Wurzen – Eilenburg railway line

Wurzen-Eilenburg
Overview map of the route
Route number :	6825; sä. WE
Course book range :	164a (1944) 503 (1978)
Route length:	21.58 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Legend from Leipzig Hbf 0.000 Spice up 124 m to Dresden-Neustadt Wurzen – Nemt road Dresden-Neustadt – Leipzig Hbf Bundesstrasse 6 Connection curve from Kornhain Abzw D 3.530 Wurzen Ost formerly Roitzsch (b Wurzen) State road 23 Initially the Lüptitz quarry Street Lüptitz – industrial area Lüptitz 6.130 Lüptitz 145 m Lüptitz – Zschorna road Lüptitz – Hohburg road At the Hohburg kaolin plant 8.267 Zschepa - Hohburg 130 m Großzschepa – Kleinzschepa street 8,628 Lossatal bridge (40 m) Road to the Kleinzschepa sewage treatment plant First Saxon quartz porphyry works Röcknitz – Großzschepa road First quarry 12,559 Collmen - Böhlitz 130 m Böhlitz – Lossa road Böhlitz – Thallwitz road Connection road S19 – Thallwitzer Strasse 15.780 EÜ Wirtschaftsweg 16.280 Thallwitz (formerly Bf) 120 m agricultural way State road 11 former border between Saxony and Prussia Bartholomäusaue 19.510 Eilenburg south 105 m Bundesstrasse 87 from Cottbus and from Pretzsch 21.580 Eilenburg 103 m to Halle (Saale) to Leipzig Hbf

The Wurzen – Eilenburg line is a branch line in Saxony . It ran from Wurzen to Eilenburg and connected the railway lines Leipzig – Dresden and Leipzig – Cottbus . The route, which is still partly used by freight trains today, was built primarily as a connecting line to the quarries in the Hohburg mountains .

history

The end of the route was Eilenburg station

As early as 1863 , the then mayor of Eilenburg, Schrecker, suggested extending the planned Muldentalbahn from Glauchau to Wurzen via Grimma to Eilenburg , which at that time did not yet have a railway connection, and from there possibly further in the direction of Bad Düben , Bad Schmiedeberg and Pretzsch to extend to Wittenberg . The communities lying on the intended route expressed interest, but the Merseburg government rejected these efforts, as there was “no general need for traffic” on this connection.

The project was pursued further over the next few years, but was further dampened by the German Wars of Unification and the First World War . The realization of the connecting line between the Halle-Sorauer and the Leipzig-Dresdener railway is probably mainly due to the work of the Eilenburg mayor Alfred Belian . Construction work began on December 9, 1919 and lasted until March 1927. The cost was around 4.5 million Reichsmarks. Passenger traffic began on April 1, 1927, and the connection had been in operation in some cases since 1926. Passenger traffic on the route thus opened roughly at the same time as bus traffic between Eilenburg and Wurzen. To this day, it is the last open connection for Eilenburg, which thus had at least five directional connections.

The longest bridge structure is the 40 meter long Lossa Bridge near Kleinzschepa

In July 1968, the Thallwitz station was dismantled and has been unoccupied since then. As a single-track branch line connecting two small industrial cities and due to its proximity to Leipzig, passenger traffic on the route was never of great importance. In 1978, after 51 years of operation, the Deutsche Reichsbahn stopped passenger traffic. However, there was still a brisk freight traffic.

On May 31, 1999, the section from Wurzen to shortly before the Lüptitz quarry junction was closed. Then there was already track dismantling for the construction of the federal highway 6 and the ICE line Leipzig – Dresden, for which the Wurzen station was completely redesigned, so that continuous operation is no longer possible.

In August 2002 the embankment between the junction of the main line Halle – Cottbus and the former Eilenburg Süd stop was washed away by the Mulde floods . It was subsequently rebuilt and also included in the construction of the new federal highway 87 with a bridge structure.

