Bottwartalbahn

map

Marbach (Neckar) –Heilbronn Pfühl
Route number (DB) :	4932
Course book section (DB) :	last 323d (1964)
Route length:	37.021 km
Gauge :	750 mm / partly 1435 mm
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Minimum radius :	80 m
Legend from Heilbronn 37.05 Heilbronn Pfühl ( Abzw ) to Crailsheim 36.95 Kunzestrasse 36.50 Stadtbahn Heilbronn (since 2001) 35.60 Lerchenberg tunnel (400 m) 34.80 Stuttgart Bridge 34.25 Heilbronn south standard-gauge branch line, from here narrow-gauge 33.10 Sontheimer Landwehr 32.22 Heilbronn-Sontheim 32.00 Heilbronn tram (1900 to 1951) 28.10 Connection rough stitch 27.00 Talheim 25.50 Connection of gravel works 23.99 Schozach 19.89 Ilsfeld Federal highway 81 17.70 Auenstein 14.38 Beilstein (Württ) 11.75 Oberstenfeld 10.45 Hof and Lembach 9.90 Bottwar 8.58 Grossbottwar 6.50 Bottwar 6.25 Kleinbottwar 4.29 Steinheim (Murr) 2.77 Murr 2.10 Murr (31 m) 1.55 Murrbrücke (1946 to 1947) 1.49 Connection to the Marbach power plant from Ludwigsburg 0.50 At the old market 0.30 Kirchweinbergstrasse 0.00 Marbach (Neckar) 223 m to Backnang Swell:

The Bottwartalbahn was officially called Bottwarbahn by the Royal Württemberg State Railways and was jokingly called the Duck Killer because it supposedly posed a threat to the local poultry. It was a narrow-gauge railway in Baden-Württemberg with a gauge of 750 millimeters, but shorter sections were standard-gauge or designed as a three-rail track. The route led from Marbach am Neckar along the Murr , Bottwar and Schozach to Heilbronn .

course

With a length of the narrow-gauge section of 34.25 kilometers, the Bottwarbahn was the longest narrow-gauge route of the Royal Württemberg State Railways. It was actually a route network with a northern and a southern branch, each of which opened up a separate traffic area. The center of operations was the Beilstein train station . There, next to the station building, there was a locomotive shed, a water crane , a workshop and extensive track systems for parking the vehicles. At the end points in Marbach and Heilbronn Süd there were reloading facilities for general cargo and roller bolster pits, as well as a locomotive shed for two machines and an eight-meter-diameter turntable in Heilbronn. Initially, the locomotives were supplied via simple coal platforms, later an electrically driven crane was installed to load the Hunten .

history

Talheim station around 1900

Locomotive 99 651 of the Bottwarbahn as a memorial in Steinheim

The first section between Marbach and Beilstein was opened in 1894, followed by an extension to Ilsfeld in November 1899 and the remainder to Heilbronn Südbahnhof in December 1900 . There, the northern gap to the standard gauge network was closed, and the Talheim – Heilbronn Süd section was designed as a three-rail track from the start.

Both in passenger and goods transport , this route had a significant volume of traffic from the start, probably the highest of all narrow-gauge railways in Württemberg. Agricultural products as well as deliveries and removals for the wood and furniture industry located in the southern part shaped the freight business. Peak loads occurred in autumn during the so-called beet campaign , with the direct connection to the sugar factory in Heilbronn being particularly advantageous.

The connecting line to the Marbach power station , built in 1938/39, branched off north of Marbach . Especially for this purpose, the southern section of the line was expanded with three rails over a length of 1.8 kilometers. At the end of the Second World War , the coal-fired power station in Marbach had to be completely supplied with fuel via the Bottwartalbahn, as the Neckar bridge on the Backnang – Ludwigsburg railway had been destroyed. Freight traffic was handled with trolleys , which saved reloading.

In terms of passenger traffic, the Bottwartalbahn benefited from the fact that it was oriented towards both Marbach and Heilbronn during rush hour. In addition, the excursion traffic to the Bottwartal wine-growing region was also of certain importance. Passenger trains with more than ten cars were not uncommon in the early 1960s.

