Light railway of the Bernburg soda factory

Light railway of the Bernburg soda factory
Train of the field railway
Route length:	2 km
Gauge :	900 mm ( narrow gauge )
Power system :	600 V  ~
Top speed:	30 km / h
Legend 0.0 Opencast loading bunker 0.2 Tunnel (375 m) 0.8 Tunnel (70 m) Depot at the rock cellar Federal Highway 185 At the rock cellar Saale Köthen – Aschersleben railway line 2.0 Sodawerk Bernburg Köthen – Aschersleben railway line

The field railway of the Bernburg soda plant is a field railway in Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt , which is used to transport limestone from the company's own quarry to the Solvay Chemicals GmbH soda plant . Their track width is 900 mm. The approximately two-kilometer route is single-track and electrified.

history

Limestone has been extracted in the open pit north of the plant since 1925. Initially the transport took place with a material ropeway . The narrow-gauge railway started operating in 1958. It replaced the cable car, which was badly worn after the Second World War, and was partly built on its route. The cross-section of the existing tunnels was therefore decisive for the choice of the track width.

Route and operation

Bernburg limestone quarry

In the quarry, the limestone is brought into the narrow-gauge railway wagons via a loading bunker. On the left side of the Saale, the line runs through a 375 m long tunnel, a disused quarry, a smaller 70 m long tunnel, and leads past locomotive sheds with a siding. After passing under the Bernburg bypass of the B 185 , the route climbs steeply to the Saale bridge, which is located downstream directly next to the bridge of the Köthen – Aschersleben railway line . The railway ends on the right bank of the Saale in a modernized unloading bunker. A second bunker has been closed. The rock is transported from the bunker chambers to the kilns via inclined elevators.

vehicles

The locomotive shed with workshop is about halfway on the street Am Felsenkeller. In 1959 four locomotives of the LEW type EL 3 were delivered, which were replaced by the two last locomotives of the same type built in 1978 and which were the last locomotives of this type in regular service nationwide until 2006. In 2006 these were replaced by two new locomotives from Schalke Eisenhütte . As a rule, only one train runs, consisting of an electric locomotive and five Mühlhäuser tippers (saddle floor unloaders), the second electric locomotive is available as a reserve. One of the younger EL 3s was also parked next to the locomotive shed in 2015, while the second machine, delivered in 1978, is to be used as a memorial in the open-cast lime mine. If necessary, the railway is also operated on weekends and public holidays.

Further lines of the soda factory

In the Sodawerk Bernburg performs normalspurige connecting web of LEW V 60 D of the work is navigated.

Web links

Commons : Vehicles of the soda factory  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• From the history of the Anhalt railway: The history of the Bernburger Bahn (Anhalt-Cöthen-Bernburger-Eisenbahn) ( Memento from October 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lothar Brill: Railway tunnels and their tunnel portals in Germany: Pictures of the industrial railway line 96302: Solvay in Bernburg . Retrieved October 4, 2015
2. ^ Bahn-Express - magazine for Werkbahnfreunde: Solvay Alkali GmbH, Köthensche Str. 1, 06406 Bernburg, Saxony-Anhalt (archive) . Retrieved October 4, 2015
3. ^ The narrow-gauge factory railway of Solvay Chemicals. (No longer available online.) In: Lokrundschau No. 248. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved October 4, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Schalke Lokomotiven - References Special Projects ( Memento from October 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved October 4, 2015

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 43.7 "  N , 11 ° 44 ′ 15.5"  E