Eberswalde-Finowfurt Railway

Eberswalde-Finowfurt Railway
Route number (DB) :	6792
Course book section (DB) :	122k (1946–1961)
Route length:	13.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Minimum radius :	150 m
Top speed:	30 km / h
Legend 2.2 Woodpecker houses Berlin-Szczecin 1.3 Eberswalde waterfall 0.0 0.0 Eberswalde West 1.8 Iron cleavage 4.9 0.0 Finow (Mark) 0.8 Sports park 1.3 Brass work 7.5 Finowfurt East 8.7 Finowfurt 9.6 Finowfurt place

The Eberswalde-Finowfurter Eisenbahn (EFE) operated from 1907 on a 9.6 kilometer long route between the city of Eberswalde and the community of Schöpfurth (today Finowfurt ) and the 1.3 kilometer junction between Heegermühle (today Finow ) - brass works (1914-1970) ) and the 2.2 kilometer long section between Eberswalde and Spechthausen (1931–1945).

In 1924, the Eberswalde-Schöpfurth small railway was converted into a private railway called Eberswalde-Schöpfurther Railway (ESE). The owner remained the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEG) based in Frankfurt am Main . In 1929, the AG for Transport (AGV) in Frankfurt am Main took over ESE. After the merger of Schöpfurth and Steinfurt to Finowfurt, the ESE was renamed the Eberswalde-Finowfurter Eisenbahn (EFE) in 1930.

In 1947 the railway went to the Brandenburg State Railways; 1949 to the Deutsche Reichsbahn . In 1994, Deutsche Bahn AG took over the route. Passenger traffic on the railway was discontinued in 1961, freight traffic in 1996.

history

prehistory

Oberbarnim district, 1905

The rapid economic development of the area (combined with the further development of industrialization in the Finow valley) in the second half of the 19th century required new solutions for transport links. With the construction of the Berlin-Stettin railway line , which was completed on July 30, 1842, to Neustadt Eberswalde in the Oberbarnim district , the foundation stone for the later development of Eberswald into a railway junction was laid.

The line to Stettin was completed on August 16, 1843, the Eberswalde – Frankfurt (Oder) line on May 15, 1877 and the Britz - Fürstenberg / Havel line on August 16, 1899 . On January 7, 1878, the main royal workshop for repairing locomotives and wagons was opened. Later it changed to the Reichsbahn repair shop. The Deutsche Bahn AG operates it today as a vehicle maintenance plant ( DB Werk Eberswalde ). In addition, the Eberswalde station bridge was built near the station, which was removed by the police on June 27, 1910.

The companies in the Finow Valley have not yet been connected to the Berlin-Stettin railway line. Companies such as Hüttenwerk AG, Messingwerke AG , Papierfabrik Wolfswinkel and Schering-Kahlbaum AG pushed more and more for a connection to the state railway network. In 1898 there were first plans for a narrow-gauge connecting railway from Eberswalde to Schöpfurth. The project was not implemented due to financial difficulties and the lack of interest on the part of the city of Eberswalde.

In 1904, the AG for Railway Construction and Operation (BBB) ​​in Frankfurt am Main agreed to assume most of the costs of building a standard-gauge railway line. The Oberbarnim district also contributed financially. The concession to build and operate the railway line was granted on January 17, 1906 by the royal government president. Construction work on the line began in February 1906 and made rapid progress as far as Heegermühle. On the following section of the route, swampy terrain and some hills caused difficulties.

opening

Heegermühle station and station restaurant (today Finow), before 1910

On March 1, 1907, therefore, the state police approval of the section between Eberswalde and Heegermühle took place. Three days later, on March 4, 1907, the first passenger trains ran ( Borsig - steam locomotives Dn2vt and two-axle passenger cars). There were also freight cars for the transport of goods and materials. Despite the difficult terrain, the entire route could be completed within the next seven months.

However, at 1.1 million Reichsmarks , the construction costs were higher than expected. In addition, the introduction of the small railroad trains in the state train station (today Eberswalde Hauptbahnhof ) was not possible because the government builder Hoffmann refused to have the line built over his private property. A separate train station had to be built around 500 meters further west on the route to Schöpfurth. Sidings led from the Kleinbahnhof to the Eberswalde State Station. This meant that the city of Eberswalde was unable to realize its plans to cross the station bridge.

