Düsseldorf-Duisburg small train

"D-Bahn" Düsseldorf – Duisburg
Klemensplatz stop with elevated platforms, looking north
Route length:	41.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	750 V  =
Sweeping system Tram route from Dinslaken 903 Meiderich Bahnhof terminus U 79 On the dam former Rübenstrasse ramp Turning system Duissern Duissern City railway line from Mülheim 901 Duisburg Central Station Koenig-Heinrich-Platz City railway line to Obermarxloh loop 901 Steinsche Gasse Heerstrasse ramp Plane yard Tram route to Hüttenheim loop 903 Musfeldstrasse Kremerstrasse former inner city route from the main station Karl-Jarres-Strasse former tram route from Neudorf / Hbf Grunewald Depot Grunewald depot Operational route to Hüttenheim Culture street In the Schlenk Waldfriedhof (until 2011: New Cemetery) Turning track in the forest cemetery Munchener Strasse Sittardsberg Mühlenkamp St. Anna Hospital former Wendeschleife 909 (closed in 1992) Angerbogen ( ghost train station ) Kesselsberg Kesselsberg turning system City limit Duisburg / Düsseldorf Frog pond Wittlaer turning track Wittlaer At the Mühlenacker former Wendeschleife 711 (closed in 1981) Kalkumer Schlossallee Klemensplatz Kittelbachstrasse Old country road Spielberger Weg (until 1988 711 ) Lohausen (until 2007: Flughafenstrasse) To the oaks (until 1990) planned trunk line 5 (U81) Freiligrathplatz from / to Merkur Spiel-Arena / Messe Nord U 78 Messe Ost / Stockumer Kirchstrasse Nordpark / Aquazoo former Wendeschleife (closed in 1997) Turning track at Reeser Platz Reeser Platz Tunnel extension planned planned tunnel ramp Theodor Heuss Bridge Golzheimer Platz Kennedydamm former line Kaiserswerther Straße (closed in 1988) Fischerstrasse ramp Victoriaplatz / Klever Strasse North street Line from Neuss / Krefeld U 70 U 74 U 75 U 76 U 77 former ramp opera house Heinrich-Heine-Allee turning system Heinrich-Heine-Allee U 71 U 72 U 73 U 83 Turning track (originally intended as a connection to trunk line 3 ) Steinstrasse / Königsallee East Street Düsseldorf Hbf 704 707 708 709 Turning system main station Oberbilker Markt / Warschauer Strasse 706 Ellerstrasse Oberbilk S 705 (until 2012: Oberbilk Bf / PhilipsHalle) Siegburger Strasse ramp Kaiserslauterner Strasse Turning system in Kaiserslauterner Strasse Provincial Square Werstener Dorfstrasse (Bstg 1/2) Route from / to Holthausen U 71 U 83 / U 74 U 77 Werstener Dorfstrasse (Bstg 3/4) Südpark (Bstg 8/9 U 71 U 79 U 83 ) Route from / to Bilk 704 / U 71 U 73 U 83 Südpark (Bstg 3/4 U 73 704 ) planned Route to the University West University of East / Botanical Garden  terminus U 73 U 79 704 Turning loop

The Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn GmbH was a transport company founded in 1898, initially based in Kaiserswerth . They operated trams in the south of Duisburg and an intercity tram between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, which was sometimes referred to as Line D or D-Bahn. The company was dissolved in 1938. Since then, the Rheinbahn and the Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft ( Duisburger Straßenbahnen GmbH before 1940 ) have jointly operated the railway, which today operates as the U 79 light rail line between the University of Düsseldorf and Duisburg-Meiderich.

history

Although there had been a rail link between Düsseldorf and Duisburg since 1846, it was of little use to the city of Kaiserswerth , located directly on the Rhine , because the nearest Kalkum train station was four kilometers away on the Cologne – Duisburg line in question . But the expansion of the Duisburg city area to the south, the settlement of large industrial companies there and the resulting growing settlements of Wanheimerort , Buchholz and Huckingen required a second railway line further west from Düsseldorf via Kaiserswerth to Duisburg.

Development from 1892 to 1897

On November 15, 1892, the Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik (now Rheinmetall ) in Düsseldorf submitted a license application to the district president to build and operate a railway between Düsseldorf-Derendorf and Duisburg-Hochfeld , which the Minister for Public Works received on March 24, 1893 in accordance with the Prussian Small Railroad Act that came into force in 1892 . J. Heintges from Düsseldorf submitted the first offer to build this small train on July 21, 1894. On December 10, 1895, an offer from Lenz & Co. from Stettin followed.