Decline

Diesel locomotive V51 903 with a freight train near Steinheim an der Murr

Despite the high volume of traffic and the hesitant modernization through diesel operation, the steadily growing individual motorized traffic and the parallel rail bus line led to the early discontinuation of passenger traffic. This took place on September 26, 1966. The cessation of goods traffic between Steinheim and Talheim on December 31, 1968 meant the final end of narrow-gauge operation on the Bottwartalbahn.

The approximately two and a half kilometer long section between the branch to the power station Marbach and Steinheim an der Murr was in the same year on standard gauge umgespurt , also the standard gauge traffic in the area of the northern three-rail track to Talheim was initially received. Attempts to keep the narrow-gauge railway as a museum railway , however, were unsuccessful, the narrow-gauge tracks between Steinheim and Talheim were completely dismantled after the closure.

However, normal gauge hull operation could not hold up in the long term. The Heilbronn-Sontheim – Talheim section was given up on May 28, 1976, and traffic between Heilbronn Süd and Heilbronn-Sontheim came to an end on September 29, 1985, and the section between the junction to the Marbach power plant and Steinheim an der followed at the end of 1989 Murr. Until January 1, 2000, Heilbronn Süd served a few connections , but this connection also had to be cut in the course of the construction work for the Heilbronn urban railway , as the bridge of the Bottwartalbahn stood in the way of the tram overhead line. The remaining section was finally shut down (de-dedication) on August 15, 2000.

In Marbach, the last remaining part was the short section from the train station to the hairpin near the boundary to Murr. It was used for traffic to the Marbach power station, but has now also been closed.

Reactivation plans

Heilbronn Südbahnhof, Lerchenberg tunnel, junction with the Weinsberger line

The Lerchenberg Tunnel, built in 1900/1901, has a historical sandstone cladding (as of 2006)

The re-exposed Lerchenberg tunnel (as of 2017)

The route proposal of the citizens' initiative (blue) provides for a route through Ilsfeld, Abstatt, Happenbach, Untergruppenbach and Flein to Heilbronn.

In the 1990s, plans arose to reactivate parts of the route as a modern regional light rail . However, since March 2005 the participating municipalities have no longer pursued the plan to restart operation between Marbach and Beilstein due to the expected high construction costs. Individual sections have now been converted into railway cycle paths , which together are around 15 kilometers long and form part of the Alb-Neckar cycle path .

In February 2010, the Steinheim municipal council spoke out in favor of further investigations into a possible reactivation and put planning funds into the budget. The other neighboring municipalities remained largely skeptical, however.

In 2012, municipalities from Marbach to Schozachtal wanted a reactivation and therefore wanted a more in-depth preliminary investigation. But this failed because of the communities of Murr and Oberstenfeld . The mayor of Großbottwar, Ralf Zimmermann, did not give up hope of reactivating the route because the route was written into the regional plan.

In February 2017, the Local Agenda 21 endorsed the "continuation of the southern axis (the Heilbronn Stadtbahn ) into Zabergäu and Bottwartal".

In March 2017, a citizens' initiative requested an expert opinion on the structural condition of the historic Lerchenberg tunnel in order to determine possible renovation costs when using it as an adventure cycle path. The conversion was rejected by the city of Heilbronn under Wilfried Hajek : The reactivation is a "grave of millions" and an expensive "fearful dream". The association "Erlebnisweg Lerchenbergtunnel eV" was founded in April 2017 in order to inform the public about the project idea and to advance the project. The planned cycle and footpath does not conflict with a possible reactivation of the Bottwarbahn as a regional light rail, as an alternative route in the Heilbronn urban area is being proposed for this. The Lerchenberg Tunnel, built in 1900/1901 under the Heilbronn Lerchenberg, has a sandstone cladding at the entrances and a brick vault inside. The tunnel is 350 meters long and part of a 1.2 kilometer long railway line between Südbahnhof and Jägerhausstraße ("connecting railway"). It was the direct rail connection from the Südbahnhof via Karlstor and Sülmer Tor to the Hauptbahnhof and the shortest connection between Südstadt and Oststadt. In the meantime, after the tunnel portals were cut open in October 2015, access was again possible.

