Brückenbergschachtbahn

Junction Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf Stw W 3 – Pöhlau
Route number :	sä. E.g.
Course book range :	-
Route length:	3.59 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	28.57  ‰
Legend from Werdau arch triangle from Falkenstein Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf ( Keilbahnhof ) to Dresden Junction Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf Stw B 4 275 m to Schwarzenberg 0.00 Junction Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf Stw W 3 275 m to Reinsdorf / Zwickau center 0.37 EÜ Saarstrasse 0.62 EÜ Planitzer Strasse 270 m 0.90 EÜ Äussere Schneeberger Strasse (Zwickau – Zwickau center route) 1.00 First underground construction shaft I and II 1.05 EÜ Breithauptstrasse 1.15 Planitzbach 1.28 EÜ Bundesstrasse 93 1.32 Flood bridge 1.40 Zwickauer Mulde 1.52 Pöhlauer Bach On the bridge mountain shaft I Anst Metal Leichtbaukombinat 2.55 (new route from 1952) 2.68 Anst Brückenbergschacht I (until 1952) On the bridge mountain shaft III / power plant 3.15 3.19 Pöhlau 305 m 3.24 At the Brückenbergschacht II and IV 4.30 EÜ Pöhlauer Strasse 4.75 Federal Highway 173 5.20 First Martin-Hoop-Schacht III 6.00 Instead of concrete slabs 6.10 Federal Highway 173 6.40 First Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV / IVa 377 m 6.95 Haldenbrücke 7.65 Not mining equipment 370 m

The Brückenbergschachtbahn was a branch line in Saxony that was only used for freight traffic and was originally built as a coal railway by the Zwickauer Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein . It ran from Zwickau to the coal pits in the Pöhlau corridor .

history

The Zwickauer Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein was founded on June 25, 1855 in order to mine the coal reserves stored under the Brückenberg east of Zwickau. The coal mined there was to be transported away using its own coal railroad. The offer of the Oberhohndorf-Reinsdorfer coal railway to allow the branch track to flow into the Schedewitz collecting station was rejected by the Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein for reasons of competition. On August 23, 1870, the Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein received approval for its own coal railway, which was to connect directly to the state railway network in Zwickau. The construction of the line made slow progress. The reasons for this were, on the one hand, the complicated layout and the lack of workers during the Franco-German War .

The coal railway was opened in September 1872. The Royal Saxon State Railways took over operations on behalf of the Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein. The operating contract was signed on January 31, 1873. An extension of the route in the direction of Mülsen and Lichtenstein , which was later requested several times, and the start of passenger traffic did not materialize.

From 1882 the Erzgebirgische Steinkohlen-Actien-Verein (EStAV) was added as a further user of the route . The EStAV sunk two shafts (civil engineering shafts I and II) immediately south of Zwickau's old town, which from then on ensured a significant increase in traffic. A contract between the EStAV and the Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein regulated the joint use of the coal railway.

Another transport upswing there was in the years from 1900. The union Morgenstern acquired new coal fields east of the existing shafts and teufte at Dresdner Straße to Morgenstern Schacht III from, which was from 1909 connected with a branch line to the Brückenberg shaft alley. A contract signed in 1906 allowed the Morgenstern union to use the Brückenbergschachtbahn. The Pöhlau station was subsequently expanded into an efficient collection station. The dispatch of coal in Pöhlau increased from 270,000 tons in 1905 to 400,000 tons in 1915.

After the Second World War , the previously private hard coal mining companies were expropriated without compensation and transferred to public ownership. The shafts of the two plants, which had meanwhile merged to form the Morgenstern union, traded as VEB Steinkohlenwerk Karl Marx and VEB Steinkohlenwerk Martin Hoop . The August Bebel hard coal works became the EStAV . Little changed for the operation of the coal railway, but the corresponding branch tracks were assigned to the new companies as connecting railways. From then on, the Pöhlau station was administered by the Karl Marx coal works.