In the period that followed, there was a lively exchange of letters and controversial discussions between the cities, municipalities and citizens concerned, the district president, the minister and the Prussian state railways subordinate to him , the Reichspost and companies interested in the construction of the railway. In addition to individual concerns with local relevance - like that of the Oberpostdirektion fear of damage to underground laid telegraph lines expressed that the city architect complained to build a light railway on its side at low road width in Kaiserswerth and the fear of many citizens from expropriation or impairment of their land - it went the fundamental question of the extent to which the new railway should compete with the state railways.

The West German Railway Company , which had taken the place of Lenz & Co., proposed in a letter dated July 20, 1896 to the Minister for Public Works that a standard-gauge railway should begin in the Düsseldorf-Derendorf state train station and operate with steam locomotives , which he did in his answer of February 27, 1897 refused. Because of the good railway connection between Düsseldorf and Duisburg via Angermund, only a small train without connection to state stations and with an express restriction on passenger and general cargo traffic should be permitted. The West German Railway Company then ended its engagement; but took a position beforehand, among other things with the words:

“As a small railway, the railway has no value under such conditions (Kleinbahngesetz) [...]. [...] for the development of the north of Düsseldorf and the south of Duisburg, however, this railway is of great economic importance. Given the current state of economic development, the question must therefore be asked whether the ministry would like to have this railway built as a state railway itself, or whether it should be released to private capital as a branch line. "

founding of the company

Wilhelm August Freiherr von Tippelskirch - from 1892 to 1899 leaseholder of the Düsseldorf horse and streetcars - had followed this development and on October 26, 1897 applied for a concession for the construction and operation of a normal-gauge but electrically operated small railway. It should initially only be built from Düsseldorf to Kaiserswerth as a continuation of the Düsseldorf tram in a northerly direction and should only be used for passenger transport. Their extension to Duisburg is planned for a later date.

After the Oberpräsident of the Rhine Province had warned on January 15, 1898 that construction would begin soon, the General Local and Tram Company in Berlin also applied for a concession on February 19, 1898, and the Rheinische Bahngesellschaft in Düsseldorf on March 12, 1898 for one Concession for the operation of the small train. Tippelskirch began building a power plant to supply the Kaiserswerther Diakonie with electricity as early as 1898 , which was sufficiently large to also cover the power requirements of the small railroad. In May 1898 he presented detailed plans for the realization of the small railway between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, which the Duisburg city council agreed on July 12, 1898. On January 2, 1899, Tippelskirch signed a concession agreement with the city of Düsseldorf. The corresponding contract with the city of Duisburg followed a month later.

As early as September 15, 1898, Tippelskirch founded the Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft with limited liability ( DDK for short ) with its seat in Kaiserswerth together with the Berlin company for electrical companies . The founding capital of 300,000 marks was shared between the Berlin company (75%) and Tippelskirch (25%). The latter brought his power station, his electricity supply contracts for Kaiserswerth and in 1899 his concession for the small train into the new company. On March 28, 1899, the district president of the DDK granted approval for the construction and operation of the small railway. The connection of the small train to the state railway stations in Düsseldorf and Duisburg was expressly prohibited.

Construction and operation of the first line

Immediately after the approval, construction began in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort on the corner of Kaiserswerther- and Nordstrasse , where a three-track relocation point was built. By Golzheim , Stockum and Lohausen road and the north subsequent road to Kaiserswerth was a single-track line in a lateral position with several along the 1895 completed Kaiserwerther Dodge built. In Kaiserswerth, the route was led over today's Alte Landstrasse , and a depot and an administration building were built. Operations on this line began on October 31, 1899 (November 1, 1899). Initially, four two-axle tram cars commuted between Kaiserswerth and Düsseldorf from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The poor track position, the relatively short center distance of 2.5 meters and the suspension that was still hard at the time meant that the railway was also popularly known as “short and small railway”.

