Light railway of the Staßfurt soda factory
| Light railway of the Staßfurt soda factory | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Train of the field railway
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| Route length: | 2 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 520 V ~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 25 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The field railway of the Staßfurt soda works is a lorry railway in Staßfurt in the Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt , which is used to transport limestone . Their track width is 600 mm. The line is single-track, electrified and is accordingly operated with electric locomotives.
Promotion of raw materials
Three main raw materials are required for the production of soda : rock salt , limestone and coal . The electric field train at the Staßfurt soda plant is used to transport limestone from the plant's own quarry. The limestone is extracted in the opencast mine, crushed by a crusher and temporarily stored in a loading bunker that is located away from the opencast mine.
history
The large occurrence of soda prompted Chemische Fabrik Magdeburg-Buckau AG to found a subsidiary in Staßfurt on July 27, 1882. Already in the early days there was such a great need for limestone that the horse and carts could not keep up with the funding and the company's needs could not be met. The corporation then decided to build a field railway to be able to transport the rock from the pits near Staßfurt and Förderstedt to the soda plant more effectively.
The annual production of the Staßfurt GmbH & Co. KG soda plant is over 430,000 tons of light soda.
Route and operation
At the loading bunker, the starting point of the light railroad, there is a spacious locomotive shed with a workshop, in which six locomotives of the LEW type EL 12 are housed. However, they only need three machines a day, which operate around the clock in two-train operations. The trains consist of an electric locomotive and four bogie self-unloading cars . If necessary, the railway is also operated on weekends and public holidays.
The locomotive shed and the loading bunker of the limestone mine are located directly next to the main road from Staßfurt to Förderstedt . The subsequent field railway runs, except for the overpass, over the Schönebeck – Güsten railway line next to the loading road to the soda plant, where the bulk goods wagons are unloaded via a ramp.
One of the locomotives has a permanently attached snow plow all year round.
Further lines of the soda factory
A standard-gauge connecting line ran from Staßfurt station to the Staßfurt soda plant and was used by the plant's steam storage locomotives . In 2001, one to two out of three available locomotives were used every day.
Until 1992 there was an in-house diesel network with a 600 mm gauge. Five LKM Ns2f locomotives were last used there.