The police inspection of the section between Heegermühle and Schöpfurth for local freight and passenger traffic took place on October 16, 1907. Operations began on the same day. The owner and operator of the Kleinbahn Eberswalde-Schöpfurth were the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEG) and the AG für Bahn-Bau und -betrieb (BBB), both based in Frankfurt am Main. The "Eberswalder Zeitung" wrote on October 17, 1907:

“The state police inspection of the Eberswalde-Schöpfurth small train took place at 12 noon this morning. On the part of the owner of the railway, the German Railway Company in Frankfurt a. M., the gentlemen were General Director Koehler and Director Reufeld from Frankfurt a. M. present, on the part of the Royal. Government in Potsdam were the head of the railway department, Councilor Baron von Grunwald, the Secret Construction Councilors Seeliger and Blumenthal, as well as the Government and Building Councilor Krause. The gentlemen took a special train to Schöpfurth and then returned to Heegermühle. "

The name “Kleinbahnhof” for the starting point of the railway line towards Schöpfurth in the Westend district of Eberswalde (at that time still largely undeveloped) was created. The train station in Westend was given a loading track, a siding into which a weighbridge was installed, and an installation track, which was also intended to be used for loading the wood brought in from the urban forest. In addition, a two-story entrance building with an attached goods shed and an auxiliary building were built.

The heyday of passenger transport

For power plant Heegermühle was transported via a railway siding from 1909 coal.

From 1910, the tram served as a feeder to the small train.

1909 Märkischen power stations built by the architect Georg Klingenberg the coal plant Heegermühle and transported the coal on a siding. In 1914 the 1.3 kilometer long branch line from Heegermühle to the brass works on the Finow Canal was opened for freight traffic and in October 1917 for passenger traffic as well.

In addition to freight (other companies were connected), passenger traffic developed at a rapid pace. In the remaining months of 1907, the small train carried around 21,000 people. In 1915 there were already 338,000 passengers carried. After all, in 1920 almost a million (987,895 passengers) traveled by rail.

On April 1, 1924, the Kleinbahn was converted into a private railway called Eberswalde-Schöpfurther Eisenbahn AG (ESE). The owner remained the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEG) and the operator was the AG for Railway Construction and Operation (BBB). On January 1, 1929, DEG was taken over by the AG for Transport (AGV). For this purpose, the BBB was again renamed the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEG). The owner was now AGV in Berlin and the operator was DEG in Frankfurt am Main. After the merger of the communities of Schöpfurth and Steinfurt to form Finowfurt, ESE was renamed Eberswalde-Finowfurter Eisenbahn AG (EFE) in 1930.

The Eberswalde-West station (in the vernacular "Kleinbahnhof") did not remain the easternmost end point (in the case of passenger transport, in the case of goods transport it had never been an end point) of the railway line towards Finowfurt. On April 17, 1931, the 2.2 kilometer stretch from Eberswalde towards Spechthausen was opened . In addition to the existing “Wasserfall” stop on the Eberswalde-Berlin railway line, another platform has now been set up for the Sunday trains of the Kleinbahn coming from Finowfurt. Extra trains were used by travelers to visit the big song festivals or the popular waterfall concerts. Even when a new place, namely Finow, was organized in Finow (from Heegermühle in 1928 through the amalgamation of previously independent communities and former manor districts) or Finowfurt shooting festivals or competitions in the Heegermühler Sportpark, special trains of the small railroad were used.

The Eberswalde tram , which started in 1910, served as a feeder . At the Kleinbahnhof it crossed the tracks of the Eberswalde-Finowfurt railway. In 1940 the tram was replaced by the trolleybus that still operates today . In addition to the waterfall and Eberswalde-West, there were the following train stations and stops on the route: Eisenspalterei, Finow (Mark), Sportpark, Messingwerk, Spechthausener Weg (from 1950 Finowfurt Ost), Finowfurt train station and Finowfurt Ort.

Increase in freight traffic

The Wismar rail bus used the route from 1933

Aerial photo of the brass works around 1930 with connection to the small train

The opening of Kraftpost lines of the Reichspost from November 10, 1924 gradually through the area traveled by the railroad brought a decline in passenger transport, which was initially offset by the increasing quantities of goods that were transported. The volume of goods tripled from 229,000 tons (1930) to 683,000 tons (1942).

Especially during the time of National Socialism between 1933 and 1945, numerous Eberswalde companies were involved in the armaments industry in a wide variety of ways. The Eberswalde-Finowfurt Railway mainly benefited from this because it had many connections to these companies and was responsible for transporting the freight cars. In 1936, 15 companies were affiliated with EFE, including the Spechthausen paper mill.