The former Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV (2005)

In 1948/49 the Brückenbergschachtbahn was extended to Morgensternschacht IV (later: Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV). This was previously only in operation as a weather shaft and was expanded to the main shaft to exploit the Mülsenfeld. The coal transports began there in July 1949.

From the end of the 1960s onwards, coal production in the Zwickau mining area declined more and more, which ultimately led to the decision by the government of the GDR to stop mining. From July 1, 1968, the independent works railways of the hard coal works were subordinated to the VEB hard coal coking plants "August Bebel". Funding for the last remaining work was stopped in 1978.

Successor industries were established on the former mine site so that the coal railway remained in operation almost as it was before. The largest connection was now the VEB Steinkohlenkokereien August Bebel, which dispatched eight block trains with coke every day. To operate the coking plant, imported coal was used, which was also delivered by rail.

The decline of the coal railway only came as a result of the political change in the GDR in 1989/90 . The coking plant ceased operations in March 1992. Thereafter, the only user was the power plant on the site of the former Brückenbergschacht III, which was also closed until 1998. On December 21, 1998, the Pöhlau station was served as scheduled for the last time by a freight train. On December 31, 1998, the route was closed, but not dismantled. The land and facilities are now owned by Zwickauer Energieversorgung GmbH.

The bridge to the Martin Hoop plant over the Pöhlauer Tal was removed at the end of 2019.

Support association

Brückenbergschachtbahn, Reinsdorfer Straße level crossing (2018)

Since 2006, the Förderverein Brückenbergbahn eV has been working on the reopening of a 4.5 km long section between the new Gartenanlage stop and the Zwickau-Pöhlau train station in order to set up a museum-like railway there. The first public trip took place on January 6, 2010. Since September 2012, the Förderverein has been running regular driving days on the route between the W3 signal box and the Pöhlau train station, where its own vehicles are used.

Route description

course

Junction of the Brückenbergschachtbahn at the W3 signal box (2018)

Zwickau, Muldenbrücke of the Brückenbergschachtbahn (2018)

The route began near Zwickau's main train station at the W3 signal box, circumnavigated Zwickau's city center to the south and, after crossing the Zwickauer Mulde and Reinsdorfer Strasse, led with a steep gradient along the Pöhlauer Bach to the Pöhlau collection station. From there the shafts were directly connected with branch tracks.

Operating office

Pöhlau ⊙

Freight station Pöhlau (2016)

The Pöhlau freight yard was opened in September 1872 as the central collecting station of the Zwickauer Brückenberg-Steinkohlenbau-Verein together with the coal railway. He served u. a. the removal of the coal that was extracted in the shafts under the Brückenberg east of Zwickau . These were connected to the station via branch tracks. After 1900 the Pöhlau station was expanded into a high-performance collection station. From 1949 the Pöhlau station was administered by the VEB Steinkohlenwerk Karl Marx.

As a result of the political change in the GDR in 1989/90 , the industrial railway experienced its decline. On December 21, 1998, the Pöhlau station was served as scheduled for the last time by a freight train. Since 2012, the Förderverein Brückenbergbahn eV has been running regular driving days on the section between the W4 signal box and the Pöhlau train station.

Branch lines and sidings

Conn. Civil engineering shafts I and II / Friedrich Nickolay shaft

The two underground construction shafts were sunk in 1880 by the Erzgebirgischen Steinkohlen-Actien-Verein. The siding went into operation on September 11, 1882. The shafts were closed and filled in 1940 . In 1953, the underground construction shaft I was cleared up again by VEB Schachtbau Nordhausen and from then on served as the central dewatering shaft ( Friedrich Nickolay shaft ) for all remaining Zwickau hard coal works. In 1969 the connection was closed and dismantled.

