Neukölln industrial railway
The industrial railway Neukölln was a rail transport and -infrastrukturunternehmen that in Berlin freight traffic on its own network in Neukölln performed. In 1988 it was taken over by the Industriebahn-Gesellschaft Berlin (IGB).
prehistory
In 1909 the magistrate of Berlin applied for permission to build and operate a port railway in Rixdorf (from January 27, 1912: Neukölln). The background to the efforts was the economic development in the greater Berlin area. With the construction of the Teltow Canal , the Britzer Connection Canal and the Neukölln Shipping Canal , Rixdorf experienced a significant upgrade as an industrial location. In several stages between 1902 and 1914, the Oberhafen as an industrial port and the Unterhafen as a trading port.
History and description
The negotiations with the Royal Prussian Railway Directorate Berlin (KED Berlin) dragged on. It was not until five years later that a track to the port was built at a cost of 3.5 million marks . The line went into operation on October 26, 1914. KED Berlin had not complied with the city fathers' request for a transfer station . After several changes to the proposed route, in consultation with the police chief, only one "port branch track" was approved for the Rixdorf municipal gas station, using the siding that was being laid at the same time. Around 1915 the name “Hafenzweiggleis” was replaced by “Neuköllner Hafenbahn”.
The starting point was the Treptow freight station in Neukölln on the Berlin Ringbahn . From there, the track ran in a south-westerly direction over the Neuköllner Schifffahrtskanal, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße (since 1947: Sonnenallee) and further downhill to the Neukölln Schifffahrtskanal. To the west, parallel to that, it crossed the Neukölln – Baumschulenweg railway line , rose again, crossed Lahnstrasse and followed it on its south side. A train station was built there, which was expanded to four tracks just two years after it opened. As part of this, the pull-out track was extended to Naumburger Strasse.
In 1918, the railway was already serving 22 companies, and one year later further siding, especially in the area of Lahnstrasse, were added. Some of them could only be reached via turntables that were laid out in the road surface. The heavy traffic on the line, especially in front of the branch to the gas station, suggested a connection between the port railway and the Köllnische Heide station , but this was not realized because the required area had already been allocated for residential construction. The municipality of Neukölln then worked out the design for the construction of a “Neukölln industrial railway”. In addition to the expansion of the Treptow freight station, a new and larger station was planned on Kiefholzstrasse. As a result of the onset of inflation and the associated shortage of materials, these plans were largely not implemented. Until 1925, only the routes from Lahnstraße via the Neukölln shipping canal to the industrial area on Grenzallee and the Zoellner works on Köllnische Allee were built. There were also track extensions in the upper and lower harbor and a never-used bridge over Dieselstrasse. The operations on Grenzallee could only be reached from the Treptow freight station by changing the direction of travel three times , as this track went from the track to Dieselstrasse: In Lahnstrasse station, on the Zoellner track and again on the Dieselstrasse track, they were "turned off", then the main track at the Neuköllnische Brücke.
At the beginning of the 1920s, the high point in goods handling was reached. In 1922, almost 12,000 freight wagons were sent via the Treptow freight station. As a result of the global economic crisis , in the course of which the transport volume declined, voices calling for the cessation of rail operations were heard for the first time in the early 1930s. However, the situation gradually improved, not least due to armaments and war-related transports before and during the Second World War .
Due to a number of bomb hits, which also led to the fire in the locomotive shed, operations initially ceased after the end of the war. Since the winners had operations on the railway dismantled as reparations , it was soon resumed. The remaining operational steam locomotive was used in front of the dismantling trains. Since the dismantled factories failed as customers, the volume of goods dropped dramatically. In 1949 only 784 wagons to be carried were counted.
The economic boom in the 1950s brought new traffic, and in 1955 4480 wagons were transported again. However, the competition from trucks was now noticeable, which is why the railway could never be operated at a cost-covering level.
In 1968 the track leading to the Zoellner works was extended to Nobelstrasse. Another extension from Grenzallee in the direction of Sieversufer for the transport of block trains with tank wagons did not come about. In 1978, track systems were even dismantled in the area of Lahnstrasse.