In April 2017, the reactivation of the Bottwartalbahn as a possible light rail connection between Marbach and Heilbronn was demanded again as part of a regional light rail system, this is to be "pushed ahead quickly". In 2017, the Stuttgart Region Association presented a draft for its new regional traffic plan with the Bottwartalbahn for the route from Marbach to Beilstein with "high urgency". The stretch from Marbach to Beilstein would cost 75 million euros and last until 2030. There is “still a need” for an extension into the Schozachtal, explains the Stuttgart regional association.

The Bottwartalbahn citizens' campaign was founded by Hans-Joachim Knupfer, Oliver Kämpf and Wolfram Berner in 2015. The citizens' initiative is calling for a light rail system based on the tram-train concept that can run on both light rail and DB tracks (dual-system regional light rail). The Bottwartalbahn initiative rejected the draft of the Stuttgart regional association: “The Marbach-Beilstein island solution is not a solution for us.” Wolfram Berner says: “The concept only works as a whole, from Heilbronn to Marbach.” You want two parts of the route: one between Marbach and Beilstein and a second between Beilstein and Heilbronn. The Marbach-Beilstein section should largely run on or along the original route. The Beilstein-Heilbronn section is no longer planned via Schozach, Talheim and Sontheim as originally planned. The route proposal of the citizens' initiative provides for a route through Ilsfeld, Abstatt , Happenbach , Untergruppenbach and Flein to Heilbronn in the direction of Harmonie. The Heilbronner Stadtbahn is to be expanded.

Since 2006, a route proposal for the Bottwartalbahn from Beilstein via Auenstein and Abstatt to Untergruppenbach in the direction of Flein to Heilbronn has been entered in the regional plan of the Heilbronn-Franken regional association.

In July 2017, the municipal councils in Beilstein, Abstatt, Ilsfeld and Untergruppenbach as well as Talheim voted in favor of reactivating the Bottwartalbahn.

At an election campaign event in Ilsfeld on August 24, 2017, the State Transport Minister Winfried Hermann described the Bottwartalbahn as one of the “two major future projects”. The politicians present, including Hermann, the Greens Bundestag candidate Catherine Kern for the Neckar-Zaber constituency as well as the Großbottwarer Mayor Ralf Zimmermann and the Ilsfeld Mayor Thomas Knödler, hope for regionalization funds from the federal government for regional rail projects and for the (re) Activation of the Bottwartalbahn.

At the beginning of June 2017, the Stuttgart Region Association certified that the disused rail line from Marbach to Beilstein (Bottwartalbahn) was “highly urgent” in its transport plan. The association included the project in its plan in June 2017 and expects around 6,000 users per day and a quarter shorter travel time. But the rail line "has to be rebuilt over a longer distance". Therefore, the Ludwigsburg district office wants to commission a study on the reactivation of the approximately 13-kilometer-long rail line from Marbach via Murr, Steinheim, Großbottwar and Oberstenfeld to Beilstein. Rainer Haas from the Ludwigsburg District Office says: "Basically, we think that's a good thing". A last study from 2004 showed a cost-benefit factor of just under one - too little for state or federal funding. The head of the traffic department in the district office, Axel Meier, explained that this study can no longer be transferred to the present day, so he would like a new feasibility study. "The population has developed very differently than forecast at the time," said District Administrator Haas. The CDU local associations of Marbach, Murr, Steinheim, Großbottwar, Oberstenfeld and Beilstein have spoken out in favor of reactivation.

At the end of October 2017, four variants for a possible track layout of the future Bottwartalbahn in Beilstein were discussed in the Beilsteiner municipal council. According to the zoning plan, one of the four possible routes should run along Auensteiner Straße, below Hohenbeilstein Castle and along the main road. A solution that everyone in the local council was convinced of has not yet been found.

On December 20, 2017, the city of Heilbronn received grants of 180,000 euros for its “Masterplan Green City Heilbronn”. This should also finance the project planning costs for a new light rail line in the south. After the diesel summit, Federal Transport Minister Christian Schmidt (CSU) handed over funding notices to 60 cities for their concepts for combating diesel emissions. These included a total funding volume of twelve million euros.

