Ore step railway
The ore level railway was a standard gauge mining railway for the transport of iron ore from the tunnels around Braunesumpf to the blast furnace plant in Blankenburg (Harz) . It was the oldest industrial railway in the Harz .
In 1872 the construction of a blast furnace for smelting the ore from the Hüttenroder field began in Blankenburg . To transport the iron ore, the construction of a coal and steel railway began in the same year, which went into operation on July 3, 1875. Because of the difference in height of almost 180 meters, the railway consisted of five sections that were laid out in terraces on the mountain slope with slight inclines. The ore was tipped from one step to the next on rollers and transported with chutes , which is why the railway was also called the Schurrenbahn .
The railway ran through four tunnels, the longest of which was the Bielstein tunnel at 465.7 meters, which was used to pass through a ridge immediately behind Braunesumpf.
The operation was carried out with five simply designed two-axle steam locomotives , which had been supplied by the machine factory Zorge . One of the locomotives was stationed in a small locomotive shed at each level of the railway .
As early as October 1885, with the commissioning of the Harz Railway from Blankenburg to Tanne, the ore-level railway ended. The resin sheet has been traced out that they ran past in Blankenburg-West directly at the blast furnace plant and with the help of a rack portion on the switchback Michael Stone reached the portal of Bielstein tunnel. The profile of the Bielstein tunnel was expanded for railway operations and a Harz Railway station was created in Braunesumpf. This enabled the ore to be transported on the rack railway and the ore level railway to be discontinued.
In 1966 the Harzbahn (today: Rübelandbahn ) was electrified. Due to the poor state of construction and the difficulties that a renewed profile extension would have caused, the Bielstein tunnel was filled in in 1965 and replaced by a nearby cut.
Web links
- Self-drawn card based on a template
- Historical photos of railways and mining ( Memento from May 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )