Railways of the Saarland

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The Saarland Railways ( EdS ) were the " State Railways " of the Saarland from 1951 to 1956.

history

Starting position

After the complete occupation of the German Reich as a result of the Second World War in the summer of 1945, the network of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was divided along the borders of the occupation zones. The Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken, which had existed since March 1, 1935, was now in the French zone of occupation and, in accordance with an order of the military government of January 8, 1946, was subordinated to the "Higher Directorate of the German Railways of the French-occupied Zone" in Speyer together with the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz and Karlsruhe . In the designation valid from August 1, 1946 as " Railway Directorate", the term "Reichsbahn", which was used in all other occupation zones, was clearly avoided.

The Saar Railway becomes independent

When the Saar Protectorate was spun off from the French-occupied zone, it also got its own railway. The previous district of Saarbrücken was divided up:

Railways of the Saarland

On March 3, 1950, the governments of France and Saarland reached an agreement as the basis for what is now known as the “Saarland Railways” (EdS). In this railway convention, which came into force on January 5, 1951, it was regulated that the state government made the existing routes, vehicles and structures available to the EdS as well as their maintenance and the necessary funds. The Minister of Transport supervised the railway administration.

The twelve-person board of directors formed the head of the company, which made all the important decisions. Half of it was made up of German and French members. A director acted as managing director.

The rail network comprised 534 kilometers of railway lines . Not part of the EdS network was the section of the Thionville – Trier railway line in Saarland, which was an island operation in Saarland between the boundary of Nennig in the north and the French state border near Perl in the south , i.e. it had no rail connection to the rest of the EdS network. It was therefore operated by the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). The EdS route network had a very heavy traffic. Rush hour traffic was the main focus of passenger traffic. In freight transport, coal, ore and iron were the most important goods.

As in other parts of Germany, extensive war damage had to be repaired before the modernization of rail operations could begin.

After the Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany on January 1, 1957, the EdS became part of the Deutsche Bundesbahn as the Saarbrücken Federal Railway Directorate .

Rolling material

For the reference date December 31, 1945, a stock of 593 locomotives is given. In this number there could still have been a large number of machines from other departments or machines had to be taken out of service because of irreparability. For April 1, 1947, the number of the Saarland Railways was estimated at 342, which were divided as follows:

Series 38 and 78 from 2006
model series Duration of which "A"
until 1957		 Remarks
38 10-40 50
42 21st 2 including 1 conversion to a heating locomotive
50 80 2
52 14th 1
55 25-56 12 12 2 of which were converted into heating locomotives
56 2-8 8th 8th including 1 conversion to a heating locomotive
57 10-40 80 18th 3420 was also taken out of service, but was still included in the handover list from January 1, 1957
78 0-5 32
86 14th
91 3-18 7th 7th
92 2-3 3 3
92 5-10 10 3
93 5-12 10

The poor condition of the vehicles after the end of the war can be seen from the high number of retired vehicles within ten years. The number of locomotives at the time the Saarland was reclassified and thus the inventory to the German Federal Railroad was still 287 locomotives.

Ten diesel locomotives of the V 45 series (largely identical to the SNCF Y 9100 ), built by SACM in Grafenstaden, and 15  rail buses with trailer type VT 95 from the Lüttgens wagon factory were procured .

literature

  • Peter Arthur Schymanietz: The organization of the German railways 1835-1975. Eisenbahn-Kurier, Freiburg 1977, ISBN 3-88255-822-9
  • Richard Berg: Farewell to the EdS - the railways of the Saarland. in a special issue of the magazine "Die Schiene", Saarbrücken, January 1957
  • Gerhard Groß, Hansjürgen Wenzel: The railway in Saarland. Eisenbahn-Kurier Special 86, Freiburg im Br. 2007

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt Harrer: Eisenbahnen an der Saar, alba-Verlag Düsseldorf 1984, ISBN 387094210X , p. 147ff