Freight station Cologne Gereon

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Typical of the general cargo traffic and thus also of the Gereon freight station were the brown covered freight wagons , here at a station festival in May 1990, after which the station was finally decommissioned

The Cologne Gereon freight station was built in 1859 as the "Central-Güter-Bahnhof" and existed in Cologne near the center until 1990 . In the 20th century it was one of the five largest freight yards in Cologne. It was one of the largest general cargo transshipment stations in all of Germany and retained this position until shortly before the nationwide cessation of general cargo transport by rail. Its extensive areas were redeveloped and built under the name Mediapark in the 1990s .

history

Site plan (distorted) from 1953: North is at the bottom left, on the right you can see the Cologne-West train station
View from the north of the Gereon train station, including the Häuerszeile in the media park on the left. In the background Colonius and Herkulesberg as well as a container train on the freight curve from Cologne-West to Ehrenfeld.

In the 1850s, the railway lines emanating from Cologne were systematically networked with each other through the construction of the Cathedral Bridge (as the forerunner of today's Hohenzollern Bridge ), the new Centralbahnhof (later expanded to become today's Hauptbahnhof ) and an initially ground-level ring line around Cologne's old town in the direction of Bonn . Connected to this ring line was a new central freight station north-west of Gereonswall on Gereonsfeld, which was outside the city at the time. This new freight yard was put into operation in 1859/60.

After the inner fortress ring of Cologne was abandoned a few years later (today's green belt) and the city of Cologne acquired this previously military area in 1881, the Cologne railway system was able to be fundamentally reorganized. An intense public debate about a possible relocation of the main station to the area of ​​the freight station ended with the result that the location of the main station was retained. This cleared the way for a generous expansion of the Central freight station, which was carried out from 1888. In the curve (" circular segment ") of the ring line between the Cologne-West train station and today's Hansaring S-Bahn stop , several large storage and reloading halls as well as loading streets were built. To the west of it a railway depot was built with several turntables , a water tower, coaling facilities and more.

While Cologne's long-distance passenger traffic is mainly served in the north-south direction and the location of the main station directly on the Rhine means that most long-distance trains in Cologne change sides of the Rhine, the majority of long-distance freight traffic can pass through Cologne without having to change sides. This led to the fact that a total of four large marshalling yards had developed on both sides of the Rhine in the north and south of the city, at which the north-south traffic was linked with those in the east-west direction: in the north-west Cologne-Nippes, im South-west Cologne-Eifeltor , in the north-east Cologne-Kalk Nord and in the south-east Gremberg . All of these stations, in keeping with their properties as marshalling yards , were mainly used for single wagon traffic from their creation until the 1960s, i.e. for the re-sorting of individual freight wagons or smaller groups of wagons from feeder to transfer freight trains. The situation in Cologne Gereon was completely different. Similar to z. B. at Frankfurt (Main) main freight station , the main purpose of the Gereon station was the supply of local small businesses with individual wagons as well as receiving, shipping and reloading of general cargo - so goods such as. B. individual barrels, boxes or later pallets that only filled part of a car. Up until the 1970s, a location close to the center was a great advantage, especially for receiving and shipping such goods.

With the increasing truck traffic, the transport of smaller goods such as B. General cargo from rail to road. As a result, the senders and recipients were independent of the proximity of a freight station and were able to settle in inexpensive areas of new, remote industrial areas, which in turn caused the demand for general cargo transports by rail to fall further until Deutsche Bahn (DB) stopped in the 1990s General cargo traffic completely abandoned.

Since this development was already clearly apparent in the 1980s, the DB and the city of Cologne agreed to shut down the Gereon freight yard. In 1987 it was taken out of service according to the schedule, but individual special and construction trains were still running. On 26./27. In May 1990 a station festival was celebrated on the last remaining tracks, after which the station was completely shut down and dismantled. On its extensive area of ​​around 200,000 m² in what is now the best location close to the city center, a new district was built in the 1990s - the so-called Mediapark.

