Neuötting – Altötting steam tram
| Neuötting – Altötting steam tram | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Course book range : |
DR 433 K.Bay.Sts.B. 302-174 |
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| Route length: | 5.146 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 58.1 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 20.0 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 15 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Neuötting – Altötting steam tram , also known as the Neuötting – Altötting local railway or popularly called Bockerl , was a meter-gauge steam tram in Bavaria . She joined from 1906 to 1930, the two upper Bavarian towns Altötting and Neuötting with the peripherally located Bahnhof Neuötting .
The regional tram was created as the last tram operation in what is now the Free State of Bavaria . It was the only tram route and one of only two narrow-gauge routes owned by the Royal Bavarian State Railways . From 1920 the railway was the only tram company of the then newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn .
history
prehistory
As early as the 1860s, both Neuötting, with its then around 3100 inhabitants, and Altötting, which had 5400, tried to connect to the planned Munich – Simbach railway line . However, they could not agree on the location of a common train station, and the planners wanted to save the necessary double crossing of the Inn for cost reasons. Ultimately, both cities went empty-handed when they opened in 1871. Neuötting received a train station on the new route, but it was around three kilometers from the city center on the other side of the Inn in Eisenfelden , a district of Winhöring .
Altötting finally got its own station in 1897 on the Mühldorf – Burghausen local railway that was opened at that time . However, this was not directly in the city center, and the lack of a direct connection between the two neighboring cities was becoming increasingly noticeable. Altötting was then, as now, the most popular Bavarian pilgrimage site and in order to strengthen this position, the then Altötting Cathedral Provost Dr. Franz Seraph Ritter von Pichler for a direct connection between Alt- and Neuötting.
In order to further improve traffic conditions, the Royal Bavarian State Railways therefore decided to build a cross-connection at the turn of the century . After an electrically operated train was quickly discarded due to the comparatively low traffic requirement, the focus was on building a classic steam-powered train.
concession
From a legal point of view, the planned route was licensed as a tram service . The exception regulations for the construction and operation of the narrow-gauge Neuötting – Altötting steam tram , valid from August 20, 1906, also speak of a tram. In these provisions, the various typical tramway deviations from classic railway operations on the remaining routes of the Royal Bavarian State Railways were specified.
This classification was primarily because the route of the railway - comparable to a classic tram - should run exclusively in the public street space. In this case, licensing as a tram was an obvious choice, because the operation of a tram - in comparison to a full-fledged railway - is still subject to simplified regulations in many respects. These can be more easily reconciled with operation in public streets.
Another complicating factor was § 9 of a royal ordinance of June 20, 1855. According to it, the construction of a new railway in Bavaria was generally prohibited if it was to run between endpoints that were already being looked after by licensed railways. This was the case in this case because both Neuötting and Altötting were already connected to the railway network. So those responsible had little choice but to build and operate the new line as a tram.
Construction and opening
On September 26, 1905, the Royal Bavarian State Railways began building a 5.146-kilometer meter-gauge steam tram. Grooved rails of form 17c were used for the tracks laid in the driveway , these were obtained from the Phoenix-Hütte in Ruhrort . They were laid on a substructure of roughly tamped mortar . Before that, the Eggenfelden - Trostberg state road in Altötting had to be widened over a length of 700 meters to gain space for the local railway . The new connection was finally opened on August 16, 1906.
After the Eichstätt – Kinding narrow-gauge railway built between 1885 and 1898 - which was later switched to standard gauge - the Neuötting – Altötting steam tram was the second narrow-gauge line operated by the Royal Bavarian State Railways. The company did not create any more narrow-gauge railways. The route through the densely built-up town center of Neuötting was decisive for the choice of the gauge, in particular the narrow passage through the Burghauser Tor played a decisive role.
business
The steam tram Neuötting Altötting-transported next to people and cargo exclusively Bahnpost However, no goods like a regular railway. The mail transport with trams used to be typical in large cities there were even special to Post trams . In Bavaria, on the other hand, a higher classification would already have been necessary for the permit to transport goods, i.e. at least as a local railway . Another typical peculiarity of a steam tram was that the locomotives on the Neuötting – Altötting route had no stokers , which means they were operated by one person.
