Rechtenstein field railway

Rechtenstein field railway
Route
Route length:	0.7 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Country:	Germany
State:	Baden-Württemberg
Opening:	1922

Track position at the Danube bridge, looking towards the power plant. From here the track runs next to Landesstraße 249.

The Rechtenstein Feldbahn is a Baden-Württemberg narrow-gauge railway that connects the Rechtenstein station with the Rechtenstein hydropower station .

history

In 1905, the former Rechtenstein mill on the Danube was converted into an industrial hydroelectric power station and used for cellulose and paper production from then on . Because the Rechtenstein train station was located outside of the production facility in the center of the town, an electrical connecting railway was to establish the connection there right from the start. However, this did not succeed straight away. The project was not started again until 1911, but was then further delayed by the First World War and later by administrative hurdles.

It was not until June 12, 1922, that the Ministry of the Interior granted the paper manufacturer Hermann Krum the operating license for the approximately 700-meter-long electric field train with a track width of 600 millimeters. The Esslingen machine works supplied a small electric locomotive with a central driver's cab. With their help, the factory could be supplied with wood, and a storage area was set up at the station. In return, the fibrous materials produced in Rechtenstein could be transported to the train station in order to be reloaded onto freight wagons on the standard-gauge railway line Ulm – Sigmaringen and transported to the Scheer paper mill for further processing .

The installation of an electric field track is comparatively rare, only very few were or are electrified. Today this still applies, for example, to the international Rhine regulation railway and the field railway of the Staßfurt soda plant . In principle, electrical operation of light railways is only worthwhile if the route remains the same and if it is possible to obtain inexpensive electricity on site. Both conditions were met in Rechtenstein.

After a truck rammed the railway locomotive at the end of the 1960s, repairs no longer seemed possible. As a result, it was scrapped and the overhead line removed. Subsequently, the rail freight carts were pulled for a decade with a Unimog , and later with tractors . At the end of the 1970s, the operator procured even larger trucks from western Switzerland. At the end of 1993 , what was then the last independent wood pulp factory in the European Union had to cease operations, which meant that the railway was no longer needed.

But since 1984 a private person has been driving the route with a self-made handdraisine . In this context, the idea arose to let the train run to the Rechtensteiner grocer's markets, which take place twice a year. In 1994 a used diesel locomotive from the Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik from 1936 was procured and two wagons were converted into passenger cars. With a license dated October 31, 2014, the railway has been operating as an official museum railway since then and is operated on certain days of the year in accordance with the Baden-Württemberg State Cable Car Act (LSeilbG).

course

The route begins on the station forecourt of Rechtenstein, the former reloading area was on the eastern side of the station building. From there it follows - initially parallel to the main line - the Bahnhofstrasse on the right side of the street. About 200 meters after the station, the field railway crosses the lane and from here follows the bank of the Danube upstream. At kilometer 0.4, it crosses Landesstraße 249 coming from Obermarchtal , then follows Hayinger Straße and finally ends on the site of the hydropower plant, today: Dipl.-Ing. Elmar Reitter - hydropower plants .

literature

rvo: Feldbahn Rechtenstein . In: IBSE-Telegram 275 (October 2013), p. 4.

Web links

48.23998 9.54899Coordinates: 48 ° 14 '24 " N , 9 ° 32' 56" E