Bromberger Kreisbahn

Bromberger Kreisbahn
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )

The Bromberger Kreisbahn (Polish: Bydgoskie Koleje Powiatowe ) was a narrow-gauge railway near Bromberg with a gauge of 600 mm.

history

See also : Bydgoszcz – Koronowo narrow-gauge railway

In the former district of Bromberg , which until 1920 belonged to the Prussian province of Posen , a small railroad network spanning over a hundred kilometers was created in the last years of the 19th century. It was built and operated by the Ostdeutsche Kleinbahn-AG, from 1899 the East German Railway Company, which had its headquarters in Bromberg until 1903.

The 24.5-kilometer trunk line began on May 18, 1895 at the Bromberger-Schleusenau station (later the district station), which could be reached by tram from the city center, and headed northwards largely following the Brahe via Mühltal-Marthashausen-Goscieradz to the small town of Crone with 5,300 inhabitants. From 1909 there was a connection to the state railway to Tuchel via Prust-Bagnitz.

In Marthashausen a line branched off to the west at the same time, which turned north in Kasprowo and reached the end point of Wierzchucin (km 26.2 km) via Haltau and Bachwitz. Some of the trains also served the Lindenwald station 5.3 kilometers away from Bachwitz.

From July 20, 1895, a further 7.3 kilometers led from Kasprowo in a westerly direction to Gumnowitz. There was a connection after Nakel to the network of the Wirsitzer Kreisbahn . In addition, a cross connection was established from Goscieradz via Wittelsdorf to Haltau (14.4 km).

Another line was opened from Maxtal on the state railway line Bromberg – Dirschau to Koselitz ( Kozielec ) on the Vistula (18.2 km); to Gondes it was already in operation from May 12, 1895, the rest from September 20, 1897. The 8.5-kilometer connection between Maxtal and the Mühltal station on the "main line" was not used until April 29, 1907.

In the summer of 1914, the route Bromberg – Crone was used three times on weekdays and four times on Sundays, all other sections only once or twice a day. In addition, there were several short branch lines to country estates that were not used for passenger traffic. Worth mentioning are the branch lines Michalin – Mariensee (2.5 km; opened on September 10, 1907) and Teresin – Samsetschno (2 km) from the Kasprowo – Gumnowitz line.

The total length of the network is given in the statistics for 1902 as 90 kilometers and for 1908 as 106.35 kilometers.

The owner of the small railway was initially the district of Bromberg , since 1920 Powiat Bydgoski , from 1959 the Polish state railway PKP . The Bachwitz – Lindenwald section was initially operated by the Lenz Group's own small train company.

During the First World War, the Mühltal Dorf – Maxtal connection on the entire route to Koselitz was abandoned because the bridge over the Brahe (Brda) had been destroyed and could not be restored.

In 1932–1934, the railway acquired several facility railcars.

During the Second World War , after the annexation of the area by the German Reich, the part Mühltal Abzw. – Mühltal Dorf followed in 1940 and Maxtal – Koselitz in 1944.

From 1948 the Bydgoszczer (Bromberger) line was also organizationally combined with the 600 mm-gauge Wyrzyskie Koleje Powiatowe (until 1920 Wirsitzer Kreisbahn), to which there was a connection in Gumnowice (Gumnowitz). The Bydgosko-Wyrzyskie Koleje Dojazdowe emerged . In 1969, the section from Bydgoszcz to Morzewiec (Marthashausen) was shut down, in 1990 all passenger traffic was discontinued on the remaining line, and the Wtelno– Koronowo section was abandoned.

Transport service

In 1936 208,900 people were transported on the route, by 1955 this number had increased to 1.474 million. In freight transport there were 101,129 tons of freight in 1905, in 1936 only 77,400 tons.

particularities

In addition to the railcars, four- and five-axle steam locomotives were used, including several with mallet type bogies .

One of the special features of the route was the railway embankment still existing in Maksymilianowo (Maxtal) as a spiral ramp, on which the small railway managed the height difference from the main railway to the combined road bridge. The Morzewiec and Kasprowo (Kaspershof) train stations were designed as triangular tracks, and trains from all directions met here twice a day and continued in different directions.

In Koronowo a workshop with four tracks and an internal transfer table was built, which was used until 1990.

In the summer of 1943, two express multiple unit trains ran between Bromberg and Crone an der Brahe, which took just over an hour. Boats were also transported with the three existing railcars.

literature

• Siegfried Bufe: Railways in West and East Prussia. Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, ISBN 3-922138-24-1 ( Ostdeutsche Eisenbahnen 1).
• Carsten Recht: The small railways in 600 mm gauge. 2nd Edition. Kleinbahn-und-Karten-Verlag Recht, Buchholz 1996, ISBN 3-931122-01-8 .