The speed of the steam tram was limited to 15 kilometers per hour . The trip over the entire route therefore took 27 minutes, which corresponds to a relatively low average speed of 11.2 kilometers per hour. In the 1924 summer timetable it was already 30 minutes, that is, only 10.1 kilometers an hour. A total of nine intermediate stops were served, the mean station distance was 502.8 meters.
In the first four and a half months the steam tram carried 83,777 passengers , in the following years the number of passengers settled at around 250,000 annually. The railway reached the record in World War I , in 1917 366,716 people were transported. After that, however, the number of passengers decreased continuously and in 1924 a new negative record was reached with only 80,732 passengers and 39 tons of general cargo. In the following years, the transport performance increased again to around 140,000 passengers and almost 50 tons of general cargo annually - nevertheless, the number of passengers remained far below the original expectations in the long run.
The timetable has also been reduced over the years in line with falling demand. While eleven train pairs were initially used daily between 6 a.m. and midnight, in the 1920s there were only six train pairs between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.
In 1920 the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn took over the steam tram from the then dissolved Royal Bavarian State Railways. This had to cease operations from February 1, 1923 to August 18, 1923 at the instigation of the Reich Minister of Transport due to a lack of coal .
Shutdown
At the end of the 1920s, the tram was increasingly perceived as an obstacle in view of increasing motorization . In addition, the operation of a steam-powered train through narrow streets was no longer considered appropriate. But the low passenger numbers also reinforced the increasing demands for a switch to bus operation, and in the spring of 1929 the decision was made to give up the railway.
At the beginning of 1930, the Reich Ministry of Transport in Berlin finally approved the suspension of the railway and its replacement by a Kraftpost line of the Reichspost . The last day of operation of the steam tram was April 1, 1930. On the day of the shutdown, the local newspaper announced another free rides for April 2, but this message turned out to be an April Fool's joke .
The Neuötting – Altötting steam tram was the last of its kind to be shut down in Germany; all comparable systems had previously either been electrified or shut down.
Replacement by bus transport
Omnibuses have been running since 1930 as a replacement for the steam tram. For decades it was a matter of motor mail journeys , later train buses operated by the German Federal Railroad . The line license has been owned by Regionalbus Ostbayern GmbH (RBO), which was founded at the time, since 1989 . The RBO was initially a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, since 1994 it has been a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG . The line concession for the former tram route is still owned by the state. The RBO calls the route today as line 6223.
Line 6223 now serves the route of the former tram eight times a day in both directions. However, driving is only possible from Monday to Friday, and there are no trips in the relevant section on the weekend. In the south, it also serves the Altötting train station and runs in the north via the Neuötting train station to Eggenfelden . Individual trips also serve the Michaelifeld residential area in Neuötting .
In the core area of the two neighboring cities, the former tram is now being replaced by line 11 of the private transport company ELITE-Reisen Vorderobermeier GmbH . This line runs every hour on weekdays during the day (no evening traffic), but only two or three times on the weekend. It is one of two lines of the Öttingen city bus . In Altötting, line 11 also serves the residential area south of the Mühldorf – Burghausen railway line, the train station and the western part of the city. In Neuötting, it also serves the Michaelifeld residential area and the Inncenter industrial area .
Apart from the route extensions mentioned above, both the city bus route 11 and the overland route 6223 essentially follow the route of the earlier tram. Numerous bus stops also correspond exactly in their location to the earlier tram stops. The Neuötting Innbrücke stop is the only one that still bears its old name:
| Former name | Today's name | comment | Bus routes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neuötting station | Neuötting, Eisenfelden train station | 6223 | |
| Intersection | x | Stop abandoned | |
| Neuötting Inn Bridge | Neuötting Inn Bridge | 11 and 6223 | |
| Neuötting Hospital | Neuötting Kruse | 11 and 6223 | |
| Neuötting parish church | x | Stop abandoned | |
| Neuötting market square | Neuötting town square | 11 and 6223 | |
| Neuötting Burghauser Tor | x | Stop abandoned | |
| Neuötting Hospital | Neuötting cemetery | 6223 a | |
| Neuötting operating station | x | Stop abandoned | |
| Altötting Franziskushaus | Altötting vocational school | 11 and 6223 | |
| x | Altötting Michaelifriedhof | Stop newly furnished | 11 and 6223 |
| Altötting Kapellplatz | x | Stop abandoned |
Route description
At Neuötting station , the steam tram systems were located on the forecourt , parallel to the standard gauge line from Munich via Mühldorf to Simbach am Inn . Operationally, they were completely separated from the systems in the standard lane, only the goods shed was used jointly. It was connected to the standard gauge on the north side and to the narrow gauge on the south side. This made it easier to reload rail mail and general cargo. For the narrow-gauge line, there was also a half-timbered coal shed and a water crane at the starting point . The double-track transfer terminal was in front of the station building.
