Zwickau – Crossen – Mosel railway line

Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf – Moselle
Route number :	6646; sä. ZCM
Course book section (DB) :	-
Route length:	7.996 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	CM4
Legend from Abzw Werdau arc triangle from Falkenstein (Vogtl) 0.000 Zwickau (Sachs) main station 289 m to Schwarzenberg (Erzgeb) to Dresden Hbf 0.954 Initially forwarding agency Kühne 1.083 Instead of a coal store 1.105 Anst Metallschlauchwerk Zwickau GmbH 1.998 Anst Glasbau GmbH Zwickau 1.998 As a trade organization 2.028 Anst Sachsenring GmbH, Plant II 2.405 First gas works II Pölbitz 2.453 Anst Verkehrsbetriebe Zwickau GmbH 2.474 Anst Zwickauer meat and sausage products 2,650 2.891 Brook bridge 2,988 At the cotton mill Schön 3.076 Anst Sachsenring GmbH, Plant III 3.137 Anst sawmill Proß & Saupe 3.315 On the consumer cooperative 3.380 Brook bridge 3.55 Anst Holzhandel Dresden GmbH 3.811 Anst Sachsentrans, formerly Anst VEB Zellstoff- und Papierfabrik Crossen 4.011 Initially WISMUT AG 4.020 Brook bridge 4.134 Cross- over handover 260 m 4.149 At the Crossen substation 4,617 Brook bridge 4,661 Initially WISMUT object 101 (new creation) 5.010 Initially WISMUT object 101 (old system) 5.35 Brook bridge 6.370 First sand works in Oberrothenbach 7.801 Zinnbach Bridge from Abzw Werdau arc triangle 7,996 Moselle 257 m to Dresden Hbf

The Zwickau – Crossen – Mosel line was a branch line in Saxony that only served freight . It ran from Zwickau parallel to the Dresden – Werdau main line via Crossen to Mosel . Today only part of the line still exists as a siding to the Mosel train station.

history

A train of the Kgl. Saxon State Railways at the Oberrothenbach sand works (1909)

Cross-over handover, entrance (2016)

At the end of the 19th century, Zwickau was mainly characterized by hard coal mining, which took up a lot of land suitable for industrial settlements, especially in the south and east of the city. In the north of the city there was a lot of space for future industries, but there was a lack of convenient transport links. Before 1890, the only industrial company in the area was the C. F. Leonhardt paper mill in Crossen, which had a narrow-gauge siding from the Mosel-Ortmannsdorf narrow-gauge railway (Mülsengrundbahn) laid at its own expense .

In this situation, the Zwickau City Planning Council suggested the project of a privately financed industrial railway, which should begin in Zwickau and run parallel to the Dresden-Werdau main line to the Moselle. In 1890 a public limited company was founded, which was granted the concession for the line on November 22, 1891. The city of Zwickau provided the building site free of charge so that construction of the line could begin in April 1892. The narrow-gauge siding of the paper mill was used for the routing between the Cross and the Moselle.

On July 8, 1893, the route was opened with a ceremony. The Royal Saxon State Railways carried out the operation on behalf of the company. On January 1, 1900, the industrial railway was acquired by the state railway. In the Saxon route designation scheme, the route was henceforth referred to as the ZCM line.

In the following years, important companies finally settled on the route. Up to the First World War , a total of nine new sidings were built, including those of the later world-famous automobile companies Horch and Audi . The loading system of the Oberrothenbach sand works, which supplied backfill material for the Zwickau hard coal mining , was built near Crossen .

There were major structural changes in the railway area only after the Second World War . At the end of 1945, the Soviet occupation forces dismantled the Crossen paper mill and the associated transfer station as a reparation payment. The transfer station was rebuilt in 1948 and the paper mill was later set up again as a state-owned company . In 1950, the Soviet Wismut AG took over a disused factory site near the paper mill, where a uranium ore washing facility was set up until 1952 . This plant, operated under the code name "Object 101", ensured brisk train traffic on the route until the end of 1989. Heavy ore trains arrived in Crossen several times a day.

A turning point for the route was the political turning point in eastern Germany in 1989/90. Almost all of the companies along the route ceased production within a very short time and the route utilization was reduced drastically.

On December 10, 1998, the closure of the line from Zwickau to kilometer 2.650 was approved by the Federal Railway Authority; it was legally enforced on April 30, 1999. The section to the Moselle that was still in service was given the status of a siding at the local train station. This section, which is still in operation, was extensively renovated in 2000 and 2001 for the planned Zwickau Nord industrial park .

See also

• List of disused railway lines in Saxony
• Sand track (mining)

literature

• Erich Preuß , Reiner Preuß : Saxon State Railways . transpress Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70700-0 .

Web links

Commons : Zwickau – Crossen – Mosel railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of the Zwickau – Crossen – Mosel industrial railway at www.sachsenschiene.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ STREDA - Total distance directory DBAG; Status: February 1, 2003
2. ↑ Information from the Federal Railway Authority  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )