Fond-de-Gras
Fond-de-Gras is a former reloading station for iron ore with associated operating facilities on the Pétange – Bois Châtier railway line . It belongs to the Luxembourg municipalities of Differdange and Pétange .
Place name
Before 1900 the place was called French Fond de Grâce , German grace reason . The current spelling Fond de Gras has nothing to do with the French “gras” (= bold) or the German “Gras”. That is why the "s" in grass is still pronounced as a sharp S and emphasized as if it were grace .
history
In 1875 the railway line to Lamadelaine (former name of the Fond-de-Gras station) was put into operation, four years later the extension to Bois Châtier. The Lamadelaine station was initially just a freight yard that belonged to the reloading station.
Fond-de-Gras is located on the northern edge of the Lorraine iron ore basin and the so-called Minette is only a few meters below the surface. This very thin cover made mining more difficult, so that burglaries often occurred in the mine tunnels . This fact and the low iron content of the ores led to the cessation of mining in the second half of the 20th century. Most recently, ore was mined in the nearby Giele open- cast mining area until the crisis in the steel industry in 1977.
1973 began the first actions to bring the railway back into operation. At the beginning of the 1980s, measures were taken to repair the damage caused by landslides and bridges, which made it possible to resume operations as far as Petingen train station .
Fond-de-Gras has been part of Luxembourg's cultural inventory since 1985. Buildings and facilities were repaired with government assistance. Fond-de-Gras is now part of the European Route of Industrial Culture .
The area around Fond-de-Gras and Fond-de-Gras itself is now used by the locals as a local recreation area.
Museum railway "Train 1900"
_at_Fond-de-Gras_station_(Luxemburgisch_heritage_railway_Train_1900).jpg)
Fond-de-Gras is both a terminus station and the operational center of the “Train 1900”, a museum railway established in the 1970s and operated by the AMTF (Association des Musée et Tourisme Ferroviaires) asbl .
The Fond-de-Gras train station is located at kilometer 5.95 on the former Pétange – Bois Châtier industrial railway , which was bought by the AMTF in 1986. So there are two different directions for the train journey from here. Mainly the section between Fond-de-Gras and Pétange is used. These journeys lead via the Fuusbësch stop (kilometer 2.63) along the heights of Lamadelaine to the terminus in Pétange, opposite the CFL reception building at kilometer 2.2. Alternatively, the section in the direction of the French border is also used. This stretches from Fond-de-Gras to Rodingen , via the Graas stop (km 6.67) near Doihl to the terminus Bois-de-Rodange at km 7.36.
On the last part from Bois-de-Rodange to the end of the line at Bois Châtier on the French border, there are no longer any rails, a forest path has been laid out here that passengers can explore on foot.
The fleet of the "Train 1900" consists of:
- 8 steam locomotives ,
- 2 diesel railcars ,
- 5 diesel locomotives ,
- 2 diesel draisines ,
- 19 passenger cars ,
- 29 freight wagons ,
- and some unusable material from the surrounding ironworks .
The regular travel days take place every Sunday and public holiday from May 1st to the last Sunday in September; there is also the option of renting steam trains, railcars and engine sheds for special trips.
Since 2011, a steampunk convention has been taking place on the site on the last weekend in September .
"Minièresbunn" mine railway
The Fond-de-Gras reloading station was previously supplied with iron ore from the adjacent mine by a mine railway . This operated on a 700 mm narrow-gauge network , most of which is still preserved today or has already been restored. Since the 1990s, the line has been used to operate a museum railway , called Minièresbunn , which connects Fond-de-Gras with the French village of Saulnes . The journey on the almost 4 km long route is divided into several stages:
- The first section runs from the narrow-gauge railway terminus (Fond-de-Gras) to the Doihl transfer point (Rodange) . It is usually driven on by one of two “Krauss” steam locomotives that were already in service here at the time of ore mining. At the stop at Doihl (Rodange) , a former crusher and compressor station from which the iron ore was transported by cable cars to the surrounding ironworks, there is usually a change of locomotive (but entire trains can also be changed), in which the steam locomotive is usually replaced by one of three available AEG - electric locomotives will be replaced.