Immediately after departure, the steam tram turned south and followed the former Eggenfelden – Trostberg state road . After a little more than a kilometer, she reached the left bank of the Inn, which she followed a short distance upstream. On the left bank, at kilometer 1.244, there was also the first stop , called the intersection . It is named after the confluence of the state road from Landshut with the one to Eggenfelden, today's confluence of Bahnhofstraße with federal road 588 . This first section was also the longest distance between stations on the railway.
At the intersection, the steam tram turned back south and crossed the Inn, at the same time the city limits to Neuötting. Road traffic and rail use the Marienbrücke, which was only built in 1903, together . Before that, however, the Isen receiving channel was crossed on a 10.10 meter long bridge with a superstructure made of sheet metal girders.
The first stop in Neuötting's urban area was the Innbrücke stop on the southern bank of the river , right by the Riedlschen Gasthaus . Today there is a bus stop of the same name there. After the next stop Spital , where the first alternative was located, the route led at a 90-degree angle to the left into the street Landshuter Tor , also known as Neuer Stadtberg . From there, after another 90-degree curve, the trains reached the long Neuöttingen town square near the parish church of St. Nicholas .
There were three stops in close succession on the town square: parish church , market square (with the second opportunity to meet) and Burghauser Tor . The section Parish - marketplace was there with only 205 meters in length, the shortest distance between stops of the entire line. The steam tram then crossed the striking Burghauser Tor . Immediately afterwards, at the so-called Müllerbräu junction , today's roundabout , another sharp right-hand bend followed. This represented the narrowest curve of the railway, the radius of curvature was only 20.0 meters.
The hospital stop followed , then the Faltermeierberg had to be overcome. After this second major incline, the trains reached their operating station at the city limits to the neighboring town of Altötting , the district boundary ran right through the operating facilities (see description below). In addition to the buildings described below, there was another stop at the operating station and the third and last alternative on the route.
The first stop in Altötting's urban area was the Franziskushaus station . The end of the route was the centrally located Kapellplatz stop at the beginning of Neuöttinger Strasse, named after the famous Altöttinger Chapel of Grace . There was no direct connection to the standard gauge line Mühldorf – Burghausen in Altötting. Between the terminus in front of the former Bayerischer Hof (Neuöttinger Straße 5) and the Altötting train station to the south, a walk of around 600 meters had to be covered. Closing the gap would have resulted in a route across Kapellplatz, but it was feared that the services would be disrupted. The Royal Bavarian State Railways described the new route as follows:
The stopping places are marked by a board with a name tag. The platforms do not rise above the street surface. Sidings have been created at the hospital, market square and operating station stops. The grooved rail turnouts at the Spital and Marktplatz turnouts have automatic suspension , so these turnouts do not require any operation. The other points (Neuötting station, operating station and Kapellplatz) are equipped with switching devices, the iron boxes of which are sunk into the road. A changeover device is located on the locomotives. The trains only stop in Neuötting Bahnhof, Marktplatz and Kapellplatz as scheduled. All other stops are stopped as required .
The gradient of the route has been handed down as follows:
The end of the track is 34.376 m higher than the beginning. The greatest gradient in the direction to Altötting is 5.81%, in the opposite direction at the Inn Bridge it is 3.53%.
The operating station
The operational center of the steam tram was the so-called operating station at Altöttinger Straße 30. It was officially not a separate depot , but as a locomotive auxiliary station subordinated to another depot. The layout consisted of a locomotive shed ( Remise ) and an open wagon hall . The two buildings were half-timbered and had a wood-clad gable .
