Bleialfer tunnel
| Bleialfer tunnel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 East portal of the Bleialfer tunnel
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| use | Railway, today a cycle path and bat quarter | |||
| traffic connection | Westeifelbahn | |||
| place | Lead alf | |||
| length | 400 m | |||
| Number of tubes | 2 | |||
| construction | ||||
| start of building | 1888 (1st tube) 1917 (2nd tube) | |||
| business | ||||
| operator | most recently Deutsche Bundesbahn | |||
| location | ||||
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| Coordinates | ||||
| West portal | 50 ° 14 '6 " N , 6 ° 15' 48" E | |||
| East portal | 50 ° 14 ′ 3 ″ N , 6 ° 16 ′ 6 ″ E | |||
Map with all coordinates: The Bleialfer Tunnel is a 400 m long, disused railway tunnel of the Westeifelbahn on the edge of the Eifel municipality Bleialf in the Verbandsgemeinde Prüm in the Eifel district Bitburg-Prüm , Rhineland-Palatinate . The tunnel consists of two tubes, the older of which was blown up during World War II .
location
The tunnel is located west of Bleialf, just over 1 km from the village center and passes under the 500 m high Himmesberg between the Alfbach - and Ihrenbach valley.
Construction
The tube of the Bleialfer Tunnel, opened in 1917, is indicated at the east portal with a length of 400 m, but some sources speak of 401 m. In the DB route book, viewed around 25 years ago, it was 377 m long. The width is 5 m and is therefore designed for a single-track route. The height of the tunnel is 5.7 m. The side walls are concreted, the ceiling with red bricks. The tunnel runs with a slight incline in a 60 ° curve. There is also an 11.5 m long connecting passage to the old tunnel, which is 2 m wide and 2.1 m high.
history
The history of the tunnel goes back to the 1880s . After the opening of the 24.3 km long first section of the Westeifelbahn from Gerolstein to Prüm on December 22, 1883, the 19 km extension via Pronsfeld to Bleialf was released on October 1, 1886 . In the further course to St. Vith , the topography required the construction of a tunnel, which was opened on October 1, 1888 with the opening of the last section of the route, which meets the Vennbahn near Lommersweiler .
The Bleialfer tunnel built at that time was 400 meters long. On January 1, 1917, a second, 400 m long tube , built by the company Grün & Bilfinger AG from Mannheim, was opened at a distance of approx. 11.5 m from the first. In the first two decades of the 20th century, the Westeifelbahn line was gradually expanded to double-track. Nevertheless, the old tunnel was closed in 1918. The reason for the closure could not be determined. Presumably, it was used to manufacture weapons as early as the 1930s. An armaments factory was also located there during the Second World War. In 1944 the tracks and the tunnel were damaged and in 1945 the old tunnel, as well as the road bridge between the east portal and Bleialf station , which crossed the railway line and connected Großlangenfeld with Bleialf, was blown up. The new tunnel was also badly damaged on January 31, 1945 when a wagon loaded with bazookas exploded and the tunnel vault on the east side was dented to 80 m. In February / March 1945 the damage was makeshiftly repaired in order to be able to resume the connection from Bleialf to St. Vith. On October 17, 1949, the section between Pronsfeld and Ihr was officially reopened. The section to St. Vith was shut down permanently.
The last train went through the Bleialfer Tunnel on December 31, 1965. After that, all rail traffic between Bleialf and yours was suspended, as was passenger traffic to Pronsfeld. In the following years, the entire line from Pronsfeld to the German-Belgian border was dismantled. In 1972 the tunnel was walled up with red bricks on both sides . Small recesses have only been left in the upper area. The structure remained in this condition for over 30 years, until the end of 2006 the old wall in the tunnel portals was torn down and replaced by a new one made of sand-lime brick with wide steel gates and ventilation slots in the upper area.
Status
The Bleialfer tunnel is in very good condition. The portals have been completely preserved and no serious damage can be seen inside. The floor of the now illuminated tunnel is paved. Except for the connecting passage, which is closed, hardly anything is visible of the old tunnel. The fragments of the blown bridge are still clearly visible.
Todays use
After the tunnel had been closed for 35 years, it was officially opened on May 17, 2007 and on August 24, 2007 the route of the former West Eifel Railway was released as the Eifel-Ardennes cycle path . Of the 29 km between Prüm and Steinebrück on the German - Belgian border, 21 km run along the embankment. By including the Bleialfer Tunnel, cyclists are spared the strenuous detour over the Himmesberg.
In the years when the tunnel was unused and protected from human interference, bats set up their winter quarters in it, which they use from November to hibernate until February and leave it again in March / April. To protect the animals, the tunnel is closed between November 1st and March 31st.
Web links
- Bleialfer Tunnel - tunnel portal page by Lothar Brill
- Detailed profile of the cycle path with historical data on the route
- Brief message about the opening of the cycle path ( memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) from the city marketing and trade association Prüm
- Map of the Eifel-Ardennes cycle route
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/3101-bleialf-2.html#rote-ziegelsteine Pictures of the walled up Bleialfer tunnel with red bricks