Euskirchener Kreisbahnen

First line
Former reception building at Liblar-Frauental station
Route length:	30 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	25  ‰
Minimum radius :	70 m, exceptions 60 m
Top speed:	30 km / h
Legend Liblar transfer station Instead of the Donatus pit Eifel route Kalscheuren - Trier 0.0 Liblar Kleinbahnhof / Liblar EKB Liblar Vorbahnhof 2.3 Liblar-Frauental 5.1 Lechenich Gbf (Bliesheimer Weg) 5.6 Lechenich city 6.0 Lechenich Bf 10.2 Erp 11.5 Erp loading point (from 1953) 13.5 Friesheim 15.6 Niederberg -Borr 18.4 Eifel route (see below) Mühlbach and Rotbach 19.3 Mülheim - Wichterich 18.4 In the car workshop 21.5 Oberwichterich 22.5 Frauenberg 24.0 Initially Schmitz / Ditges 25.9 Euskirchen Frauenberger Strasse 27.2 Euskirchen Koelner Strasse Eifelbahn Kalscheuren - Trier Erft 27.8 Euskirchen sugar factory

Eifel route
Route length:	27 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	30  ‰
Minimum radius :	70 m, exceptionally 60 m
Top speed:	30 km / h
Legend First route (see above) 1.3 Niederelvenich 2.4 Oberelvenich 4.5 Nemmenich-Lüssem DKB from Distelrath (standard gauge) Bördebahn Düren - Euskirchen Zülpicher industrial railway (three-track) 7.1 Zülpich city DKB to Embken (standard gauge) 7.8 Hoven Merzenich Gbf 9.6 Flores 10.4 Sinzenich At the Sinzenich paper mill 12.7 Difficult Schwerfen Gbf 16.0 Kommern First the Schaven gravel pit 20.1 Tonwerke Firmenich Instead of the Fritz clay pit 21.0 Firmenich - Obergartzem Tonwerk Breuer Satzvey Vorbahnhof 22.8 Eifel route Kalscheuren - Trier 23.0 Satzvey EKB 24.4 First Krevel 25.4 First pit stone 26.9 Antweiler - Wachendorf Instead of clay and fireclay works 28.5 Calcar (until approx. 1914) 29.7 Arloff (until approx. 1914) Erft Valley Railway

Euskirchener Kreisbahnen (EKB) was the name of a small railway network of 57 km in length in meter gauge , which the district of Euskirchen ( Rhineland ) operated (" own operation "). The district alone bore the costs of building the railway.

Operational management

The lines were built and initially operated by the railway construction company Lenz & Co GmbH on behalf of the district. In 1897 this transferred the management of the company to its daughter, the West German Railway Company (WEG) in Cologne. From 1928 to 1949 it was in the hands of the Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG (VKA) until the then district of Euskirchen took on this task itself.

stretch

First line

As early as the autumn of 1894, sugar beets could be transported between Liblar and Erp . After the completion of the first lines, public goods traffic began on January 26, 1895, and passenger traffic began on March 1, 1895. In addition to beets, the main focus of freight transport was lignite and the briquettes made from it from the large Liblar briquette factories (especially the Donatus mine ).

The starting point of the "Erftlinie" was the Liblar Kleinbahnhof station (later Liblar EKB ), which was initially used together with the Mödrath-Liblar-Brühler Eisenbahn . Liblar is located on the Eifelbahn Cologne - Trier (the station is now called Erftstadt , of which Liblar has been a district since 1969). From here the route led west over the Erft to Lechenich and then turned south to Mülheim-Wichterich. This was the starting point of the "Eifel route" and the operating resources. After eight kilometers, the "first line" reached the district town of Euskirchen, where the Euskirchen Kölner Strasse station was located , 275 meters from the Euskirchen station of the state railway. By May 4, 1897, the trains ended more than a kilometer earlier at Euskirchen West station , later renamed Euskirchen Frauenberger Straße .

Eifel route

The "Eifel line", which starts at Mülheim-Wichterich station and leads to the southwest, was also put into operation in 1895 as far as Zülpich. It crossed the Düren - Euskirchen Bördebahn and reached the Zülpich Stadt train station . Since 1908, this was a shared station with the normal gauge Düren district railway . A 1.4 km walk was required to get to the Zülpich station of the state railway. Until 1908 the "Eifel route" of the Euskirchener Kreisbahn had directly touched this state train station and crossed the route north of the train station at the same height as the Zülpich – Liblar road.

Since August 11, 1895, the route has led from Zülpich south into the Eifel as far as Kommern and then turned to the east, further uphill via Satzvey EKB , where the Eifel route Cologne - Trier was crossed at the same height, and Antweiler -Wachendorf until it reached the end point in Arloff and thus also the Erft Valley Railway Euskirchen - Bad Münstereifel.

Reduction of the services

After three decades, the route network was shortened for the first time. The 4 km long Antweiler-Wachendorf - Arloff section, including the Calcar stop in between, was shut down around 1920 due to unprofitability. In addition, there were no more trains on the “Eifel route” on Sundays and public holidays. Starting in 1937 , the use of a railcar on the "Erft route" led to increased passenger numbers.

Fighting towards the end of World War II caused considerable destruction. According to the timetable from February 1946, all sections except one (Euskirchen Frauenberger Straße - Euskirchen Kölner Straße) were served again.

Despite an economic revival, restrictions soon began. With the establishment of their own bus company on February 13, 1950, attempts were made to positively influence the development. As a consequence, passenger traffic on the rest of the "Eifel route" Mülheim-Wichterich - Zülpich Stadt - Satzvey EKB - Antweiler-Wachendorf was stopped from November 7, 1951, and on August 1, 1955, the Liblar EKB - Niederberg-Borr section followed the "Erft line" and on June 30, 1959 the last section Mülheim-Wichterich - Euskirchen Kölner Strasse. The bus service did not meet expectations and the district sold it to the Deutsche Bundespost in 1959 .

The freight traffic was so dependent on the lignite and sugar beet transports that their discontinuation in 1959 led to their discontinuation on almost all circular railway routes. Only the station Satzvey EKB still siding owner were on the one hand in Antweiler guard village and the other in Firmenich Obergartzem with dolly traffic served. Here came the end of December 31, 1965.

vehicles

Locomotives

At the start of operations, the EKB owned eight two-axle steam locomotives from the Szczecin company Vulcan , plus four very similar locomotives from the manufacturer Hohenzollern . After a few years they were exchanged for more powerful machines within the WEG group, but they were drafted by the military during the First World War .

Talbot railcar type Eifel

From around the early 1920s until the end of operations, the EKB worked with a constant inventory of three C-coupled Henschel machines, three D-couplers from Krauss ( HK 82-93 ) and two slightly different Mallet locomotives from Hohenzollern and the MBK, the latter being was built for the Heeresfeldbahn ( HK 94 to 100 ). From 1937 to 1949 a Frankfurt type multiple unit was used by the Wismar wagon factory for passenger traffic on the Erft route; At the beginning of the fifties, investments were made again in new acquisitions - in two Talbot type Eifel railcars and four small diesel locomotives from KHD ( Deutz A6M 517 R ), which were provided with a simple multiple control and were often used by two coupled to the driver's cab. The former T 1 railcar from Talbot is still in operation with the German Railway Association (DEV), the other (T 2) with the Selfkantbahn . All four diesel locomotives are still there: two on the Train du Bas-Berry museum railway in France, one on the Montreux-Berner Oberland Railway and one also on the DEV.

Passenger cars

During its entire operating time, the EKB worked with ten two-axle passenger cars from Van der Zypen and six four-axle cars from the Cologne company Herbrand . With the introduction of the railcars, some of them could be retired. There were also five noticeably short mail and baggage cars, also from Herbrand.

Freight wagons

Since the EKB saw its main task in the transport of briquettes and sugar beets, the high proportion of open freight wagons should not come as a surprise: From the beginning, 100 two-axle 7.5-ton wagons from the Dortmund wagon factory Both & Tilmann were available, which was increased in 1906 by increasing the superstructure rebuilt to 10 t; at the same time, another 20 four-axle vehicles (15 t) from the same manufacturer were added. After the nationalization of the Bergheimer Kreisbahn in 1914, EKB was able to purchase over 140 additional two-axle 10-tonne trucks from various manufacturers. In 1927, another 14 four-axle vehicles were ordered from Van der Zypen; these 20-tonne trucks had a steel body for the first time.

There were also 22 two-axle and two four - axle boxcars from various manufacturers.

Other special cars

From 1936 the EKB also used around 40 roller stands on the Eifel route  ; for this purpose, two cars were converted into intermediate cars. Another two-axle gondola was fitted with a tank to be used as a weed sprayer.

literature

• Henning Wall: The Euskirchener Kreisbahnen. The first Lenz small train in the Rhineland. Schweers & Wall, Aachen 1999, ISBN 3-89494-107-3 .
• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 4: North Rhine-Westphalia, southern part. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1997, ISBN 3-88255-660-9 , pp. 85-104.

Web links

• Memories of Euskirchener Kreisbahn and "Flutsch" (article Kölner Stadtanzeiger from December 12, 1985)