Route description

One of the characteristic small bridge structures along the route in Kleinzschepa

The line begins at Wurzen train station and there - until the systems were dismantled - was threaded through an underpass to the north from the main line Leipzig – Dresden. It runs in an arc past Hohburg and Böhlitz until it reaches Eilenburg station at kilometer 21.5 . The route between Wurzen and Lüptitz is closed and has already been partially dismantled. It starts today at the junction from the Lüptitz gravel works. Characteristic of the route are the many small bridges over the various local connecting roads, which means that the route is largely level . The largest bridge is located near Kleinzschepa and spans the Lossatal over a length of 40 meters. The passenger stations along the route were simple and usually only consisted of a side platform on the track. Except for Collmen-Böhlitz, Zschepa-Hohburg and Lüptitz, the stations were unoccupied. The station buildings were built in wood on the subway stations or there was only a wooden waiting house . They are still preserved in Zschepa-Hohburg and Collmen-Böhlitz, but they are falling into disrepair. The access points can still be found today. The old sidings are either still there or their course can still be seen.

business

passenger traffic

The old station building of Collmen-Böhlitz

As already described above, there was passenger traffic on the route from 1927 to 1978, the importance of which was rather minor and probably resulted largely from the tourist marketing of the Hohburg mountains ("Hohburger Switzerland") at that time. There were eight access points along the route. For passenger traffic, Prussian P 8s were probably used at the beginning . In the timetable of 1944, five pairs of trains were recorded daily. Back then, the 21.6 kilometer route took 39 to 42 minutes to travel.

Since 1971 at the latest, the DR multiple units of the 171/172 series were in service. In 1971 a trip on the line took 38 minutes, and the Wurzen Ost stop was no longer served. The supply remained low, so there were four pairs of trains a day Monday to Friday. The low passenger numbers also justified the suspension of travel during the Reichsbahn times. On May 26, 1978 the last passenger railcar ran.

Freight transport

Systems of the connecting line in the Frauenberg plant of the Saxon quartz porphyry works

The connection traffic to the quarries along the route was of greater importance. From the Collmen-Böhlitz station, the siding branched off in an easterly direction into the Böhlitz plant of the quartz porphyry works, which has not been used for a long time and has now been dismantled.

A few hundred meters further in the direction of Wurzen, another connecting line from the quartz porphyry works branches off to the Frauenberg plant, where it met with a connecting line from the Halle – Cottbus line, which has now been dismantled. There are still extensive goods facilities here. There is also a feed and two pick-up tracks and a gantry crane . The facilities were used until at least 1999, but are now orphaned. The operation was last carried out by the DB from Eilenburg. A V 22 was available for shunting work.

The branch to the gravel works Lüptitz is the only connection on the route that is still served

From the Zschepa-Hohburg train station, a connecting line branched off to the Hohburg kaolin factory, which has not been used since 1964 after operations were closed. Until 1992 the track served as a connection for the VEB Mineralstoffgemische Hohburg. The Kleinzschepa agrochemical center was also located next door. A V 10 B and a TGK 2-E 1 were available for the shunting service .

Continuing in the direction of Wurzen, after the Lüptitz train station, a connecting line branches off to the Lüptitz plant of the Saxon quartz porphyry works. There is one feed track and three pick-up tracks as well as a loading track. The track in the direction of Wurzen is still used for a few hundred meters to park freight cars. Two type V 22 locomotives are used here for shunting work . It is the only connection on the route that is still in use. It is operated by DB from Eilenburg using class 232 locomotives .

Web links

Commons : Wurzen – Eilenburg railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tradition in the holdings of the Reichsbahndirektion Halle in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department

Individual evidence

1. ^ Otto Künnemann: Eilenburg railway junction. In: Yearbook for Eilenburg and the surrounding area 2006.
2. ^ Bahn-Express: Sächsische Quarzporphyr-Werke GmbH, Werk Böhlitz, 04808 Böhlitz (accessed on August 4, 2011)
3. ^ Bahn-Express: Sächsische Quarzporphyr - Werke GmbH, Werk Frauenberg, 04808 Thallwitz-Röcknitz (accessed on August 4, 2011)
4. ^ Bahn-Express: Hohburg Mineralfutter GmbH, Am Lossatal 53, 04808 Hohburg (accessed on August 4, 2011)
5. ^ Bahn-Express: Sächsische Quarzporphyr – Werke GmbH, Lüptitz plant, 04808 Lüptitz (accessed on August 4, 2011)