Standard station (Württemberg)

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Track side of the station of Kupferzell (Type IIa), photo from 1895

Unit station was the name for a standardized station reception building that the Royal Württemberg State Railways (KWStE) built mainly for branch lines . Between 1892 and around 1903, 59 buildings in three different variants were built nationwide.

history

Opening sections of the Württemberg state railway network with standard stations (marked in red, expansion status 1920)

In Württemberg the state initially intended to leave the construction of branch lines to private initiatives. After only a few companies took up this option, it was not until 1887 that the law for the construction of the first state branch line from Schiltach to Schramberg was passed . The Nagold – Altensteig , Reutlingen – Honau and Waldenburg – Künzelsau routes soon followed. Since the state's funds for the construction of the route were limited and it demanded financial support from the mostly less well-off neighboring communities, the principle of thrift also applied to the construction of railway stations, among other things.

Individual train stations were built on the Schiltach – Schramberg (opened October 1892), Nagold – Altensteig (opened December 1891) and Reutlingen – Honau (opened June 1892) routes. The Waldenburg – Künzelsau line, opened in October 1892, was the first in which the KWStE switched to standardizing the station buildings due to cost pressure. In contrast to the similar buildings on the Reutlingen – Honau line, the standard stations were designed more simply, for example the crooked hip roof was omitted in favor of a gable roof .

Until about 1903, the Württemberg standard station was used on all newly built branch lines of the KWStE at many stations, then again in 1908 and 1911 on the Wieslauftalbahn in Rudersberg and Welzheim . It was the only identical type of station in the country. By the beginning of the 20th century, the unit train station was with its chalet style with the emerging home style as out of date. In addition, the KWStE took greater account of regional architectural elements in the station buildings built later, so that the same types were only created along one route.

The only standardized station built for a main line is located in Stuttgart-Münster on the Stuttgart-Untertürkheim-Kornwestheim freight bypass line . The private Filderbahn company built its station building between Möhringen and Neuhausen on the basis of this type and only slightly modified it.

After the station building of Kupferzell on the stove Valley Railway, which is probably is the first unit train station at all, was no longer needed, it was from 1989 to 1990 in the Hohenlohe Open Air Museum Wackershofen translocated and 2000 at the new breakpoint "Wackershofen" the railway Crailsheim- Heilbronn reopened. Today it can be viewed there in a faithfully restored condition.

Types and equipment

Type IIa (in Steinheim an der Murr)
Type IIa from Kupferzell in the Wackershofen Open Air Museum
Type IIIa (in Brackenheim), plan from around 1896

Depending on the importance of the station, the buildings were built in three different sizes (I, IIa, IIIa), with the larger ones later being developed in a stretched version (IIb, IIIb). The type was not directly related to the rank of the station, mostly types I and II for station class IV ("stop") and type III for class III ("station"). What they all have in common is the central building, to which the goods shed has been built on one side and an open waiting hall on the other .

  • Type I (“service building without an apartment”) was single-story, eight meters long, seven meters wide and had a service room, a waiting room and a small entrance room with a ticket office .
  • Type IIa ("service building with an apartment for the board of directors") was three-story, 8.5 meters long and seven meters wide. On the ground floor there was the service room, a waiting room and an entrance room with ticket issuance. The tightly dimensioned official apartment for the station management extended over the first floor and the attic. The larger Type IIb was ten meters longer and had four instead of three windows in length.
  • Type IIIa ("service building with one apartment each for the station master and a married guard") was also three-story, but measured eleven meters in length and eight meters in width. In addition to the entrance and service room, the ground floor had separate waiting rooms for the 2nd and 3rd class. The station management's apartment was on the first floor, with an additional room on the top floor. The other rooms in the attic were intended for a guard. The larger type IIIb was longer at 12.5 meters and mostly had double windows. Special characteristic of the type III are the paired bull's eye window at the gable end of the attic.

The foundations of the standardized stations already rest on a concrete base . The base of the vaulted cellar was carved ornamental blinded . The ground floor and the first floor were made of brick - lined half-timbered construction and were clad with wood. The roof is covered with double-seam tiles . The original paintwork probably consisted of light and dark brown tones, although the Deutsche Bundesbahn often switched to blue-gray tones when it was repainted, for example in Marbach an der Lauter , Oberstenfeld or Maselheim . The furnishing of the train stations, such as clocks , stoves and furniture , was made from standard parts in mass production . Electric light was used for the lighting from the start .

The waiting hall measures five by five meters. If the station was still in operation, the hall was mostly replaced by a modern bus shelter. Only Owen and Unterlenningen have been used to this day. The goods shed of types I and II is 5.8 meters wide, the type III is 6.4 meters. The length always varies depending on the expected freight volume, and the shed often had to be extended afterwards. Waiting hall and goods shed were built in boarded, non-walled half-timbered construction, the roofs were covered with zinc sheet. A standardized exit building belonged to each of the stations , which was located away from the reception building for reasons of hygiene. The wooden shelf, separated into service and private wood, was also located here . The inhabited types II and III always had a kitchen garden for the railway staff.

style

Railway station in Mannenbach-Salenstein, Canton Thurgau (January 2009)

The Württemberg standard stations have board cladding and shingles on the outside , the latter only being used for types II and III for the ground floor. The frames of the doors and windows, as well as the ends of the rafters and the roof beams are decorated. Characteristic is the far outstanding entablature .

With their economical and rustic appearance, the buildings convey less the mostly historicist railway station architecture of the 1890s, but rather the chalet or country house style of the 1870s, which the architects probably thought appropriate for a rural station building. The unit station is similar to older stations in the foothills of the Alps , for example the Mannenbach station on the lake line in the Swiss canton of Thurgau , which opened in 1875 .

At the time of construction, the type was probably already out of date, but at the latest with the emergence of the more playful home style at the beginning of the 20th century.

In the model

The most popular types IIa and IIIa found their way into the program of the model railway manufacturers: Kibri offers the type IIa as "Bahnhof Unterlenningen" in nominal size N and as "Bahnhof Dettingen" in nominal size H0 . From Faller there is the type IIIa in H0 as a model of Güglinger station. In cooperation with Toppmodell, the company Noch offers a kit of the Honau train station, the predecessor of Type III, as an H0 model. Toppmodell also offered type I kits as Kleinbottwar and Haag. The Busch company has included a laser cut kit for the Kupferzell reception building in its range.

List of standard stations

Murr: Type I, subsequently topped up
Type IIIa (in Marbach (b Gomadingen))
Stuttgart-Möhringen: Type IIIa
Geislingen-Altenstadt: Type IIb

The list names all built standard stations, sorted according to the opening sections of the railway lines.

In addition, the subsequently built Ebhausen station on the Nagold – Altensteig line was given a type IIa station building in 1895/96.

literature

  • Albrecht Bedal: Early secondary railway and first standard station. On the history of the Kupferzell rail connection . In: The station from Kupferzell. The story of a station building in Württemberg and the Waldenburg – Künzelsau branch line . Hohenloher Freilichtmuseum, Schwäbisch Hall 2001, ISBN 3-9806793-3-0 , p. 45-60 .
  • Rainer Stein: The Württemberg standard station on branch lines . In: Eisenbahn-Journal Württemberg-Report . tape 1 , no. V / 96 . Merker, Fürstenfeldbruck 1996, ISBN 3-922404-96-0 , p. 80-83 .

Web links

Commons : Einheitsbahnhof (Württemberg)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files