Conn. Brückenbergschacht I / Karl-Marx-Schacht I

Karl Marx Shaft I (1948)

The Brückenbergschacht I was sunk from 1859 as a unity shaft on the Brückenberg. After 1945 it belonged to the VEB Steinkohlenwerk Karl-Marx as Karl-Marx-Schacht I and continued to mine until 1968. The connecting line was re-routed in 1958 because of its originally steep incline and the road crossing. From the track to shaft III, the connection was made in a curve to the north over the Pöhlau valley. To this end, a new bridge was built, which was inaugurated on April 19, 1958. The VEB Metal Leichtbaukombinat Plauen, which was located on the site of the mine as a successor industry, used the connecting railway until around 1990; it is now dismantled. The bridge was demolished in 1997 and the abutments demolished.

Conn. Brückenbergschacht II / Karl-Marx-Schacht II

The Brückenbergschacht II was sunk in 1861 as the Ernst-Julius-Schacht .

Conn. Brückenbergschacht III / Karl-Marx-Schacht III

The connecting line to Brückenbergschacht III was set up in 1892 by extending the existing branch line to Brückenbergschacht II by 740 m. The mine power plant (“Karl Marx” power plant) was later built on the site and was still in operation after the Zwickau coal mine was shut down. Until 1997, the connection was served with coal trains to supply the power station.

Conn. Brückenbergschacht IV / Karl-Marx-Schacht IV

Karl Marx Shaft IV (2009)

The Brückenbergschacht IV was sunk south of the existing shafts from 1874. The branch line with a track length of 1548 meters was established in 1880.

Conn. Morgensternschacht III / Martin-Hoop-Schacht III

The Morgenstern Schacht III was drilled in 1904 and was at that time with 1,082 meters, the deepest shaft in Germany. The branch line to Morgensternschacht III was built by the Dresden construction company Seim & Rhede by 1909. A special feature of the route was the double hairpin to overcome the great difference in altitude from the Pöhlau station to the shaft. After the shaft was closed, the VEB Elektromotorenwerk Thurm was set up on the site.

Conn. Concrete slab factory

The concrete slab factory of the Karl-Marx-Stadt housing combine was one of the successor industries to hard coal mining. It was put into operation on October 8, 1979 on the site west of today's federal highway 173 , opposite the site of Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV with its own siding.

Conn. Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV / IVa

The Martin-Hoop-Schacht IV was the main production shaft in the last decades of the Zwickau coal mining industry. The siding was created in 1948/49 when the branch line leading to Morgensternschacht III was extended by 1.6 kilometers. After the shaft was closed in 1978, the connection was continued to be used by VEB Mining Equipment.

See also

• Bockwaer Railway Company
• Reinsdorfer Industriebahn (or Oberhohndorf-Reinsdorfer coal railway )
• Bürgererschachtbahn
• from Arnimsche Kohlenbahn

literature

• Norbert Peschke : The Zwickau hard coal mining and its coal railways . Zschiesche GmbH, Wilkau-Haßlau 2007, ISBN 3-9808512-9-X .
• Erich Preuß , Reiner Preuß : Saxon State Railways . transpress Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-344-70700-0 .

Web links

Commons : Brückenbergschachtbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Brückenbergschachtbahn on Openstreetmap (incomplete)
• Description of the Brückenbergschachtbahn at www.sachsenschiene.de
• Website of the Förderverein Brückenbergbahn eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Railways in Saxony. In: Sachsenschiene.de. sachsenschiene.net, accessed on February 17, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Andreas Wohland: Unusual team goes on maiden voyage. In: Free Press Zwickau. January 7, 2010, archived from the original on August 1, 2012 ; accessed on August 24, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Brückenberg-Kohlenbahn celebrates its 140th anniversary , TeleVision Zwickau, entry from September 28, 2012, accessed on October 12, 2012
4. ↑ ^{a b} The Pöhlau freight station on www.sachsenschiene.net
5. ↑ collective of authors; Hard coal mining association Zwickau eV (Ed.): The hard coal mining in the Zwickau area. Förster & Borries, Zwickau 2000, ISBN 3000062076 , page 406
6. ^ Author collective: From the Brückenbergschächten to VEB Steinkohlenwerk Karl Marx Zwickau 1859-1959 . Printing works progress, Erfurt 1960, p. 140 (operating history).