Connection and depot

When the new freight station was built, facilities for supplying the locomotives were also built. A site plan from the early days, when the street Gladbacher Wall continued from its current south-west end to the railway bridge over Gladbacher and Subbelrather Straße, shows two immediately adjacent double turntables in the area of ​​today's passenger train parking and maintenance facilities. The western double turntable has a roundhouse for a total of 47 locomotives (29 + 18 stands) and can only be approached from the main station. The eastern double turntable is located one level below at a 30-room (16 + 14) roundhouse and can only be approached from the Gereon freight station, this driveway crosses under the left Rhine route and some adjacent sidings. Because of the difference in height, there was no direct track connection between the two double turntables. Passing them to the east, two tracks led out of Cologne Gereon station, i.e. on the lower level, and approached the passenger train lines from the main station in the direction of Ehrenfeld and Nippes in a left curve north of the turntables. This made it possible at the beginning to drive from Gereon directly to the south as well as to Aachen, Mönchengladbach and Neuss. From the 1910s onwards, the locomotive treatment systems were run as an independent department of the Cologne Gereon depot (Bw = Bahnbetriebswerk).

Up until the First World War, the railway facilities in Cologne were considerably rebuilt and expanded, and the well-known Idiotenbrücke was built in 1911, among many others . Aerial photos from the 1930s show the Gladbacher Wall, which has been reduced to its present length, the area of ​​today's Cologne depot, which was primarily used for passenger traffic, which was significantly enlarged at its own expense, and a new location for the Gereon freight station's turntable. This (now simple) turntable and its roundhouse, which was only around 15 people, were located in the triangle between the Ehrenfeld – Westbahnhof, Ehrenfeld – Hauptbahnhof and Gereon freight tracks. The connecting tracks between the turntable and Gereon were crossed by a bridge in the area of ​​the coaling plant. This carried the Westbahnhof – Hauptbahnhof track, which still runs in this location today.

The so-called Schlundgleis also existed in the 1930s . It still connects the freight tracks in the east of the Westbahnhof with the depot / main train station and crosses under the main track Westbahnhof-Hauptbahnhof. In the area of ​​the depot, the ramp runs in an elongated throat made of vertical concrete walls because of the narrowness; in the Gereon area there has been a small platform right next to the underpass tunnel since the 1970s at the latest, which was used for staff trips and at public station festivals, especially for the tours around the Cologne Cathedral . It is not yet drawn in the track plan from 1953. The direct exit from Gereon to the northwest fell victim to the expansion of the depot, since then Gereon has essentially been a terminus . You could only drive towards the main station via the Schlundgleis, but only from Gereon's entry area, but not from its actual freight tracks.

Around 1940, the Cologne Gereon depot was closed as an independent office and incorporated into the neighboring Cologne Bbf depot. Photos from the 1950s, however, show the unchanged location of the turntable (only the locomotive shed is missing, apparently as a result of the war) and its use by steam locomotives until the electrification of the Rhine route in 1959.

Relics

A few remains of the elongated goods shed have been preserved as fragments of ruins in the lake of the Media Park. Only two buildings of the Gereon freight station are completely preserved: a signal box from the 1920s and the administration building from the 1890s at Maybachstrasse 111, which was used as the Cologne film house for many years after the station was closed.

See also

literature

  • Volkhard Stern: Forgotten freight yards in Cologne . In: Cologne-Bonn traffic magazine . Issue 54 (1/2019), pp. 12-27
  • Martin Classen and Martin Randenrath (photos), Susanne Lange (eds.): Güterbahnhof Köln-Gereon, Photographien 1987. Cologne (SK-Stiftung Kultur, Photographische Sammlung), 2001, ISBN 3-9807956-0-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Rheinische-Industriekultur.de: Site plan of the Cologne Gereon freight yard (north is below left). Retrieved October 30, 2019 .
  2. ^ Volkhard Stern: Forgotten freight yards in Cologne . In: Cologne-Bonn traffic magazine . tape 1/2019 , no. 54 , p. 14 .
  3. Thread on the subject of Bw Köln Gereon at Drehscheibe-online. June 27, 2006, accessed October 30, 2019 .