The construction of the route along Provinzialstraße (later B 8) via Wittlaer , Huckingen and Wanheimerort to the confluence of Düsseldorfer Straße with Königstraße in Duisburg followed immediately. On August 26, 1900, this section was also put into operation. Needed for the now almost 24-kilometer route between Dusseldorf and Duisburg daily from 6am to 22:00 in 20-minute intervals trains running tracks, a traveling time of 78 minutes, but often could not be met because of the passing places unscheduled long for the Return had to be waited. Intermediate courses were soon used on the sections Düsseldorf - Kaiserswerth (mainly for excursion traffic on Sundays and public holidays) and Duisburg-Mitte - Wanheimerort , which reduced the number of trains there to 10 minutes. The maximum permissible speed ranged from 10 km / h in the city center to 25 km / h when driving through undeveloped areas. The number of passengers rose from approximately 26,000 passengers in November 1899 to 70,000 in the first month after the route was extended. A total of around 565,000 passengers used the new train by the end of 1900.

The rolling stock included 19 (21 according to) two-axle railcars and ten also two-axle trailer cars , which were built by the Weyer & Co. wagon factory in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk . The electrical equipment was supplied by the Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft . The railcars were about nine meters long but only two meters wide, had two engines with 25 HP each and roller pantographs . The wheelbase was 2.5 meters and the entrance was at the rear, locked with half-height folding doors. The sidecars had the same external dimensions as the railcars, but had a smaller wheelbase of 2.2 meters and central entrances with high folding doors that were completely glazed in view of the sometimes very strong dust formation on the country road. In addition, four eleven-meter-long sidecars built in 1888 were taken over from the Duisburg - Mülheim - Broich steam train and converted. The vehicle fleet also included an explosive vehicle and two work vehicles, one for building overhead lines and another for transporting rails.

Further development of the company

In the years 1905 to 1906, Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk AG (RWE) in Essen pursued the goal of monopolizing the electricity industry in the Ruhr area at the instigation of its supervisory board chairman Hugo Stinnes , including as many takeovers of railway companies and concessions as possible for the construction and operation of electric railways belonged. Thus, by 1906, the DDK was also fully owned by RWE. But just two years later, when the hoped-for success of the monopoly efforts did not materialize to the desired extent, RWE parted with many railway companies and concessions. On April 15, 1908, the Allgemeine Lokal- und Straßenbahngesellschaft (ALSAG) in Berlin acquired the DDK for 1.5 million marks.

ALSAG had been operating standard gauge trams in Duisburg since 1891 (the German local and tram company in Dortmund as its predecessor since the beginning of 1887). The construction of short connecting tracks at the terminus of the small railway in Duisburg was sufficient to integrate the small railway line into the Duisburg tram network. Vehicles, car sheds and electricity were from now on used jointly by both railways in the Duisburg area. The suburban traffic cars belonging to the Kleinbahn now used the car shed on Mülheimer Straße in Duisburg to save themselves the journey from Kaiserswerth. In 1913, a second tram depot was opened in Duisburg on the small railway line with the Grunewald depot between Hochfeld and Wanheimerort. It became necessary as a result of the commissioning of a new tram route to Wanheim on December 24th and the associated acquisition of additional vehicles.

Differences between the city of Düsseldorf and ALSAG meant that in 1910 (or 1911) the city made use of the contractually stipulated right to buy up the part of the small railroad located in its territory. At the same time, line 10 of the municipal tram was extended from its previous terminus on Klever Strasse over the tracks of the small train to the existing turning loop in Stockum, which was incorporated into Düsseldorf in 1909. On this part of the route, the small train lost a large part of its passengers. Eventually it gave up operations between Nordstrasse and Stockum and passengers from Düsseldorf to Kaiserswerth or Duisburg and vice versa had to change trains in Stockum. In 1913 the administration ordered the continuation of the journeys to the previous terminus.

In order to increase its influence on local public transport, on October 22, 1913 (according to June 30, 1913) the city of Duisburg also bought the DDK from ALSAG at a daily value of 2.1 million marks. Although the railway now belonged to the cities of Düsseldorf and Duisburg, the GmbH continued to exist. Due to the abandonment of operational management on the final line in Düsseldorf and the commissioning of the branch line to Wanheim, however, the focus of their activities shifted towards Duisburg, which is why the company's headquarters were relocated from Kaiserswerth to Duisburg.

With the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914, operational restrictions were associated. In Duisburg, for example, intermediate traffic to Sittardsberg was stopped immediately and the condition of the wagons was deteriorating as the war continued. Since the state railways also used fewer trains between Düsseldorf and Duisburg, the number of passengers rose sharply, but the wagons of the small railroad were mostly overcrowded. In 1915, the record of 5,339,606 passengers was set. In comparison, the transport performance increased to 2,465,787 people annually until 1908, 2,984,487 people were transported in 1913 and 2,959,752 people in 1923.

