Bunzlauer Kleinbahn

Bunzlau-Neudorf

156k (1944)

Route length:

25 km


	0.0	Bunzlau Kleinbahnhof (later: East) Bolesławiec

		to Modlau
		Bunzlau state train station / industrial tracks
	2.8	Gnadenberg
	4.2	Little Krauschen Kruzyn

	7.3 0.0	Alt Warthau-Nieschwitz (Alt Warthau am Goldbach)


	8.4	Alt Warthau village
	1.6	New Warthau
	2.3	New Warthau West
		Agl pit Konrad
	11.6	Mittlau
		Agl pit Konrad
	14.6	Nieder Großhartmannsdorf (later: North)
	15.9	Ober Großhartmannsdorf
	20.7	Gröditzberg
	22.7	Rosen-Neudorf
	23.5	Hockenberg (freight traffic only)
		from Goldberg

	24.8	Neudorf (Gröditzberg) Kleinbahnhof (later: West)

		to Löwenberg

The Bunzlauer Kleinbahn AG was created from the merger of small Bahn AG Bunzlau-Neudorf and small Bahn AG Bunzlau-Modlau.

history

The former district of Bunzlau in Lower Silesia was connected to the railway network as early as 1845/46 through the Görlitz – Liegnitz line of the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . Until the turn of the century, rail lines were only added on the edge of the district, so that the population in the vicinity of the district town in particular still hoped for a rail connection.

Therefore, the Prussian state, the district and the city of Bunzlau with the railway construction company Lenz & Co GmbH and other interested parties founded two small railway companies, the management of which was taken over by Lenz & Co GmbH .

Kleinbahn-AG Bunzlau – Neudorf am Gröditzberg

The Kleinbahn-AG Bunzlau-Neudorf am Gröditzberg, founded on March 27, 1905, opened a 25-kilometer standard-gauge railway line on April 10, 1906, which led from Bunzlau in a south-westerly direction and only ended in the Goldberg district at Neudorf station on the Goldberg-Löwenberg line .

On October 1, 1907, a branch line from Alt Warthau-Nieschwitz to Neu Warthau was added, which was mainly used for freight traffic.

Another freight railway ran 3 km from the Bunzlau small station to the industrial track.

Kleinbahn-AG Bunzlau-Modlau

Bunzlau – Modlau

Course book range :

156h (1944) , 263 (1961)

Route length:

31.03 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Legend

	0.0	Bunzlau Kleinbahnhof (later: East) Bolesławiec
		to Neudorf
		Neudorf-Staatsbahnhof / industrial tracks
		Breslau – Kohlfuhrt
		from Bunzlau state train station
		Like
	3.39	New Schönfeld
		Agl chemical plant
	5.28	Nieder Schönfeld Kraśnik Dolny
	7.85	Eichberg Dąbrowa Bolesławiecka
	11.02	Great Gollnisch Golnice
	14.29	Kittlitztreben Trzebień
	19.31	Kretschamberg Karczmarka
	23.28	Waldmühlhäuser
	25.90	Greulich Barowiki
	26.75	Gremsdorf Gromadka
	29.10	Modlau village
	31.03	Modlau Kleinbahnhof (later: North) Modła
		from Modlau state train station
		to Sagan

The Kleinbahn-AG Bunzlau – Modlau was founded on October 3, 1912 and began operating on its 31-kilometer route on December 20, 1913. This led from Bunzlau north to Kittlitztreben, then turned at right angles to the east and reached the center of operations in Gremsdorf. It ended at the Modlau small train station, whose state train station was on the Liegnitz – Sagan line.

Bunzlauer Kleinbahn AG

Share of 1000 Marks in the Bunzlauer Kleinbahn-AG from July 1, 1921

On April 4, 1921, the shareholders decided to merge the two companies to form Bunzlauer Kleinbahn AG. The AG for traffic last owned 25% of the shares.

The network was now over 60 kilometers long and was supplemented by a bus line 13 kilometers in length from September 1937. The offer in passenger transport was rather above the average for small railways. From around 1914 to the mid-thirties, the Neudorf route was used five times a day, the Modlauer only three times, and there were also trains that only served part of the route. The timetable from the summer of 1939 was a highlight: Seven pairs of trains from Bunzlau to Neudorf and five to Gremsdorf, four of which continued to Modlau, were offered. During the Second World War, the Neudorf route with three (on Sundays four) pairs of trains was surpassed by the Modlauer with five (on Sundays three).

In 1945 the Polish State Railways (PKP) took over the routes. In 1956, only two pairs of trains ran daily to Modlau, in 1961 only one pair of trains, and passenger traffic was then discontinued in the course of the year. Freight traffic between Nieder Schönfeld and Kittlitztreben was discontinued in 1992 and between Kittlitztreben and Modlau at the end of 2000. The connection to the chemical works in Wiesau is still in operation.

Several iron and steel works and sawmills were served along the route for freight traffic. There was plenty of timber traffic through the Bunzlau city forest south of Modlau. Since 1921, a three-kilometer-long industrial track was served north of Bunzlau. In 1940, the construction of a copper smelter north of Bunzlau began, which was completed by 1944, but was no longer operational. In 2013 the chemical works are located there. The siding is still there today (2013) and is served by rail. The traffic was so profitable that dividends were paid out regularly, from 1933/34 to 1940/41 it was even six percent.

vehicles

The Kleinbahn Bunzlau – Neudorf received three three-axle locomotives from LHW in 1905 , and a Vulcan locomotive was added in 1907 . In 1913, Orenstein & Koppel procured three locomotives of the same type for the Bunzlau – Modlau small railway . To cope with the increased traffic, two ELNA 3 locomotives were purchased in 1928 and a third one in 1935. Two older locomotives were sold for this in 1928 and 1935. By purchasing two railcars in 1934 and 1935 at WUMAG, they had become dispensable. In 1944 two ELNA 6 were delivered.

In 1939 there were six steam locomotives, two railcars, 17 passenger cars, two pack wagons and 53 freight cars as well as a motor bus.

In February 1945 evacuation trains were carried out to the west. On February 14th, the three remaining three-axle vehicles as well as two ELNA 3 and both ELNA 6 arrived in Luckau on the Niederlausitzer Eisenbahn . All machines were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1949. The third ELNA 3 was found on the Braunschweig-Schöninger Railway .

literature

Siegfried Bufe: Railways in Silesia. Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham et al. 1989, ISBN 3-922138-37-3 ( East German Railway History 4).

Jörg Petzold: Small Railway Anniversaries 2013. in: Die Museums-Eisenbahn 1/2013, pp. 31–34