Berlin connecting railway
The Berlin connecting line was a normal-gauge, single-track railway line approximately nine kilometers long to connect the five Berlin terminus stations at the time . Operations on the line ceased in 1871, and their tasks were taken over by the Berlin Ringbahn .
Emergence
Efforts to build a connecting line between the head stations of the Stettiner Bahn , Hamburger Bahn , Potsdamer Bahn , Anhalter Bahn and the Frankfurter Bahn (later: Schlesischer Bahnhof, today: Ostbahnhof) already existed in the mid-1840s, shortly after these lines were completed . The reason for this was the inadequate transport connections between these stations for transit passengers and goods. When the Prussian military in 1850, on the occasion of a mobilization for the purpose of enforcing political dominance in Germany after the March Revolution of 1848/1849 against Austria, also suffered from the inadequate conditions, and it was also known that a rail link could provide higher transport services than horse-drawn cabs and wagons , King Friedrich ordered Wilhelm IV. The rapid construction of a connecting railway at state expense. After the Eastern Railway , which began in early 1850, and the construction of the line by the state-owned Royal Westphalian Railway Company , this was the third state-owned railway in Prussia.
Construction and course
The construction of the connecting line on public roads began in December 1850 at Hamburger Bahnhof, both east to Stettiner Bahnhof and south to Potsdamer Bahnhof.
It ran through Invalidenstrasse to the Szczecin train station and crossed the Berlin-Spandau shipping canal on the Sandkrug Bridge, which was constructed as a swing bridge . The track was connected to the two stations with turntables . The Borsig locomotive factory , at that time still located on Chausseestrasse in front of the Oranienburger Tor , also used the track as an industrial connection.
The route from Hamburger Bahnhof towards Potsdamer Bahnhof crossed the Spree on a wooden pile bridge with a rotating part near today's Moltkebrücke and reached the later Königsplatz (today: Platz der Republik ), then the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate , and finally, after passing through it the excise wall , on today's Ebertstrasse and Stresemannstrasse to reach the Potsdamer Tor (today: Potsdamer Platz ). With a right turnout , a junction was laid through the excise wall to the Potsdamer Bahnhof, which was connected by this, as was the Anhalter Bahnhof via a junction at Askanischer Platz .
In front of the Landwehr Canal , the route swung to the left (eastwards) and led on today's Hallescher Ufer to Halleschen Tor , via Gitschiner Straße to Wassertorplatz , where the Luisenstadt Canal was crossed with a swing bridge, then along today's Skalitzer Straße over Kottbusser Tor to Lausitzer Platz , where the Görlitzer Bahnhof, completed in 1868, was branched off through today's Wiener Straße . From Lausitzer Platz the route ran to the northeast through what is still known as the Eisenbahnstraße to the Spree , which was also crossed with a swing bridge (later the Brommybrücke , destroyed in 1945). Shortly before the Spreebrücke, the Berlin Provision Office with the army bakery was located since 1802 . The striking yellow clinker building complex still preserved today dates from around 1890.
To the northeast of Mühlenstrasse, the confluence with the facilities of the Frankfurt (later Silesian) train station finally took place in a long right-hand bend south of a roundhouse .
The opening of the company from Stettiner to Anhalter Bahnhof took place on September 15, 1851. From October 15 of the same year, the entire route to Frankfurt train station was finally used. Industrial connections were added later for businesses along the route, such as the two gas works ( Englische and Städtische Gasanstalt) on Gitschiner Strasse on both sides of Prinzenstrasse.
business
The operation of the connecting line was transferred to the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . Trains hauled by steam locomotives ran on the route from the start . The first 14 locomotives were supplied by the Norris locomotive factory in Philadelphia / USA . They were wood-fired 2A machines that had been built since 1843. The stock of these rather small locomotives was soon supplemented by C-coupled freight locomotives with road numbers 234 to 239, built in 1867 by Louis Schwarzkopff based on the English model, and number 191, delivered by Borsig in 1865. Since the beginning of the 20th century operated on the communication path and tank locomotives the wheel arrangement 1 'C (light rail locomotives).
The entire operation was extremely cumbersome. Due to the tight curve radii at the stations, heavy trains, sometimes with more than 50 axles, often got stuck in the middle of the main roads at the station forecourts. Every time after approaching one of the terminal stations, the direction of travel had to be changed and residents along the route increasingly complained about smoke, noise and "sooty dirt". Finally, on November 15, 1864, freight traffic was moved to the night hours in order not to impede the traffic that was already quite dense at that time.
Replacement by the Ringbahn
In the meantime, residents have been complaining about nocturnal disturbances because the locomotive bells had to be rung all the time while driving on the streets. In 1865, considerations began to use a stretch to be built further outside over a largely undeveloped area. The new route should be run independently of road traffic. Therefore it should be routed either in the embankment or in the incision position. There should also be no more level crossings with road traffic. Therefore, either road or railway bridges were necessary at all intersections.
After the war between Prussia and Austria, the funds for the construction of the new ring-shaped connecting line ( Berliner Ringbahn ) were approved in 1866 . On July 17, 1871, the eastern section from Moabit via Gesundbrunnen , Central-Viehhof , Stralau - Rummelsburg , Rixdorf (today: Neukölln ) and Schöneberg to the Potsdam train station was opened. The western section of the Ringbahn went into operation on November 15, 1877.
On July 16, 1871, traffic on the old connecting line ended. Only the section from Görlitz train station to the gas works at today's Kreuzberg Prinzenbad remained in operation for coal deliveries until 1927. Every year 150,000 tons of hard coal were transported from midnight to 7 a.m. On the track from the gas works via the connection to Görlitzer Bahnhof and Eisenbahnstraße to the corner of Köpenicker Straße , a horse-drawn tram operated at times , which was later replaced by the electric tram line 1 (later also the elevated railway ).
Relics
Today, on the median of Stresemannstrasse in Kreuzberg, a section of track and a memorial plaque remind of the connecting railway that used to run there.
The Eisenbahnstraße in Kreuzberg was named in 1852 after the connecting railway leading through it and is still called that today.
literature
- Berlin and its railways 1846–1896, Julius Springer, Berlin 1896.
- Kurt Pierson, steam trains on Berlin's Stadtbahn and Ringbahn , Rösler + Zimmer Verlag, Augsburg 1971.
- Helmut Zschocke, The first Berlin Ringbahn - Via the royal train station connection line to Berlin, VBN Verlag B. Neddermeyer, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-941712-03-4 .