On May 27, 1925, in connection with the plans to expand the small railroad into a high-speed tram , there was another change in ownership: The city of Duisburg ceded half of the capital, which was set at 500,000 Reichsmarks after the currency reform in 1924, to the city of Düsseldorf. Eight years later, in January 1933, Düsseldorf withdrew from the DDK. After Duisburg had initially assigned a stake of 25,000 marks to Allgemeine Lokalbahn- und Kraftwerke AG (ALOKA), the share capital of the DDK was reduced from 500,000 to 250,000 marks. This happened when Düsseldorf's share was withdrawn to the city of Düsseldorf in exchange for the transfer of company assets (overhead line and track systems to Wittlaer, land and buildings in Düsseldorf and Kaiserswerth, half of the vehicle fleet). The DDK was ten percent owned by ALOKA and 90 percent owned by the city of Duisburg.

Conversion and operation as an express tram

In 1920, the two cities considered moving the railway to a separate track. However, these plans were shelved when a study society presented plans for an express tram from Dortmund via Bochum , Essen , Mülheim , Duisburg and Düsseldorf to Cologne . Since this project failed due to the resistance of the Reichsbahn , the plans for the Kleinbahn were brought out again in order to implement them.

After Düsseldorf had acquired 50 percent of the railway in 1924, the line was expanded on August 6, 1925. Thanks to an independent railway body on an almost 15-kilometer section between the Duisburg forest cemetery and today's Freiligrathplatz in Düsseldorf and the installation of signal-controlled level crossings, the speed of the railways was initially increased to 40 km / h and later to 60 km / h. The travel time has been reduced from 78 minutes to 63 minutes.

From May 1, 1926 to 1962, the railway ended in Düsseldorf at Graf-Adolf-Platz. At the same time, the line designation "D" was introduced for this line, which in later years also - as a high-speed line - had red line and destination signs . In addition, “D-Bahn” became a common name for this tram line. On March 23, 1934, after the renovation and expansion of the Duisburg main station, the railway was given a new underground terminus in front of the station. 21 years later, however, the tram had to give way to an expressway built at the same location ( north-south road , today: A 59 ).

On April 1, 1938, the Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn GmbH was dissolved and completely taken over by the Duisburger Straßenbahnen GmbH and the Rheinbahn . This change was not noticeable to the passengers, because the route was driven on at the same pace and the vehicles, which differ in terms of equipment (double headlights, padded seats, larger distances between the rows of seats, etc.) from the other vehicles of the two companies , were initially used further. From January 1, 1940, the Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG (DVG), which emerged from the union of all Duisburger Verkehrsbetriebe, took over the Duisburg shares in the operation of the D-Bahn.

From 1962 after the completion of the tram junction on Jan-Wellem-Platz in Düsseldorf, line D had its southern end point there for 19 years.

Conversion to a light rail and preliminary operation from 1969 to 1988

The former line 79 in Düsseldorf, 1987

From July 15, 1969 to 1977, a four-kilometer-long section of the tram route between Düsseldorf and Duisburg in the southern city of Duisburg was converted into a light rail line . For this purpose, the stops between the Waldfriedhof and Kesselsberg were converted into covered train stations with platforms for boarding and alighting at the same level, the route was partially elevated and a heavily frequented street crossing at the Sittardsberg stop was rebuilt in an elevated position to allow an underpass with an integrated train station enable. In the same period, in the area of Wittlaer, which was incorporated into Düsseldorf in 1975, an existing stop was converted into a station suitable for light rail operations, which went into operation in 1975 or 1976. The construction with a central platform was also a novelty in the Düsseldorf tram network and for the first time required the use of vehicles with doors on both sides. The vehicles of the type GT8S - four of them with a dining compartment - met this requirement and operated exclusively on the D and 79 route until 1981 and their tunnel-compatible modifications GT8SU until 1988. The remote, poorly lit and, because of its closed construction, difficult to see train station attracted many criminals, so that rape and other violent crimes were frequent. This was also one of the reasons that it was demolished again in 2002 and only partially roofed again about 200 meters further north.

With the establishment of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr , line D became express line 79. With the start of the first phase of the so-called Stadtbahn - preliminary operation on October 3, 1981, the management of line 79 changed again: After the Kennedydamm stop , the U -Bahnhöfe Klever Straße and Nordstraße served to then get back above ground via the opera house and Graf-Adolf-Platz to the new terminus Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof .

