Buckower Kleinbahn
| Buckower Kleinbahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 A train of the Buckower Kleinbahn in Müncheberg station
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| Route number : | 6534 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book range : | 206.29 (1998) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 4.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 600 V = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Buckower Kleinbahn , which has existed since 1897, is a former railway line in the east of Brandenburg . Since 2002 it has been operated as a museum railway in accordance with the regulation on the construction and operation of trams (BOStrab) and is therefore legally a tram today . The railway is a branch of the Prussian Eastern Railway and has never been expanded in the course of its history. It was first opened as a steam-powered narrow - gauge railway and was finally re-gauged and electrified in 1930. Since then it has been an electrical island operation without connection to the rest of the traction power network .
Route description
The continuous single-track line branches off from the east line from the direction of Berlin in the western end of the Müncheberg (Mark) station . The actual starting point of the train is the parallel, but separately operated station part Müncheberg (Mark) Kleinbahnhof, from where it then runs in a northerly direction. Via the only intermediate stop, Waldsieversdorf , the terminal station Buckow (Märkische Schweiz) is reached after 4.9 kilometers . In Müncheberg there is a track connection to the main line, in Buckow there is a maintenance hall for the vehicles. There are no alternative options on the route, only in the two terminal stations there is a transfer option.
history
prehistory
As early as 1849 there were plans for a Royal Eastern Railway from Berlin to Königsberg in Prussia . The route was to pass close to the towns of Altlandsberg , Strausberg and Buckow and thus all of them had a train station . However, since the Kingdom of Prussia also placed military aspects in the foreground and the route should be as inexpensive as possible, an almost straight route was implemented and opened in 1867. Because of this, the stations of Strausberg, Altlandsberg and Buckow were far outside the city limits and the city centers did not have a direct connection to the Prussian railway network.
The way to do this brought the Prussian Light Railway Act of 28 July 1892. After already on August 17, 1893 Strausberger Kleinbahn was opened by the suburban railway station in the city that Buckower Council men brought a draft railway from Müncheberg to Buckow on August 30, 1893 District Administrator of the Lebus district . The city, county, state, state and private investors took over the costs in roughly equal parts. The company Phillip Balke was commissioned with the construction and was able to open the line to traffic on July 26, 1897 (one year later, when the Altlandsberger Kleinbahn opened , Altlandsberg also received its rail connection to Hoppegarten).
Opening and early years
The Buckower Kleinbahn was initially opened as a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 750 millimeters and operated with steam locomotives.
After disputes between the towns of Buckow and Desert Sieversdorf (from 1907 Waldsieversdorf), the latter was also given its own stop at the Buckower Kleinbahn almost nine years after the line was built in June 1906 . To this day it is the only stop on the route. Since the opening, the trains have only stopped there when needed. There used to be a loading platform for freight traffic here. Compared to the Ostbahn, the Buckower Kleinbahn never achieved high passenger numbers, but the excursion traffic soon brought the Kleinbahn to its limit. In 1925, almost 180,000 people were transported a year, most of them Berliners on their way to summer vacation . Numerous additional trains were run to provide this transport service. It is said that some trains were so full that the heavier passengers had to push them.
Re-gauging and electrification
After the narrow-gauge small train was no longer able to cope with the onslaught of excursion traffic, a conversion of the route to standard gauge became inevitable. Due to the efficiency of the electric drive is also decided to use a electrification at 800 volts DC . In 1929 construction work began with ongoing operations, and electrical operation could already commence on May 15, 1930. The last small train ran on the same day. With the new operating mode, new vehicles in the form of electric multiple units 1 to 3 and sidecars came onto the line. The electricity was provided by a mercury vapor rectifier - today preserved in a museum .
Post-war period, nationalization and the GDR era
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After the war , the line was briefly used again by steam locomotives due to the lack of electricity, before the electrical systems were restored in 1947. On April 1, 1949, the railway was finally nationalized and integrated into the Reichsbahn ; From now on it was organizationally under the control of the Berlin S-Bahn . In addition to the operation, this also took over the maintenance of the vehicles, but not in the in-house hall in Buckow, but in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Berlin-Schöneweide . The future of the line was still on the brink, however, on January 30, 1965, the sparse freight traffic on the line was stopped, the passenger traffic should follow the will of the Deutsche Reichsbahn soon. However, the lack of buses and the poor condition of the roads in the area prevented the implementation of the so-called change of mode of transport . The Buckower Kleinbahn was one of the busiest branch lines in the GDR in the years that followed .
Between 1980 and 1982 three new trains were built in the Schöneweide raw material, each consisting of a railcar and a control car. However, since the GDR's COMECON had forbidden such a new building, the old railcars were officially transferred to Schöneweide for "reconstruction" but were stored there. Only a few parts were still used by them. The last car was only scrapped in 1992. At the same time, the running voltage of the company was reduced from 800 to 600 volts. The construction of the track's superstructure began in 1989, but due to the political change in the GDR , only the section from Müncheberg to Waldsieversdorf could be completed, the rest of the section to Buckow was only poorly repaired at that time.
