Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn

Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn (DRKB)
The Radegast train station used to be the center of the route network
Route length:	43.7 km
Gauge :	750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend 0.0 Dessau Radegaster Bahnhof (Altener Str.) (Transition to the Dessau – Leipzig line ) 0.8 Dessau Kochstedter Strasse 5.6 Kochstedt Like Gravel pit 9.1 Diesdorf- Libbesdorf 11.9 Source village 15.6 Hinsdorf 18.9 chapel 20.3 Wehlau 22.4 Zehbitz 24.0 Zehmitz Osterköthen (transition to the Magdeburg – Leipzig line ) Koethen small train station Klepzig Grand bather 4.4 Small bathers Pfriemsdorf 5.8 Libehna Like Sugar factory 7.5 Prosigk 8.5 Cosa 10.5 Gnetsch 11.9 Goelzau 13.9 / 26.3 0.0 Radegast 0.7 domain former Anhalt / Prussia border Fuhnebrücke 1.9 Brick factory 3.5 Zörbig (transition to the Bitterfeld – Stumsdorf route )

The Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn (DRKB) (until November 11, 1926 Dessau-Radegast-Cöthener Bahn (DRCB) , since Köthen spelled itself with "C" up to that day) operated a 750 mm narrow-gauge network around Radegast .

location

The 43.7 km long route network in the almost flat area between Mulde and Saale was mainly in the Duchy of Anhalt ; however only 2.4 km in the Kingdom of Prussia .

history

As early as the 1860s, Radegast called for a railway connection, but various projects did not get beyond the planning stage.

Cöthener Kleinbahn

Formerly the Köthen narrow-gauge station

The railway company Burchard & Co. began in 1893 with preparatory work on a narrow-gauge small railway line from Cöthen (today Köthen ) via Radegast to Zörbig . The line from the small train station in Cöthen to Radegast was opened on October 30, 1896 for agricultural goods traffic (especially sugar beets for the sugar factories in Radegast, Klepzig and Prosigk ) and on November 28, 1896 for passenger traffic. From April 15, 1897, the now 13.9 km long route began in Ostercöthen near the Cöthen state train station. On August 9, 1898, there was also the 3.5 km long connection from Radegast to the Prussian Zörbig.

Dessau small train

Former Station building in Dessau

The Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn-Aktien-Gesellschaft (ADKG) had a stake in the Dessau Kleinbahn, founded in 1895, and has since called it Dessau-Radegaster Bahn . The 26.3 km long small railway line was built by the railway construction and operating company Vering & Waechter . From December 9, 1897 , it connected Dessau , where a separate train station was built in the south-west of the city, via Quellendorf with Radegast.

Dessau-Radegast-Cöthener Bahn

The DRCB was created on September 1, 1899 from the merger of the Dessau Kleinbahn and the Cöthener Kleinbahn . The railway administration was initially in Cöthen, from 1909 in Radegast.

The Zörbig – Radegast section was expanded to three tracks from September 7, 1910 , so that it could also be used by standard-gauge vehicles. These were mainly used for the transport of sugar beets, from which the main part of the income came.

The Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG , which had taken over the DRKB from the ADKG (since 1923 Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-AG) in 1927, shut down the passenger traffic that had never met expectations before the start of the Second World War: on September 15 1938 between Dessau and Quellendorf and on February 19, 1939 on the rest of the network. Due to a lack of material and fuel in the Second World War , bus traffic was discontinued in 1943, so that from September 27th, rail passenger traffic began again. However, the Dessau – Quellendorf line had already been dismantled in 1938, so that the network only had a circumference of 32 km. The route around Kochstedt is still clearly visible; it was partly used for the expansion as a cycle path .

After the war, the DRKB, which belonged to the AG for Transport (AGV) group, was expropriated, shut down on March 21, 1946 and almost completely dismantled as a reparation payment . Only between Köthen and Klepzig was a standard-gauge siding retained for freight traffic. It was transferred to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1949 , where it is still in operation today as a works connection. The connecting switch to the rail network still bears the official name "KLB 1" (KLB for small railroad).

Others

The city of Radegast dedicated a commemorative coin to the DRKB in 2006 on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the inauguration and the 60th anniversary of the line's closure.

Lore

The tradition of the Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn is in the Dessau department of the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives .

literature

• Wolfram Wagner, Gerhard Zieglgänsberger: The history of the Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn (DRKB). German Modellisenbahn-Verb., Dresden District Board, AG 3/58 Traditionsbahn Radebeul-Ost-Radeburg , Radebeul 1990
• Gerhard Zieglgänsberger, Klaus Habermann: survivors. In: Modelleisenbahner issue 10 / year 49/2000. MEB-Verlag GmbH, Bad Waldsee, ISSN  0026-7422 , pp. 36-39.
• Gerhard Zieglgänsberger: Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn. In: Collection of secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany . GERA NOVA publishing house.

Web links

Commons : Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website on disused railway lines - Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn
• www.val-anhalt.de Further homepage with information about the Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn
• Tradition of the Dessau-Radegast-Köthener Bahn in the holdings of the Reichsbahndirektion Magdeburg and Reichsbahndirektion Halle in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department