- The second section, a line electrified with 500 volts direct current , leads through the almost 1,400 m long main conveyor tunnel . Optionally, a stop can be made at the visitor tunnel , which is located about 300 m before the tunnel exit in Lasauvage. Here, small tours through a mining area are offered, and a functioning compressor from 1900 can be demonstrated. Along the route also tools for are mining underground issued. After the underground journey, the train arrives at the Lasauvage mine .
- From the Lasauvage-Bergwerk stop the trains go either (depending on the journey) to the Lasauvage church stop or to Saulnes. Both routes are usually driven with one of two available diesel locomotives, whereby the route between Lasauvage mine and Lasauvage church is also electrified, so that electric engines can be used.
The entire rolling stock, the underground tunnel section, the historical work material, the historical machines as well as all stops are restored, maintained and operated by Minièresbunn Doihl-Rodange asbl in cooperation with the Luxembourg Monument Protection Office.
Attractions
Industrial culture
You can visit the remains of an old ore reloading station as well as structures previously used by the mine administration. You can still view rolling stock of the railway that was used much earlier in the context of iron ore extraction and smelting, but is in very different conditions, as well as former road steam rollers and blast furnaces, for example.
In 1988, a former electrical plant that had previously stood in Hollerich and was operated with steam, was rebuilt in Fond-de-Gras. Until 1980, this had produced electricity for the Paul Wurth studios , the tobacco manufacturer Heintz van Landewyck , the Mercier champagne house and some cities. It consisted of a large steam boiler, a cooling tower and a machine hall in a steel framework construction and produced 250 volt direct current or alternating current. In Fond-de-Gras, however, only the machine hall with its two large horizontal steam cylinders with pistons and the associated electricity generator was built. The two steam cylinders were produced by the Belgian manufacturer La Coyère Belgique , the generator comes from AEG . In addition, a small power transformer from the Belgian manufacturer Constructions électriques de Belgique / Liège has been preserved.
On the opposite side of the machine hall, a former rolling mill was built in the open air. This was built between 1909 and 1912 by the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerksgesellschaft and was in operation between 1913 and 1989 at ARBED in the Esch-Belval ironworks . It was mainly designed for the production of smaller rails (underground installation), but later also produced T and L beams .
The interior of the old grocer's from 1919 comes from the earlier Epicerie Victor Binck from Differdange . The only restaurant that has existed on site since 1882 and parts of the building still correspond to the miner's tavern at that time.
Antique
On the Titelberg , between Fond-de-Gras and Lamadelaine , excavations of a Celtic-Roman settlement have been taking place for decades.
nature
The former open- cast mining area Giele Botter is ideal for long and interesting walks. A variety of biotopes and stages of development can be admired here according to the season. This nature reserve can be hiked through to Pétange.
Fond-de-Gras is also a starting point for the “Poets' Path” ( Sentier des Poètes ). Twelve Luxembourgish authors have each contributed a poem on the subject of the forest.
Web links
- Minett Park Fond-de-Gras (French, English, German)
- Industrial and Railway Park Fond-de-Gras (English, French, German)
- Train 1900 (French, English, German, nl.)
- Minièresbunn (German, French)
swell
- Website of the "Train 1900", route overview (German)
- Facebook page of the "Train 1900"
- Parc industriel et ferroviaire du Fond-de-Gras, "Train 1900" (French)
- Route network of the "Minièresbunn" (Ger.)
- Locomotives of the "Minièresbunn" (Ger.)
- Rolling mill in Fond-de-Gras (French)
- Paul-Wurth-Halle in Fond-de-Gras (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Industrial and driving park of the Train 1900"
- ↑ ANNO 1900 - 1st Steampunk and Gaslight Convention in Luxembourg. (No longer available online.) In: salon.clockworker.de. Archived from the original on February 13, 2017 ; accessed on February 12, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Steampunk Convention Luxembourg 2016 on YouTube , from September 25, 2016
- ↑ CM, "If the silence of the trees bothers me ..." ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Lëtzebuerger Journal , October 22, 2011.
Coordinates: 49 ° 32 ′ 6 ″ N , 5 ° 51 ′ 31 ″ E