Burgholzbahn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wuppertal-Steinbeck-Cronenberg
Route of the Burgholzbahn
Route number (DB) : 2721
Course book section (DB) : 402
Route length: 10.6 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope : 25  ‰
State (D) : North Rhine-Westphalia
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 Line from Wuppertal Hbf
Station, station
 0.0 Wuppertal-Steinbeck
   
 Route to Düsseldorf
   
 2.2 Wuppertal-Hindenburgstrasse
   
 3.1 Wuppertal-Boltenberg
   
 5.7 Wuppertal-Burgholz
   
 7.0 Wuppertal-Küllenhahn
   
 7.1 Conn. Triches
   
 7.6 Nöllenhammerweg
   
 7.8 Wuppertal-Neuenhof
   
 8th Concert
   
 9.4 Wuppertal-Cronenfeld Hp
   
 9.7 Main street
   
 9.9 Conn. Stahlschmidt
   
 10 Oberkamper Str
   
 10.2 Neukuchhausen
   
 10.4 Conn. Knipex
   
 10.6 Wuppertal-Cronenberg station

The Burgholzbahn , also called the Samba , was an eleven-kilometer, single-track railway line between Elberfeld and Cronenberg , both of which were later districts of Wuppertal .

history

Ticket for the Burgholzbahn, probably from the 1960s

The railway line, which opened in 1891, owes its name to the forest area of ​​the Staatsforst Burgholz , through which most of the line runs. The reason for the construction was the great demand of the flourishing tool industry in Cronenberg for raw materials and coal as well as the need to transport the finished products away at low cost. In Elberfeld the Burgholzbahn had a connection to the main line of the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft .

The difference in altitude of around 140 meters required a very winding route. The route had a maximum gradient of 25 ‰ (1:40) at the Boltenberg stop. Until shortly after the Second World War, the route was mainly used for freight traffic , but passenger traffic was also handled. From the mid-1950s, the now predominant passenger traffic was carried out with rail buses . The rocking of the cars in the numerous curves quickly earned the track the nickname Samba .

In addition to local transport between the Wuppertal city center and Cronenberg, the railway primarily served as a link to leisure destinations, the Wuppertal Zoo , the stadium at the zoo , the Burgholz forest and the Neuenhof outdoor pool.

In the 1980s it became clear that the Deutsche Bundesbahn wanted to get rid of the line. Despite massive opposition from the population and from the city of Wuppertal, the lack of maintenance of the track systems created a fait accompli. The line finally had to be closed at the beginning of 1988 for safety reasons. A repair of the track system was ruled out for reasons of cost.

The route today

Most of the route (also known as the "Samba race") is still there today; however, the tracks were completely dismantled. By the summer of 2007, work was being carried out on the completion of a pedestrian and bicycle path . The official inauguration of the route took place on October 27th with a party at the old Cronenberg station and, among other things, a mountain run from the Zoo S-Bahn station to Cronenberg. This and other accompanying projects were implemented in the course of the 2006 Regionale from Wuppertal, Solingen and Remscheid.

Between the former stops at Hindenburgstrasse and Boltenberg, the route used to form the eastern border of the Wuppertal Zoo . After it was expanded in a south-easterly direction in 2006, today's footpath and bike path runs largely on a bridge across the zoo, from where you can especially see the tiger enclosure.

Since November 13, 2008, a restored rail bus of the type VT 95 , which was used in the past on the Burgholztrasse, has been in a part of the parking lot of the Cronenberg tool company Knipex , directly adjacent to the former route.

Picture gallery

  • "Cronenberger Samba" at the Cronenberg train station, around 1980

  • The former stop at Boltenberg

  • New cycle path on the route of the Burgholzbahn (bridge on the Kaisereiche)

  • The former Burgholz stop

  • The former Küllenhahn station

  • The restored samba car in the parking lot of the Knipex company

literature

  • Kurt Kaiß, Michael Peplies: The Samba. The Cronenberg – Elberfeld branch line. Kaiß, Leichlingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-9806103-6-0 ( Rheinisch-Bergische Eisenbahngeschichte 6).
  • Bernd Franco Hoffmann: Disused railway lines in the Bergisches Land. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt April 2013, ISBN 978-3-95400-147-7 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Altitude diagram on bahnen-wuppertal.de , accessed on October 4, 2010
  2. ↑ Inclination on Boltenberg on Drehscheibe forums , accessed on October 4, 2010
  3. ↑ The Samba is back at home Westdeutsche Zeitung (online) from November 14, 2008