Operation as a light rail since 1988

Since the opening of the inner city tunnel in 1988, the line has meanwhile been part of the Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn network and bears the number U 79. Today, it not only connects the city centers of Duisburg and Düsseldorf, but also runs from the northern Duisburg district of Meiderich to Düsseldorf's Heinrich-Heine- University .

future

Parts of this article seem out of date as of 2017 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

In 2013 there were concerns about whether the U 79 could still run to Duisburg in the long term. The reason for this was the emerging supply bottlenecks for spare parts for the train protection technology used . For the cities of Düsseldorf and Duisburg this meant high investments in new technology. The main problem here was the financial situation of the city of Duisburg, which was to carry 35 to 36 million euros, four million of which were for vehicles and 32 million for the technology installed in tunnels. So far, the state has only given grants for new construction, not for replacement investments. According to DVG, however, there should be an approximation here. The city of Düsseldorf accounts for around 50 million euros. In the meantime (2017) the financing on the Duisburg side has also been secured.

The changeover requires an extensive test phase with both systems running in parallel over a longer period of time.

particularities

A special feature of the D-Bahn and the K-Bahn Düsseldorf– Krefeld (today U 70 / U 76) was the dining car compartment, which entertained passengers with drinks and snacks. Since the DVG removed the dining compartments in the 1990s, there are only dining cars on the lines to Krefeld, which ended on December 23, 2014. The converted car can only be recognized today by the missing car door in the middle section.

A contemporary cinematic perspective on the operation of the U 79 is offered by Schimanski - Tatort Broken Blossoms (1988), in which Commissioner Schimanski pursues a criminal on the route between Duisburg main station and the Sittardsberg station, which was constructed in preparation for the construction of a future underground light rail system .

On the route is the only ghost station of the Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn , the Angerbogen station in the south of Duisburg.

See also

• Düsseldorf light rail
• Duisburg light rail
• Main route 1 (Düsseldorf tram)

literature

• Norbert Kurtenbach: The D-Bahn - From the Kleinbahn to the Stadtbahn , in: Huckinger Heimatbuch - History and Stories, Volume 2, Oberhausen 1997, pp. 189–233.
• Bruno Peters: Histörchen von der Kleinbahn - In case of high water in Wittlaer the boat was changed to a boat , in: Heimat-Jahrbuch Wittlaer 1984, Ratingen 1984, p. 47.
• Dieter Zeh: When the stagecoaches disappeared - The Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn and Wittlaer , in: Heimat-Jahrbuch Wittlaer 1984, Ratingen 1984, pp. 42–46.

Web links

• The electric small train Düsseldorf - Duisburg ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
• 110 years of the D-Bahn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} trams in Duisburg. Trams in Duisburg ( memento from July 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), January 3, 2012, archived from the original on February 11, 2013 ; accessed on March 16, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Dr. Vera Schmidt: Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG - 125 years of movement for Duisburg 1881-2006, page 10, With the tram to the south - Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn. Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft , Executive Board, 2006, accessed on March 16, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} 110 years of the D-Bahn. BZ Duisburg , November 1, 2009, accessed on March 16, 2018 . 
4. ↑ A long way: from the “Düsseldorf - Duisburger Kleinbahn” to the “U 79” (pages 54–57). Mein Kaiserswerth , 2015, accessed on March 16, 2018 . 
5. ↑ http://www.weyeriana.de/startseite.html?/zeitschriften/waggon.html
6. ↑ ^{a b} Dr. Vera Schmidt: Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG - 125 years of movement for Duisburg 1881-2006, page 24, Düsseldorf-Duisburger Kleinbahn GmbH - change of ownership as a constant in the company's history. Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft , Executive Board, 2006, accessed on March 16, 2018 . 
7. ^ Richard Jacobi, Dieter Zeh: The history of the Düsseldorf tram - From the horse tram to the city railway . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1995, ISBN 3-88255-401-0 .
8. ↑ http://www.r-abels-xxl.de/Wittlaer/bahnhof_wittlaer.htm
9. ↑ http://www.jochen-schoenfisch.de/stadtbahn/fotos/index.html
10. ↑ Denisa Richters: Safety in the city: fight the fear rooms. Rheinische Post , January 19, 2007, accessed on March 14, 2018 . 
11. ↑ U79 shouldn't fall by the wayside. In: NORD • BOTE, No. 4 Volume 26. Dietmar Oelsner (Ed.). Düsseldorf, March 1, 2013.
12. ↑ DVG gets a new super brain for 40 million euros. In: waz.de. July 8, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 .