On April 29, 2019, the Bottwartalbahn was presented as one of 41 possible reactivation routes with a high passenger potential by the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Transport Winfried Hermann .

Temporal overview

inauguration

section	date	Art
Marbach – Beilstein	May 10, 1894	Narrow gauge
Beilstein – Ilsfeld	November 25, 1899	Narrow gauge
Ilsfeld – Heilbronn south	December 1, 1900	Narrow gauge or three-rail track
Heilbronn Süd – Heilbronn Pfühl	April 11, 1901	Standard gauge, freight traffic only
Connecting line to the Marbach power station	1939	Three-rail track or standard gauge
Marbach – Steinheim	18th September 1968	Standard gauge

attitude

section	date	Art
Marbach – Heilbronn South	September 24, 1966	passenger traffic
Marbach – Beilstein	July 13, 1968	Freight traffic on the narrow-gauge line
Beilstein – Heilbronn Süd	December 30, 1968	Freight traffic on the narrow-gauge line
Talheim – Sontheim	May 30, 1976	Freight traffic on the standard gauge line
Sontheim – Heilbronn Süd	September 27, 1985	Freight traffic on the standard gauge line
Marbach – Steinheim	September 30, 1990	Freight traffic on the standard gauge line
Heilbronn Süd – Heilbronn Pfühl	January 1, 2000	Freight transport

Dismantling

section	date
Steinheim – Talheim	March to July 1969
Talheim – Sontheim	Summer 1976
Sontheim – Heilbronn Süd	August 1986
Junction of the Marbach – Steinheim power plant	December 1990

vehicles

In 1964, the Deutsche Bundesbahn still procured narrow-gauge diesel locomotives of the V 51 series , but steam locomotives of the 99 ^64-65 series were also in use until the end.

particularities

• Marbach – Heilbronn Süd: first state-owned 750 mm narrow-gauge railway in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg and also the longest
• Three-rail track between Marbach – Marbach power station junction
• Associated standard gauge track junction between the Marbach power plant and the Marbach power plant (only for company traffic)
• Three-rail track Talheim – Heilbronn Süd
• Associated standard gauge track Heilbronn Süd – Heilbronn Pfühl (freight traffic only)
• Marbach – Steinheim was converted to standard gauge for freight traffic in 1968

Relics

• 

  Bridge over the Murr near Murr (2007)

• 

  Remnants of a three-rail switch near Ilsfeld (2007)

• 

  Remains of the three-rail track in Heilbronn on the bridge over the Sontheimer Landwehr (2006)

• 

  Route to the Lerchenberg tunnel (2014)

• 

  View from the Heilbronn Lerchenberg tunnel to the east (2006)

literature

• Ludger Kenning: The Bottwartal and the Zabergäubahn. History of the narrow-gauge railways Marbach (Neckar) - Heilbronn Süd and Lauffen (Neckar) - Leonbronn . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 2004, ISBN 3-933613-47-7 .
• Hans-Joachim Knupfer: The Bottwartal Railway. Marbach – Beilstein – Heilbronn. On a narrow track through five valleys . H-and-L-Publ. Bleiweis, Schweinfurt 2002, ISBN 3-928786-28-8 .
• Hans-Joachim Knupfer, Josef Högemann: Bottwar and Zabergäubahn. Narrow gauge railways Heilbronn Süd – Marbach and Lauffen – Leonbronn . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1992, ISBN 3-927587-07-9 (secondary line documentation, volume 3).
• Jürgen Krantz: The magic of the narrow-gauge railway . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-71216-4 .
• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 157-160 .
• Michael Schwager: Marbach-Heilbronn Süd branch line (Bottwartalbahn). In: Collection of secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany. Gera-Nova.
• Wolfram Berner , Hans-Joachim Knupfer: The last bloom of the Bottwartalbahn. The Marbach – Beilstein – Heilbronn narrow-gauge railway 50 years ago. In: Ludwigsburg history sheets. 70/2016, ISSN  0179-1842 , pp. 207–236 (with 17 illustrations).
• Helga Becker, Wolfram Berner, Hans-Joachim Knupfer: Peaceful war locomotive. The steam locomotive 99 651, Steinheim an der Murr and the Bottwartalbahn . Self-published by Berner-Knupfer, Marbach 2016.
• Wolfram Berner: From the power station railway to the bike path. From the history of the connecting line of the Marbach am Neckar power plant . Adolf Remppis Verlag, Marbach am Neckar 2016, ISBN 978-3-9803264-7-6 .
• Wolfram Berner, Oliver Kämpf Hans-Joachim Knupfer: TramTrain. Beilstein railway network. Heilbronn - Schozachgau - Marbach. Potentials, perspectives, panorama. Citizen Action Bottwartalbahn, Marbach am Neckar 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-059379-6 .
• 125 Bottwartalbahn idea . Citizen action Bottwartalbahn, Historischer Verein Bottwartalbahn eV, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Bottwartalbahn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Website about the Bottwartalbahn
• Bottwartalbahn on the website "Schmalspur in Baden-Württemberg"
• Bottwartalbahn at verkehrsrelektiven.de
• Pictures of the state on Forgotten Tracks 2010