Not least as a result of the necessary renovation work on the loading street in the Oberhafen, the deficit had grown to over 2 million DM in the 1980s. The Neukölln district , which had to pay for the maintenance of the line from 1986, therefore demanded the shutdown of operations or the merger with other West Berlin private railways . On September 1, 1989, the Neukölln industrial railway became the property of the newly created Industrial Railway Company Berlin (IGB) and thus lost its independence, as did 15 other companies. At that time, the locomotives 5 and 6 housed in the locomotive shed on Dieselstrasse alternately handled the traffic. In the morning one of the machines fetched the wagons delivered by the Deutsche Reichsbahn from the three transfer tracks at the Treptow freight station and distributed them to the various connections via the Lahnstrasse station. If necessary, a second train ran at noon or in the afternoon. However, the volume had dropped to 1,000 - sometimes even fewer - cars a year, and the number of employees was only seven people.
View from the Neuköllnische Brücke towards the Grenzallee bridge, below the track to Grenzallee, 1988
Track to Dieselstrasse, above the Neukölln – Baumschulenweg railway line , 1988
On the left of the Neukölln shipping canal, the track from the Treptow freight station, on the right (with a special train) to Dieselstrasse, 2008
Operation and vehicles
Sometimes the tight curves and steep gradients with slopes of up to 1:38 led to overloading of the locomotives. Initially, the operation was carried out with locomotives of the Royal Prussian State Railways (KPSt.E.), which is why a comparatively heavy superstructure with track profiles of the form Prussia - and later S 49 - was laid. They usually did not take the freight wagons any further than Lahnstrasse, from where they were often carried on using human or horse power, and later also with a winch . The Great Berlin Tram pulled certain cars, as far as their overhead line could reach, with an electric railcar to the Neukölln tram station.
In order to cope with the steadily increasing transport volume, the port railway acquired two locomotives of identical construction in August 1918. The “Pudel” type Cn2t machines built by Jung were given the company numbers 1 and 2 and had an output of 400 hp . Until a locomotive shed was built in 1920, they were stored outdoors, and the staff was housed in an old freight car. Since no own workshop was built, repairs had to be carried out by external companies. These were e.g. B. Borsig and Orenstein & Koppel in Berlin, but also Henschel in Kassel and even the RAW Tempelhof . In the meantime, the port railway had to use rental locomotives from the state railway or other private railways ( Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn , BEHALA , Osthavelländische Eisenbahn ). Up to 1962, 33 such leases are known, including state railroad tank locomotives of the 71, 74, 89 and 93 series.
In 1948, locomotive 1 was sent to the rail vehicle manufacturer LEW Hennigsdorf for overhaul , from where it did not return until mid-1950 due to differences in payment (in East or West money ). In 1951, locomotive 2 was due for overhaul, which, however, was not carried out. On the advice of Jung, the industrial railway instead bought a two-axle diesel locomotive of the type RK 20 B with 210 hp as locomotive 3 at a price of 165,000 DM , the steam locomotive 2 was scrapped shortly after its arrival. In March 1958, locomotive 1 was sold to GASAG , which used it in the Mariendorf plant. For this purpose, the industrial railway rented the DL 2 of the Osthavelländische Eisenbahn (OHE), also a Jung machine of the type RK 20 B, and acquired it eight years later as property.
With the support of the Federal Republic of Germany , another locomotive (No. 5) was bought from Jung in 1970 for approx. 310,000 DM. The three-axle RC 43 C machine, of which only five were built, had a central driver's cab and a 415 hp MAN engine. After the takeover of the S-Bahn by the BVG , it was loaned there from January 1984 to February 1986 for shunting and construction train services.
Locomotive 3 was not reconditioned after its deadline at the end of 1986. Instead, a DHG 700 C was purchased from Henschel; several locomotives of this series were already running in West Berlin. It arrived in March 1987 and immediately went into service as locomotive 6. Locomotive 5 received a general inspection in the middle of that year .
literature
- Bodo Schulz / Michael Krolop: The private and industrial railways in Berlin (West) . 1st edition. C. Kersting, Niederkassel-Mondorf 1989, ISBN 3-925250-06-9 , p. 49-55 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Städtische Gasanstalt Rixdorf at albert-gieseler.de, accessed on January 12, 2020