Decline and cessation of regular operations
Because the railway became less important after German reunification due to the increase in both unemployment and car traffic, the construction work begun in 1989 was never continued. When a conversion of the substation became necessary due to a change in the energy supply, the Deutsche Reichsbahn stopped electrical operations on May 22, 1993. Since then, diesel- powered " piglet taxis " have been used on the route ; some of the trains ran to Berlin-Lichtenberg . On January 1, 1994, the railway came to Deutsche Bahn AG . This ended passenger traffic with the end of the 1995 summer timetable (valid until the end of September 1995). In the following winter timetable, bus services were set up instead. For two years (1996 and 1997), the train only ran in summer before this seasonal service was finally canceled - the last train according to the previous timetable ran on September 27, 1997. In 1998 there were only on summer weekends and Public holidays, before finally on September 27, 1998 the regular end of the scheduled local traffic on the route came. Thanks to the efforts of an association of railway enthusiasts, Deutsche Bahn set up a one-time shuttle service between Müncheberg and Buckow on June 20, 1999, which was very well received by railway enthusiasts and the local population.
Museum operation
After giving up regular traffic, the Railway Association Märkische Schweiz e. V. attached to the line and in the following years first converted the substation to enable electrical operation again. It took about three years before operations - again limited to the summer months - as a museum railway with a newly built traction current rectifier plant - the mercury vapor rectifier is no longer in operation - could be resumed. The first day of operation was September 14, 2002. Since then, the route has been regularly used by class 479 multiple units . However, the railway is no longer operated as a railway in the sense of the Railway Building and Operating Regulations (EBO), but according to the simplified ordinance on the construction and operation of trams (BOStrab). For this reason, among other things, the connecting track to the Eastern Railway was originally blocked. After a renovation of the station facilities in Müncheberg, the connecting track can be used as normal again. Since then, track 5 and the loading route have been used again regularly and economically for timber handling on the railroad. Cargo handling has been on hold since the beginning of 2000, after the MORA-C savings program of DB AG brought the wagonload traffic to an end here. Since September 2012 private EVUs have been using Müncheberg station for timber handling. But DB AG in the form of its freight transport subsidiary RBH also appears in Münchberg from time to time. Müncheberg is now the last active tariff point after Strausberg along the Eastern Railway to the Polish border. Accordingly, there is growing interest in Müncheberg station.
On the night of June 16-17, 2010, there was a theft of non-ferrous metal on an overhead contact line of 200 meters. After the operation could initially be maintained provisionally with a diesel locomotive, there was another theft a few days later, so that the catenary wire was missing over a total of 1.5 kilometers. The total economic damage is estimated at 100,000 euros. Since operation with the diesel locomotive that was initially used was no longer possible due to the expiry of the operating period, an MAN railbus has been running on the route as a replacement since July 10, 2010 . On April 21, 2011, the catenary was completed with the help of sponsors, so that electrical operation takes place on the route again.
vehicles
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Originally the narrow-gauge railway had two triple-coupled tank locomotives (factory numbers 780 and 781) with the track numbers 1 and 2 built by Mecklenburgische Maschinen- und Waggonbau AG in Güstrow in 1896 . Later the locomotive No. 2 is said to have been replaced by a machine manufactured by Krauss in 1891 (factory no. 2377).
In addition to the three electric locomotives and the three sidecars of the 479/879 series , the railway association also maintains several locomotives and ancillary vehicles , including two EL 4 electric locomotives , on permanent loan from the Strausberger Eisenbahn . A new acquisition in 2017 was the Swiss railcar BDe 4/4 13 of the Orbe-Chavornay-Bahn (built in 1915), which was threatened with scrapping. There is also a Kö , a V 22 and an SKL 24 and 25 each.
literature
- Andreas Ermer: 50 years of the Müncheberg – Buckow electric standard gauge railway (Märkische Schweiz) . In: The model railroader . Issue 4, 1980, ISSN 0026-7422 , pp. 103 ff .
Web links
- Museumsbahn Buckower Kleinbahn e. V. , official site
- Museum Railway Buckower Kleinbahn , site of the chairman of the Museum Railway Buckower Kleinbahn
- Details about the Buckower Kleinbahn on bahnstrecken.de
- Berliner-Bahnen.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Date of nationalization of almost all private railways in the GDR
- ↑ Peter Neumann: Metal theft now also at museum railway . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 21, 2010
- ↑ a b Ina Brzoska: Greed for copper . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 3, 2010
- ↑ Peter Neumann: Museum railroaders stand there without overhead lines . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 25, 2010
- ↑ Klaus Kieper, Reiner Preuß: GDR narrow-gauge railway archive . 2nd Edition. transpress Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-613-71405-2 , pp. 167 (first edition: 1982, reprint).
- ↑ Berliner Verkehrsblätter July 2018, p. 144.