Herdorf – Unterwilden railway line

Herdorf – Unterwilden
Route number (DB) :	9275
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	C2
Minimum radius :	180 m
Legend von Betzdorf (victory) Herdorf according to Haiger Strut huts Neunkirchen North Salchendorf Junction Pfannenberg today's end of the route Hairpin Pfannenberg Connection to the Pfannenberg mine Underwild Hairpin Connection to the Bautenberg mine 353 m

The Herdorf – Unterwilden line is a branch line in the southern Siegerland . The first kilometer of the approximately 8 km long route, which is now partially disused, runs in Rhineland-Palatinate , the rest in North Rhine-Westphalia . The line was built by the Freie Grunder Eisenbahn AG , founded in 1904 . The operation was carried out by the AG for Railway Construction and Operation (BBB).

history

Planning

There has been ore mining and smelting in the Siegerland for centuries. Despite the good ore quality, numerous mines had to close in the 19th century because the transport costs became too high. With the construction of the railway from the 1860s, the situation eased. Nevertheless, many pits remained without a rail connection. In the Neunkirchen area, many pits used field and horse-drawn trams to get to the nearest train stations.

In the 1890s plans were made for a railway line in the Heller and Wildebach valleys . Above all, the railway should serve the economy in the open ground . In 1898 a committee was formed in Neunkirchen to deal with these plans. The route should run from Herdorf to Wilgersdorf and connect to all of the major mines. As early as 1897, meetings were held with representatives from industry and the communities of Wilden, Wilnsdorf and Wilgersdorf as well as officials from the offices of Wilnsdorf and Burbach.

In March 1898 an elaborated plan was presented to the government in Arnsberg. The government gave permission to build.

So on December 7, 1904, the Freie Grunder Eisenbahn AG was founded by the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEAG) and the AG for BBB, which owned the majority of the shares of 1.7 million marks.

Construction and operation

Entry of the first passenger train into Salchendorfer Bahnhof on May 1, 1908.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1906. Most of the workforce was Italian and Croatian.

From August 28, 1907, freight traffic was initially only operated temporarily to Struthütten and only extended to the entire route on November 29, 1907. However, this was only built as far as Unterwilden, since the larger pits Neue Hope near Wilgersdorf and Landeskrone near Oberwilden had already been closed. The always modest passenger traffic began on May 1, 1908 and was limited to the Herdorf – Unterwilden route. Between 1908 and 1914 45,000 people and 320,000 tons of goods were carried. In 1917, freight transport was at its peak at 513,000 t, in 1945 the railroad came to a standstill due to the destruction of the war.

In 1928 the BBB merged with the AG for Transport , from 1929 the BBB operated as the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (DEGA). On June 9, 1949, DEGA transferred its majority of shares to Siegener Kreisbahn GmbH, which also took over management of the company. After the war, freight traffic got off the ground with difficulty, especially ore transport declined.

End of operation

Passenger traffic ceased on October 31, 1950 after the road next to the railway line towards Wilden was given a new lane, which was a bit too high and the trains touched down there. At the 50th anniversary of the railway in 1957, the Pfannenberger Einigkeit mine was the only mine still in operation. Due to the decline in ore transports, considerations existed for the complete or partial cessation of operations. The freight Salchendorf-Unterwilden ended on 31 October 1963; the connecting railway to the Bautenberg mine had been idle since 1942. Freight trains are still running on the remaining sections to this day, although the Pfannenberger Einigkeit ore mine ceased operations in April 1962. Since then, Schäfer Werke KG has been using the connection for the supply of steel coils both as raw material and for trading in their cuts according to customer requirements.

In the autumn of 1965 the Freie Grunder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was converted into a GmbH and on January 1, 1970 it was incorporated into what is now the Siegen-Wittgenstein district railway . In 1970 the section to Unterwilden was dismantled. In 1991 the connection went in the direction of Pfannenberg to the Siegener Kreisbahn .

In the 2000s there were considerations to use railcars of the then Hellertalbahn GmbH from Betzdorf via Herdorf to Neunkirchen Nord, as the station on the Betzdorf – Haiger route is unfavorably to the town of Neunkirchen. In the agreement with the Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) , valid from 2015, an extension of the hourly service to Burbach is provided, which from now on rules out this option again.

Route description

The tracks to Pfannenberg are used today by the Schäfer Werke

Old train station in Wilden

The 8.2 km long route began in Herdorf station , which is located in the Altenkirchen district . It then ran in the district of Siegen in an easterly direction up the valley via Neunkirchen and Salchendorf to Unterwilden , which today belongs to the municipality of Wilnsdorf . From there an almost 2 km long connecting line with a hairpin reached the Bautenberg mine . A 3.6 km long connecting railway - also with a hairpin - led from Salchendorf up to the Pfannenberger Einigkeit mine , where an industrial company is today.

Vehicle use

Traction vehicles

In 1907 , Jung from Kirchen-Jungenthal supplied two composite steam locomotives for the railway . A year later, the FGE received another identical vehicle. The three tank locomotives were given the numbers 1 to 3 .

These three vehicles carried the main load of the operation until the end of the 1950s, although in the meantime two more steam locomotives were briefly available at the FGE. At the end of 1959, a class R 42 C diesel locomotive was also received from Jung. The three steam locomotives were then scrapped in the early 1960s. Initially, one locomotive had to be sufficient, and it wasn't until 1974 that the railway received a second as a reserve.

Freight traffic is carried out today with different, own diesel locomotives of the Siegen-Wittgenstein (KSW) district railway, which is the current owner of the line. With the exception of the KSW locomotive 43 of the G 2000, all other KSW locomotives can already be found on the line, these are modern MaK locomotives (DE 1002, G1204, G 1000, G 1700 and G 1700-2).

dare

The railroad cars were built by MAN in Nuremberg. The unit price was between 6,500 and 7,500 marks. One of the cars disappeared without a trace during the war. The carriages were divided into two small compartments with ten seats each and one large compartment with 27 seats. In 1937, car 2 was converted from 4th to 3rd class, that is, instead of wooden benches, curved wooden seats were installed. All cars were heated with coal stoves.

literature

• Gerhard Schäfer: The valley railway in Freie Grund. In: Regional traffic history. Volume 24. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-88255-438-X
• Article "Bimmel" ensured mobility in the Siegener Zeitung of May 17, 2008, page 10 (full page)

Web links

• Official homepage of KSW - Kreisbahn Siegen Wittgenstein GmbH
• Pictures of vehicles and route of the KSW

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Schäfer: The valley railway in Freie Grund - The history of the Free Grunder Railway , p. 71
2. ^ Gerhard Schäfer: The valley railway in the free reason - The history of the free Grunder railway , p. 72 f.
3. ^ Gerhard Schäfer: The valley railway in Freie Grund - The history of the Free Grunder Railway , p. 79