Worms – Gundheim railway line

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Worms-Gundheim
Route number (DB) : 3565
Course book section (DB) : 274f
Route length: 11.3 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope : 14.3  ‰
Minimum radius : 300 m
Top speed: 40 km / h
Legend
   
 11.3 Gundheim
   
 Federal motorway 61
   
 8.1 Abenheim
   
 3.3 Herrnsheim
   
 1.7 Siding Lederwerke Heyl AG
   
 from Mainz
   
 from Biblis
Station, station
 0.0 Worms main station
Swell:
Herrnsheim station
Abenheim station

The Worms – Gundheim line was an approximately eleven kilometer long branch line in Rheinhessen . It was operated from 1903 to 1961 for passenger transport.

Route

The railway line began in Worms main station and ran in a north-westerly direction via the (today) Worms districts of Herrnsheim and Abenheim to Gundheim . The line was single-track and not electrified .

history

history

The intention was to build from Worms via Gundheim, Westhofen , Gau-Odernheim and Nieder-Olm to Ingelheim . The project was therefore also referred to as the "Gaubahn". However, the route for the project was very controversial. A government bill for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse dated March 5, 1889, which included a first section, provided for the construction of a branch line from Worms via Abenheim, Westhofen and Gau-Odernheim to Nieder-Olm. However, Osthofen intervened , which was circumvented by the project. It was therefore in 1895 that Westhofen was connected to Osthofen and a line via Herrnsheim with the Gundheim terminus was built by Worms, mainly thanks to the strong support of the then Landtag member and Worms industrialist Cornelius Wilhelm von Heyl zu Herrnsheim . Freiherr von Heyl owned a castle in Herrnsheim , which he used as a country seat.

The state license was granted to the private Hessische Ludwigsbahn (HLB), and the station in Gundheim was designed as a through station in the expectation that the line could continue . But that never happened because the HLB assumed that it would not be economically viable.

Construction began in 1902, the construction costs amounted to 1.1 million marks . The reception buildings were rustic, partly in quarry stone masonry and in the historicist style, based on the third reception building of the Worms main station, which was built almost at the same time . The line was opened on October 1, 1903. In the meantime the HLB had been nationalized and the Prussian-Hessian Railway Association was formed. Their railway directorate in Mainz operated the line. In 1907 Abenheim station was - initially temporarily - a train follower . On February 10, 1914, new “double light pre-signals ” were put into operation on the route “ when it got dark” , which corresponded to the shape signal model that is still in use today .

On April 15, 1931 Herrnsheim station was downgraded to a railway agency .

business

Wittfeld accumulator railcar

Operation began with five pairs of trains. Initially, steam locomotives of the T 3 series and later the T 11/74 series were used . Also Wittfeld-Akkumulatortriebwagen were used. After the Second World War , rail buses of the VT 95 series were last used.

Since the railway line did not go beyond Gundheim, it was only of local importance in Worms suburban traffic. It was never very economical in itself. When Herrnsheim was connected to the Worms tram in 1948 , this caused a noticeable decrease in passenger traffic on the route. This trend continued, especially since the Deutsche Bundesbahn itself set up a parallel bus service, passenger traffic in general and freight traffic increasingly shifted to the road.

On May 28, 1961, passenger traffic was stopped. Freight trains traveled the entire route three days a week until March 4, 1968, and daily during the sugar beet harvest . In 1973 the Abenheim – Gundheim section was shut down and dismantled. The rest of the route was also abandoned 10 years later and the tracks were removed from April 17, 1984. The specific reason was the construction of a feeder road to the A 61 , which the rest of the route was in the way.

The route today

Cycle path near Worms-Herrnsheim on the former Worms-Gundheim railway line

Between Worms-Neuhausen and Worms-Abenheim, a five-kilometer cycle path was set up after the track was removed . Part of this cycle path is also part of the Rhine cycle path . The reception buildings were sold to private individuals and are now used as residential buildings.

1954 railway accident

On July 24, 1954, the most serious railway accident to date occurred on the line in Rheinhessen: A train and a fully occupied bus with employees of the Worms-Hochheim company Schramm & Möller collided on an unrestricted level crossing between Herrnsheim and Abenheim. 25 people were killed.

See also

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Jakob Gander: Railway Worms - Gundheim . In: We Herrnsheimer . January 1994, pp. 13-15.
  • Ralph Häussler: Railways in Worms . Hamm 2003. ISBN 3-935651-10-4
  • Rainer Hartwein: The branch line Worms - Gundheim . In: German Society for Railway History (ed.): News . January 1985.

Web links

Commons : Worms – Gundheim railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Gander, p. 14, gives other data: The state concession was granted on November 15, 1890, the decision to build the line was made in 1893.
  2. ↑ From 9 a.m. to the end of work.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information from Hartwein, p. 7f.
  2. ^ Deutsche Bundesbahn (ed.): Official course book. Western Germany. Summer timetable May 14 - October 7, 1950 . Bielefeld 1950.
  3. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 10th edition. Schweers + Wall, Cologne 2017, ISBN 3-921679-13-3 .
  4. ↑ Häussler: Railways , p. 142.
  5. ↑ Hartwein, p. 7.
  6. ↑ Gander, p. 14; Hartwein, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Gander, p. 14.
  8. ↑ Häussler: Railways , p. 146.
  9. ↑ Hartwein, p. 7.
  10. ↑ Hartwein, p. 7.
  11. ↑ Gander, p. 14.
  12. ↑ Announcement No. 529, p. 434. In: Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Hg.): Collection of the published Official Gazettes 7 (1903). Mainz 1904. Official Gazette of September 19, 1903. No. 47; Announcement No. 546, p. 440. In: Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Collection of the published Official Gazettes 7 (1903). Mainz 1904. Official Gazette of September 26, 1903. No. 48.
  13. ^ Eisenbahn-Directions district Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of September 28, 1907, No. 49. Announcement No. 522, p. 570.
  14. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of January 24, 1914, No. 5. Announcement No. 50, p. 33.
  15. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of May 2, 1931, No. 22. Announcement No. 328, p. 161.
  16. ↑ Information from Hartwein, p. 8.
  17. ↑ Häussler: Railways , p. 146.
  18. ↑ Ralph Häussler: The Worms tram . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2012. ISBN 978-3-95400-119-4 , p. 93.
  19. ↑ Gander, p. 13.
  20. ↑ Hartwein, p. 8.
  21. ↑ Hartwein, p. 7.
  22. ↑ Hartwein, p. 8.
  23. ↑ Gander, p. 15.