A workshop and an overnight building for the staff were also attached to the engine shed. The locomotive shed had two tracks, each 20 meters long, and there were four jacks in the wagon hall, each with a lifting force of 1500 kilograms. In 1909 the system was slightly modified, an axle recess was built into the car hall and the initially open car hall was closed.
Relics of the railway
The railway systems were dismantled after the cessation of operations, but the tracks lying in the road surface were not completely removed because of the great effort involved. Some of them are still under the dust-free road surface that was applied in the 1930s . Only recently did the old rails reappear during road construction work in Altötting. Parts of the operating station at Altöttinger Straße 30 have also been preserved; they have served as a car dealership for the Opel Hiebl company since the 1950s . Its upstream sales room stands on the foundations of the former locomotive shed, while the main building itself emerged from the former residential and workshop building after several modifications.
Tariff
The tariff structure of the steam tram was based - at least in the early years - on that of the railway. For example, the entire distance of just over five kilometers cost twenty Reichspfennig , and ten Reichspfennig were charged for “half the distance”. This corresponded to the kilometer tariff of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , after which four Reichspfennig per kilometer were tariffed in third class . In order to keep the operating deficit within limits, however, the fare for the entire route of the steam tram was increased to 30 Reichspfennig in later years. This fare corresponded to the kilometer tariff of the second class, in this six Reichspfennig were collected per kilometer.
Vehicle inventory
Locomotives
The Royal Bavarian State Railways purchased three 1'C h2t tank locomotives from Krauss in Munich for the Neuötting – Altötting steam tram . Because of their intended use in the street space, the locomotives - like classic tram locomotives - were provided with a circulating system and an engine casing. The latter protected the transmission from road dirt and dust, was intended to protect pedestrians from serious injuries in the event of an accident and prevented horses from being shy.
The 1102 locomotive had to be handed over to the Heeresfeldbahn during World War I , its whereabouts are not known. In 1923, a fourth, identical locomotive was therefore put into service. The Deutsche Reichsbahn, founded in 1920, gave the locomotives the new numbers 99 131 to 99 133 in 1925.
| bay. No. | DR no. | Manufacturer | Construction year | Factory no. | Use up | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1101 | 99 131 | Krauss | 1906 | 5510 | 1930 | Retired in 1931 |
| 1102 | no | Krauss | 1906 | 5511 | unknown | lost in the First World War |
| 1103 | 99 132 | Krauss | 1906 | 5512 | 1930 | Retired in 1931 |
| 1104 | 99 133 | Krauss | 1922 | 7986 | 1930 | 1938 to the Kleinbahn Wallersdorf – Münchshöfen ; Retired in 1949 |
After the cessation of operations on April 1, 1930, the three locomotives of the steam tram were shut down. In 1932 the 99 133, which had only been built in 1922, was sold to the Wallersdorf – Münchshöfen railway . There it was in use in freight traffic until it was shut down at the end of 1949 and was then scrapped in Straubing . The other two locomotives were retired and scrapped in the early 1930s.
dare
A total of nine cars were available, including seven four-axle third- class passenger cars . They were 10.85 meters long (length over coupling), the car body itself was 10.25 meters long. The wheelbase was 6.50 meters, the pivot spacing 5.0 meters and the weight 10.65 tons. In accordance with their intended use, they were not equipped with toilets .
The passenger cars were supplemented by two two-axle luggage and company cars with a mail compartment . Their generic name was first PL ( P ackwagen for L okalbahnen), from 1928, PWL (Ge p Aeck w recite for L okalbahnen).
| number | genus | Construction year | Manufacturer | Seats | axes | Use up | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22901 to 22907 | CCL | 1906 | MAN | 30th | four | 1930 | 3rd grade |
| 29981 to 29982 | PL, from 1928 PwL | 1906 | MAN | no | two | 1930 | Luggage and company cars with a mail compartment |
After operations ceased in 1930, six cars were still used by other railways. Four of the total of seven passenger cars were sold to the Swiss Bremgarten-Dietikon-Bahn (BD) for 21,415.55 Swiss francs per car . There they were integrated into the fleet of vehicles under the numbers C 26, C 27, C 28 and C 29. After the class reform of 1956 they were listed as B 26, B 27, B 28 and B 29. Car B 27 was converted into a freight car in 1961 and was in operation under the new number DZ 101 until at least the early 1990s. The other three cars were scrapped in 1971. Car B 26 was scrapped in 1971, the two cars B 28 and B 29 were sold a few years later to the Hotel Restaurant Stalden at Berikon - Widen train station . They still exist there today and serve as an additional guest room.