From 1874 to 1945, the paper factory produced the paper for the Reich cash bills and almost all banknotes as well as letters of value and credit, shares, checks and other securities for the German Reich . The paper for the false pound notes , which were dropped by the security service (SD) in London during Aktion Bernhard in the Second World War, to destabilize the British currency , also came from Spechthausen. In terms of printing technology, this state contract was implemented in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

The names of the following companies with their own siding are known:

• Spechthausen paper mill
• Eberswalder terrestrial company
• Märkische Elektrizitätswerke, material collection warehouse
• Ardelt works
• Eisenhüttenwerk Hoffmann & Motz, iron cleavage
• Chemical factory Schering-Kahlbaum
• Märkische Elektrizitätswerke, Finow power station
• Metallwerke Gallkowski & Kielblock
• Ihmsen & Lingner roofing felt factory
• Hirsch copper and brass works
• Impregnation and sawmill Ernst Mametschke
• Hermannsmühle (sawmill)
• Hubertusmühle (impregnation plant)
• Karl Hallier, Schöpfurther Mühle

Competition from buses

Persons and quantities of goods carried

year	people	Goods (t)
1907	21,278	16,447
1915	338.406	147,362
1920	987.895	267,777
1925	405,562	285,707
1930	342,386	228.921
1935	221,337	312.510
1939	690.341	442,742
1942	1,278,910	682,600

From 1933 onwards, the new rail bus provided a certain balance to the bus competition . After more than 25 years of service, the steam locomotives were to be replaced by more modern type B light railcars from the Wismar wagon factory. On October 8, 1933, the vehicle (top speed 45 kilometers per hour) was first used in Brandenburg .

The Wismar rail bus (popularly known as “anteater”) was ten meters long and weighed around six tons when empty. Particular attention was paid to the design of the rail bus running gear. The axles had roller bearings and particularly elastic leaf springs. The wheels also had a strong rubber pad between the tread and the wheel disc, so that shocks and noises could be significantly dampened. The car had an engine on either end.

In the period that followed, the passenger trains hauled by steam locomotives were largely replaced by the new rail buses. But even the “Finow Valley Bus” - despite the benevolent reception by the citizens of the region - was unable to stop the decline in passenger transport with the small train.

Due to the strong competition from buses, which with their shorter cycle times and a larger number of stops were better able to respond to people's wishes, passenger traffic on the railway line continued to decline. After 406,000 people in 1925 and 342,000 passengers in 1930, in 1935 there were only 221,000 passengers traveling by small train. In 1933 ten trains ran from Eberswalde to Finowfurt and nine trains in the opposite direction. The journey time was an average of 20 minutes.

After the outbreak of World War II, the restrictions on fuel quotas resulted in a significant shift in passenger transport from road to rail. The number of passengers rose from 690,000 (1939) to 1.3 million (1942). In order to expand the excursion traffic on the route, the EFE in 1940 ordered a four-axle “Mosel” railcar, which was first used on September 1, 1944. A few months later, the railcar was used to flee the Red Army to West Germany and then parked in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Leinhausen in Hanover .

Development after the Second World War

Wismar rail bus

In 1945 the line to Spechthausen was closed and the line dismantled. The underpass through the Berlin-Stettin line was filled in. In the same year, passenger traffic on the section between Finow and Messingwerk was discontinued. The Eberswalde-Finowfurt railway survived the war without major damage and was used to transport dismantled machines and systems from companies involved in the armament to the Soviet Union .

With the "Ordinance on the organization, management and administration of the provincial industrial and commercial enterprises in the Province of Brandenburg" of October 19, 1946, the EFE was de facto expropriated. On May 1, 1947, the railway went to the Brandenburg State Railways. On March 9, 1949, the Economic Commission decided to subordinate all public transport railways to the Soviet occupation zone of the German State Railroad (DR). On the basis of this decision, the DR took over the operation and administration of the EFE on April 1, 1949. On January 1, 1950, the EFE became the property of the DR.

The use of the Wismar rail bus initially ended in 1945. In that year, the Ford engines of both vehicles were confiscated by the Soviet Army. After a stay in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Dessau in 1953, the former EFE T 122, now VT 133 502, was put back into service in the same year. As before, it was used on the route between Eberswalde and Finowfurt. The former EFE T 121, now designated as VT 133 501, was also refurbished. Nothing is known about his further use with the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

In addition to these two railcars, two other diesel railcars were in use on the route in the 1950s. On September 4, 1953, the VT 133 510 first came to the Bahnbetriebswerk (Bw) Eberswalde. Its use lasted until February 10, 1956. From January 5, 1956, the Eberswalde depot introduced the VT 133 515 into its portfolio. The vehicle was stationed here until June 2, 1956. In the same year, the use of railcars on the route was ended. Then tank locomotives of the DR series 91.13-18 and former private railway locomotives of the DR series 92.64 and the port railway Stettin No. IX did service. The latter machine was delivered to the Stettiner Hafenbahn in 1918 by Friedrich Krupp AG with the serial number 1 762. In the area of ​​the Stettin Railway Directorate , it was numbered IX. After 1945 it was found in the area of ​​the Reichsbahndirektion Greifswald and was given the number 92 3333. This locomotive was at home in Eberswalde from 1958 to 1962.

