. After the reunification there was no longer any interest in continuing to use this siding. During the GDR era, the daily traffic volume was at least 20 to 25 cars. In 1992 there were 19 and in 1993 only two. In March 1994 this connection was terminated and it was closed at the end of 1994.

km 16.7 : The Linke brothers' lumber yard was at kilometer 16.7. The state forestry enterprise Bad Berka decided in 1956 to acquire this place and to add a siding there. In mid-1992 it was shut down.

km 18.8 : In 1951, at kilometer 18.77, an approximately 700-meter-long siding was built to supply the construction site of the TB sanctuary . Coal transports to the sanatorium were to be carried over this track from 1953. This was implemented a year later in a slightly modified connection. In 1960 it was no longer used because the coal handling was relocated to the loading street of the Bad Berka train station .

Km 19.1 : The Martinswerk has had its own siding since the section to Tannroda was opened. Between 1925 and 1931, it lost the track as the line was moved from the road to its own railway body. A new loading track was then built between kilometers 19.1 and 19.2. Its useful length was 75 meters. In the 1960s, only three to four wagons used this track a week. This led to the Deutsche Reichsbahn having it dismantled as it could no longer be operated economically.

km 20.1 : At km 20.1 there was a siding to the Munich tank farm, which was built as part of the war preparations . Block trains with tank cars ran from Weimar . Due to the inclination and length of the stations, their length was limited to 200 meters. In 1940/41 there were 145 trains per day. Diesel locomotives of the V36 and Kö series did the shunting work after the tank farm. On March 31, 1945, bombers missed the tank farm. Then it was evacuated. After another attack on April 9, it was almost completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in a simplified form after 1949. The area was used as a private connection by the “Commissioner for the Central Procurement and Control of Explosives State of Thuringia”. The track length was only 12 meters. Anhaltische Chemischen Fabriken GmbH used this connection until March 1994. Then the connection switch was removed.

km 21.9 : The siding to the Tannroda paper factory ran on a bridge over the Ilm and had a turntable on the other side. When the paper mill was expanded, the systems were rebuilt several times. With the construction of a heating plant in the 1980s, there were further plant extensions. The transshipment point for VEB coal trade was relocated from Bad Berka to Tannroda in 1986. In 1992, 1130 wagons ran there annually. In 1993 there were 430 wagons and at the beginning of 1994 the siding was closed.

Accidents

On September 28, 2003, near Holzdorf train station, two regional trains collided with each other at a speed of around 40 km / h. One traveler was killed and 27 others injured. On February 28, 2004, 100 meters away, two railcars collided again.

After the two accidents, the concept of technically supported train control was developed and implemented on this route, among other things. Thus, the route is now secured with punctiform train control (PZB).

literature

Web links

Commons : Weimar-Berka-Blankenhainer Eisenbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Weimar – Bad Berka – Blankenheim railway. (PDF) About the construction. Retrieved June 7, 2016 .
  2. ^ Erfurt Railway: Elster Saale Railway
  3. Timetable 2016 (PDF).
  4. a b c d e f g h i j k Weimar – Bad Berka – Blankenheim railway. (PDF) Track connections. Retrieved June 10, 2016 .
  5. Report collision between two regional trains near Holzdorf. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 11/2003, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 475.
  6. Federal Railway Authority: Collision of regional trains RB 26506 and RB 26507 on the Weimar Berkaer Bahnhof - Kranichfeld route on September 28, 2003 ( memento of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.8 MB).