Owl Mountain Railway

Dzierżoniów Śląski – Radków Reichenbach (Eulengeb) –Wünschelburg (Heuscheuer)
Course book range :	154k (1944)
Route length:	54.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	60  ‰
Rack system :	Abbot (Silberberg Stadt – Neudorf)
Legend from Katowice by Bielawa Zachodnia Dzierżoniów Śląski formerly Reichenbach (Eulengeb) to Legnica 0.0 Dzierżoniów Dworzec Mały formerly Reichenbach (Eulengeb) Klbf 3.2 Pieszyce Północne formerly Nieder Peterswaldau 4.6 Pieszyce Środkowe formerly Middle Peterswaldau 5.9 Pieszycestadion formerly Peterswaldau Stadium 7.0 Pieszyce Górne formerly Ober Peterswaldau from Dzierżoniów Śląski 10.7 Bielawa Zachodnia formerly Langenbielau Oberstadt 12.9 Kamieniczki used to be stone houses 14.4 Nowa Bielawa formerly Neubielau to Suckertshof 17.5 Ostroszowice formerly Weigelsdorf former district boundary 20.4 Grodziszcze formerly Lampersdorf (Kr Frankenstein) 24.0 Jemna formerly Raschdorf 26.1 Srebrna Góra formerly Silver Mountain City to Ząbkowice Śląskie (formerly Frankensteiner Kreisbahn ) 27.9 Viaduct (90 m) 29.3 Viaduct (90 m) 30.3 Silberberg fortress 513 m Bridge, listed former district boundary 32.7 Nowa Wieś Kłodzka Neudorf (Kr Neurode) 35.0 Wolibórz formerly Volpersdorf 37.2 Dzikowiec formerly Ebersdorf (Kr Neurode) to the Johann-Baptista-Grube to the Gabbrowerk (Kopalnia Gabro) 40.3 Nowa Ruda Słupiec formerly Schlegel (Kr Neurode) 42.1 Słupiec Dolny formerly Nieder Schlegel Wałbrzych Głowny – Kłodzko Głowne from the state train station Connection to the Mittelsteine ​​railway power station 45.4 Ścinawka Średnia Dworzec Mały formerly Mittelsteine ​​Klbf 47.9 Ścinawka Radkowska used to be stones 50.7 Ratno Dolne formerly Rathen-Albendorf 51.7 Ratno Górne formerly Ober Rathen from Heuscheuer loading point 54.9 Radków formerly Wünschelburg (Heuscheuer)

The Eulengebirgsbahn AG was a small railway company in the former Prussian province of Silesia . Its name was derived from the Owl Mountains , which stretch over 35 kilometers and reach an altitude of 1014 m in the Hohe Eule . The company's route began in Reichenbach in the Owl Mountains (Dzierżoniów), crossed the ridge of the Owl Mountains near Silberberg (Srebrna Góra) and led via Mittelsteine (Ścinawka Średnia) to Wünschelburg (Radków) at the foot of the Heuscheuergebirge .

history

The Eulengebirgsbahn AG was founded on July 25, 1899 by the Kingdom of Prussia, the districts of Frankenstein , Neurode and Reichenbach , the cities of Reichenbach and Silberberg along with three other municipalities and by the railway construction and operating company Lenz & Co. , as well as another 43 companies and private investors .

Share of the Eulengebirgsbahn AG dated July 1, 1901, over 1000 marks

The seat of the company and the railway administration was Reichenbach. The company Lenz & Co ran the company until 1945 .

The first section of the standard-gauge small railway was opened on June 1, 1900. It began in the district town of Reichenbach and led south on the edge of the Owl Mountains to the town of Silberberg (26 km), where there was a connection to the Frankensteiner Kreisbahn , which was also operated by Lenz & Co.

The Maschinenfabrik Esslingen supplied three Zahnradlokomotiven of Lenz type z .

Then, starting August 4, 1902, it crossed the mountains with the help of a steep section, which had its apex at 513 m above sea level in the Silberberg fortress station, and the hairpin in the Volpersdorf terminus. An Abt rack system was installed on the 6.6 km long section to Neudorf . After a total of 19 km, the Waldenburg – Neurode – Glatz state railway was reached in Mittelsteine .

Viaduct on the steep section near Silberberg, which was abandoned in 1930 (2013)

The eleven kilometer long continuation led from December 1, 1903 in a westerly direction to Wünschelburg in the Heuscheuergebirge near the Bohemian border.

The Reichenbach district accounted for 19 km of the main route, 12 km for the Frankenstein district and 24 km for the Neurode district, which was incorporated into the Glatz district on October 1, 1932. In addition, there were connecting railways seven kilometers in length, which were only ever used for freight traffic.

On December 15, 1931, the Silberberg – Neudorf line was completely shut down, and with it the cogwheel operation. On the subsequent section to Mittelsteine, only freight trains ran afterwards, so that the small railroad no longer carried people over the Owl Mountains.

A total of seven steam locomotives, 22 passenger cars, four pack wagons and 96 freight cars were available for rail operations in 1939.

After the Second World War , the two sections of the route were taken over by the Polish State Railways .

Passenger traffic was discontinued from 1972 to 1987.

There is regular freight traffic between Ścinawka Średnia (Mittelsteine) and the Gabbrowerk near Słupiec (Schlegel).

On the part of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship as the responsible authority for local public transport, the route from Bielawa Zachodnia to Nowa Bielawa is planned to be reopened by 2023.

Freight railways

• Neubielau – Suckertshof: two kilometers (until 1930)
• Ebersdorf – Johann-Baptista-Grube: two kilometers
• Mittelsteine ​​Klb - railway power station : one kilometer
• Wünschelburg – Heuscheuer loading point: two kilometers

literature

• Siegfried Bufe: Railways in Silesia. Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham et al. 1989, ISBN 3-922138-37-3 ( East German Railway History 4).
• Ryszard Stankiewicz and Marcin Stiasny: Atlas Linii Kolejowych Polski 2014 . Eurosprinter, Rybnik 2014, ISBN 978-83-63652-12-8 , p. F4 and G4

Web links

Commons : Former Owl Mountains Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Dzierżoniów – Radków on bazakolejowa.pl
• Documents and newspaper articles on the Owl Mountain Railway in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Dieter Rammelt, Günther Fiebig, Erich Preuß: Archive of German Small and Private Railways: History of Small and Private Railways. Development • Construction • Operation . extended Edition. Transpress Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-344-71007-9 , p. 111 .
2. ^ Jörg Petzold: News from the Eulengebirgsbahn . In: The Museum Railway . No. 2 , 2019, ISSN  0936-4609 , p. 8 .
3. ↑ [1]