Load from freight and military transport

Class 52 steam locomotives ran on the route from 1963.

Class 101 diesel locomotives were in service from 1972.

Because of the heavy load from the Soviet military transports, the main line to Finow station and the siding to Finow airfield and the ammunition depot near Biesenthal were expanded around 1955 for an axle load of 21 tons. From 1959, the construction of the new rolling mill on the site of the former brass works in Finow led to a sharp increase in freight traffic. That is why passenger traffic was increasingly restricted in favor of omnibus traffic. In the winter timetable 1959/1960, only three passenger trains were used on weekdays. Finally, with effect from May 28, 1961, passenger and luggage traffic on the Eberswalde-Finowfurt route was discontinued and continued as a replacement rail service until May 25, 1963 .

In 1963, the Deutsche Reichsbahn replaced the private railway locomotives with steam locomotives of the DR class 52 . In the following years the railway line continued to be used for the transport of goods by the connected industrial companies and troop transports for the Soviet army. A curiosity in Finowtal's railway history was the chemical factory's shunting locomotive. The type C steam storage locomotive did not have a furnace; for short journeys the steam could be stored, which then drove the locomotive. In 1970 the connecting line to the former brass works was shut down and partially dismantled. The Deutsche Reichsbahn now served the Finow rolling mill exclusively via an industrial line branching off north of Eberswalde station.

In 1972 the use of steam locomotives on the route between Eberswalde and Finowfurt was ended. After that, mostly only diesel locomotives of the DR series 106 and 110 drove , to a lesser extent the DR series 101 . In addition, there were use of light combustion railcars (LVT) of the 171 series . The Deutsche Reichsbahn occasionally used this LVT for tours on the connecting railways. The DR class 03.10 was also used in front of troop trains of the Soviet Army to Finow .

Cessation of operations

In 1996 the last train of the small railway went to crane construction.

Former Westend train station, 2009

With the economic decline from 1990 onwards, the shift of freight volume to the road and the withdrawal of the CIS armed forces in 1994, freight transport also became increasingly rare. On January 1, 1994, the newly founded Deutsche Bahn AG took over the line.

In 1995, a shutdown had to be introduced on Saturday noon due to a lack of transport between Eberswalde and Finowfurt. In the last few months until freight traffic was discontinued, operating the route from Monday to Friday was sufficient for the low load traffic. The last customers included the Finowfurt impregnation plant and Eberswalde crane construction, a fuel trade in iron cleavage.

On December 4, 1995, the last shunting trip to the impregnation plant in Finowfurt took place. The line between Eisenspalterei and Finowfurt was shut down on December 31, 1995. When the crane building operations in Eberswalde ceased on March 4, 1996, traffic on the line ended. The entire route has been demolished since the beginning of April 2010.

Plans to reopen the line as a tourist railway for the 2002 State Garden Show in Eberswalde failed. The former work locomotive 1 of the Finowtal chemical factory is a memorial in the Eberswalde family garden as a reminder of the numerous connecting railways between Eberswalde and Finowfurt .

Route

Eberswalder district "Westend" with the site of the Deutsche Bahn AG (above)

Eberswalde West station, 2010

Expanded tracks at the former Boldstrasse level crossing, 2010

From the small train station in Eberswalde the journey went in a curve through the (then) urban forest to the Eisenspalterei train station (2.2 kilometers). At kilometer 1.6, a siding branched off in the direction of Eberswalde for a transhipment point to be built by the city of Eberswalde on the Finow Canal . The main track of this junction continued to the Märkische Eisengießerei from FW Friedeberg, also located on the Finow Canal.

At the height of the kilometer 1,865, a siding branched off after the ironworks of Hoffmann & Motz in Eisenspalterei (later the old rolling mill). After passing the half-timbered building at Eisenspalterei station, the traveler drove through the Royal Forest and reached Heegermühle station (today Finow) at 5.2 km. Before that, a junction (kilometer 3.2) was created for the linoleum plant (later Chemische Werke Finowtal).

Heegermühler Bahnhof was given a bypass track, which also served as a loading track, and a ramp track. The two-story, massive reception building contained the ward officer's apartment on the ground floor. The goods shed was attached to the station building. At kilometer 5.414, a siding branched off after the stone loading area of ​​Ferdinand Weber's Heegermühler steam brickworks (Weber's shelf in Finow / Messingwerk).

From the Heegermühle station, the train turned in an arc to the left and immediately afterwards - after crossing Biesenthaler Strasse - with an opposite arc to the right again. Grooved rails had to be inserted in Biesenthaler Straße, which was crossed at an angle of 16 degrees, so that carts could pass the street unhindered. The Schöpfurth terminus was then reached at km 9.0. In addition to the station building and goods shed, the station received a locomotive shed with a workshop and warehouse. Coal and water station completed the facility. A track branched off from the station to the Schöpfurther mills. Branch lines led from Heegermühle to the brass works and from Eberswalde in the direction of Spechthausen.

From the Heegermühle train station, the route to the brass works branched off in an easterly direction. It ran along the sports park, crossed Schöpfurther Straße and then reached the end point, the brass factory on the Finow Canal with a loading point on the Hohenzollern Canal (today Oder-Havel Canal ). The branch in the direction of Spechthausen ran past the tracks of the Eberswalde state train station (now the main train station) in order to then reach the underpass of the Berlin – Stettin railway line . Then he led through a wooded area and crossed the blackness on a concrete bridge . After a few meters it reached its end point directly at the Spechthausen paper factory.

EFE locomotives

Regular locomotives

The following locomotives were used:

design type	Manufacturer	Construction year	Factory no.	Working time
Dn2vt	Borsig	1906	5908	1907-1926
Dn2vt	Borsig	1906	5909	1907-1926
C1'n2t	Borsig	1903	5185	1925-1952
C1'n2t	Borsig	1908	6810	1925-1956
Cn2t	Vulcan	1895	1510	1927-1928
C1'n2t	Borsig	1903	5184	1927-1936
Dn2vt	Henschel	1936	23071	1937-1967
Dn2vt	Henschel	1938	23665	1938-1967

Loan locomotives

The following rental locomotives were used:

design type	Manufacturer	Construction year	Factory no.	Working time
Bn2t	Hohenzollern	1901	1220	1914-1918
Dn2vt	Borsig	1908	6680	1914-1925
B1n2t	Henschel	1895	4294	1918-1920
Cn2t	Hanomag	1891	2311	1918-1920
Cn2t	Hartmann	1889	1601	1918-1922
Cn2t	Henschel	1885	1892	1922-1923
Cn2t	Schichau	1893	665	1928-1940
C1'n2t	Borsig	1901	5013	1931-1934
1'Ch2t	Henschel	1927	20231	1940-1945
Dn2vt	Borsig	1903	5186	1943-1946
Dn2vt	Henschel	1925	20508	1944-1945

Railcar

The following railcars were used:

design type	Manufacturer	Construction year	Factory no.	Working time
AA bm	Wismar	1933	20219	1933-1945
AA bm	Wismar	1933	20231	1934-1945
(1A) '(A1)'	WUMAG	1938	22175	1944-1945

literature

• Heiko Bergmann: The Eberswalde-Finowfurt Railway. Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-933254-02-7
• Ronald Krüger, Ulrich Pofahl, Mattis Schindler: Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus. GVE-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X
• Rolf Löttgers: In the anteater to Finowfurt. Eisenbahn-Magazin 8/96, pp. 28-29, ALBA-Verlag
• Erich Preuß: Archives of German small and private railways: Brandenburg / Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-344-70906-2
• Horst Regling: Eberswalde West-Finowfurt. Collective work "secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany". 11. Supplementary delivery, GeraNova-Verlag, Munich 1996
• Andreas Wegemund: The Eberswalde depot . The history of a technical department of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, ISBN 3-88255-443-6

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lokomotive.de: Opening dates of the routes in East Germany 1837 to 1976
2. ↑ The Märkische Elektrizitätswerk. Presentation, Stadtwerke Eberswalde, 2006
3. ↑ State Main Archives Brandenburg: Brandenburg Archives (PDF; 1.2 MB)
4. ^ British Association of Paper Historians: The Exeter Papers, Studies in British Paper History ( Memento November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Statistics of the railways in the German Empire. Series A. Fiscal years 1934 (vol. 55) to 1942 (vol. 63). Series B. Fiscal years 1933 (vol. 54) to 1941 (vol. 62), Berlin Reichsdruckerei / Mittler & Sohn (sales) 1934–1944
6. ↑ Eberswalde family garden: Steam storage locomotive ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Heiko Bergmann: The Eberswalde-Finowfurter Eisenbahn , Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-933254-02-7

Web links

• Bahnstrecken.de
• Berliner-Bahnen.de
• Lokomotive.de