The two luggage and company cars with mail compartments remained with the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the PwL 29981 even within the Reichsbahndirektion Munich . He came to the narrow-gauge railway Eichstätt Bahnhof – Eichstätt Stadt (–Kinding), where it was also superfluous in October 1934 because the line had to be changed. The PwL 29982 came to the Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt , where it was included in the inventory for field railroad use under the number 206.
Train formation
With the existing vehicle material, two train sets were formed. As a rule, they each consisted of a locomotive, three passenger cars with a total of 90 seats and a baggage and company car with a post compartment. The third locomotive and the seventh passenger car each served as a reserve. However, no replacement locomotive was available between the loss of locomotive 1102 in World War I and the subsequent delivery of locomotive 1104 in 1922. The locomotives always drove forward in the direction of Neuötting station, there was no way to turn the locomotives. The baggage car was usually at the end of the train in Altötting.
particularities
Although there was a clear distinction between trams and railways in Bavaria even before the ordinance on the construction and operation of trams (BOStrab) , which came into force in 1938 , the route covered here was in a way a hybrid between a classic tram and a full-fledged railway or local railway.
The reasons for this were, on the one hand, certain operational aspects and, on the other hand, membership of the state railway itself. Because traditionally, classic tram companies in Germany are still operated exclusively by private or municipal shareholders. In addition to this route, the Ravensburg – Weingarten – Baienfurt tram, which was nationalized in 1938, was the only other tram operated by a German state railway. The Deuben freight railway, also licensed as a tram , was built by the Royal Saxon State Railways , but operated by the Dresden tram .
Consequently, the timetable of the steam tram Neuötting Altötting-was therefore always in the respective railway timetable published. Also unusual for a tram: the individual journeys were differentiated by train numbers .
In this context, the typical railway appearance of the railway also played a major role, as classic railway vehicles were used between Neuötting and Altötting. Both the locomotives and the four-axle passenger cars were extremely untypical for the trams of the time.
Not least because of this, the alternative designation Local Railway Neuötting – Altötting is often used in the literature . But also officially the - factually incorrect - name local railway was sometimes used. For example in the general police regulations for the Neuötting – Altötting local railway . In them, a certain maximum speed was prescribed for certain sections of the route. And the description of the Neuötting – Altötting railway line - published in the annual report of the Royal Bavarian State Railway = Administration for the year of operation 1906 - speaks of a local railway.
literature
- Konrad Hierl: The Neuötting – Altötting steam tram . In: Tram magazine, electric local transport - yesterday, today, tomorrow . No. 79 . GeraNova Zeitschriftenverlag, Munich February 1991.
- Dieter Höltge, Michael Kochems: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany 10: Bavaria . EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-88255-391-X .
Web links
- The history of the Altötting – Neuötting steam tramway ( memento from August 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at www.spurensuche-eisenbahn.de
- Annual report of the Royal Bavarian State Railway = Administration, description of the Neuötting – Altötting railway line
- The steam tram in RegioWiki for Lower Bavaria and Altötting
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhard Wanka: The Munich – Mühldorf railway line ( Memento from October 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Searching for traces of the railway - The history of the steam tram line Neuötting - Altötting ( Memento from June 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Dieter Höltge, Michael Kochems: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany 10: Bavaria , EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-88255-391-X
- ^ Corrections and additions to the S + W Railway Atlas Germany
- ↑ a b c d e f Annual report of the Royal Bavarian State Railway; Administration for the operating year; E. Mühlthaler's book and art print shop AG; Munich; 1906;
- ↑ a b The steam train Neuötting – Altötting on www.bahnen.de ( Memento from February 22, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d The history of the town of Neuötting
- ^ Passauer Neue Presse from October 19, 2009
- ↑ Wolfgang Meier chicken: Handbook of German tram, Volume I: The text and illustrations . Munich 1981. page 21.