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
2. ↑ Literature: Knupfer, Högemann; Pp. 30-35.
3. ^ Roland Rösch: The railway in the south of Heilbronn . In: Stadtarchiv Heilbronn (ed.): Heilbronnica 2. Contributions to the history of the town . tape 15 . Heilbronn 2003, ISBN 3-928990-85-3 , p. 179–280 ( heilbronn.de [PDF; 1,2 MB ] Sources and research on the history of the city of Heilbronn).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Kilian Krauth: Is a tunnel suitable for walking and cycling? In: Heilbronn voice . October 8, 2015, accessed October 8, 2015 . 
5. ↑ achim-bartoschek.de
6. ↑ Melanie Braun: Municipalities are not jumping on the bandwagon. In: Marbacher Zeitung . February 5, 2010, archived from the original on September 11, 2012 ; accessed on February 7, 2010 (online from Stuttgarter Zeitung ). 
7. ↑ Christian Kempf: The steam is out on the Bottwartalbahn. In: Marbacher Zeitung. March 20, 2013, accessed December 29, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Kilian Krauth: The citizens' movement Local Agenda 21 invites all interested parties to five dates this spring to collect ideas for a sustainable public transport concept in the city of Heilbronn. In: Heilbronn voice . February 12, 2017, accessed on February 12, 2017 : "With the Stadtbahn, the continuation of the southern axis into the Zabergäu and Bottwartal should not be forgotten." 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Iris Baars-Werner: Cycle path through rail tunnel? A citizens' initiative wants to turn the disused railway tunnel under the Heilbronn Lerchenberg into an adventure cycle path and is collecting money for a conversion report. In: Heilbronn voice . March 3, 2017, accessed March 3, 2017 . 
10. ^ Kilian Krauth: Initiative wants to turn railway tunnel into bike path. In: Heilbronn voice . March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Lerchenberg Tunnel Adventure Trail - Association & Project. Accessed November 2, 2019 (German). 
12. ↑ Steffan Maurhoff: Reactivate the Bottwartalbahn as a regional light rail system. The discussion about a possible light rail connection between Marbach and Heilbronn is picking up speed. In: Heilbronn voice . April 11, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Steffan Maurhoff: Will the old railway line of the future generate steam? In: Heilbronn voice . May 8, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017 .  
14. ↑ Steffan Maurhoff: vote for the Bottwartalbahn. In: Heilbronn voice . July 26, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017 . 
15. ↑ Steffan Maurhoff: Hope for money for regional rail projects . In: Heilbronn voice . August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2017 . 
16. ^ ^{A b c d e} Julian Illi: "High urgency" in the regional transport plan. Rail project in the Ludwigsburg district. Bottwartalbahn is to be examined. In: Heilbronn voice . June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .  
17. ↑ Steffan Maurhoff: Beilstein debated routes for Bottwartalbahn. In: Heilbronn voice . October 25, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017 . 
18. ^ Editing of the Heilbronner Voice and dpa: Diesel Summit: 180,000 euros for better air in Heilbronn. In: Heilbronn voice . December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017 . 
19. ^ Minister Hermann: reactivate disused railway lines with a high passenger potential. Accessed May 1, 2019 .