Königsseebahn
| Berchtesgaden – Königssee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course book range : | 428c (1944) 428n (summer 1965) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 4.313 + 0.713 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | until 1942: 1000 volts = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | from 1942: 15 kV 16 2 ⁄ 3 Hz ~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 27.5 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 150 m / connecting track 70 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Königsseebahn was a 4.313 kilometer branch line in Bavaria . As Steilstrecke classified, single-track branch line set down Berchtesgaden the connection of the railway lines Freilassing-Berchtesgaden and Berchtesgaden slope Enderstein to Koenigssee with the same lake ago.
history
Construction and commissioning
Since 1888 Berchtesgaden was connected to the railway network by the Freilassing railway line. The Berchtesgaden – Hangender Stein – Salzburg railway, which opened in 1907, also ended at Berchtesgaden main station . The Königssee was already a popular excursion destination back then and was already connected to the train station by a motor post connection in 1907 .
The construction of the Königsseebahn was decided on and approved by the Bavarian state government on August 16, 1908 . The operation was transferred to the Royal Bavarian State Railways . Construction began at the end of October 1908, and the opening took place on May 29, 1909. The line was licensed as a local railway and electrified from the start . Originally the railway operated with 1000 volts DC voltage . The route ran along its entire length in the area of today's municipality of Schönau am Königssee and always followed the Königsseer Ache .
The starting point in Berchtesgaden was the Königsseer train station on the former Triftplatz on the edge of the Schönau municipal area, within walking distance of the Berchtesgaden main train station. There was a 713 meter long track connection to the Königsseebahn. It led on grooved rails diagonally across the forecourt of Berchtesgaden main station and crossed the Ramsauer Ache by means of a 40 meter long bridge. The connecting track was mainly used for transfer trips. Through trains from Salzburg or Freilassing to the Königssee only ran rarely and as special trains . The entire forecourt always had to be closed for such journeys. A tunnel through the Fergerlbichl was originally planned. This would have made it possible to take trains from Salzburg - bypassing the station forecourt and stopping at the main station - directly to the Königssee. For reasons of cost, however, this variant could not be implemented. In addition, the operating track including the overhead line served as an electrical connection to the local railway to Salzburg. Both railways were fed by the joint Gartenau hydropower station . This was previously built specifically for the railway to Salzburg and expanded to include the branch line to Königssee. As a special feature, the batteries of the Königssee-Schifffahrt electric boats were charged with traction current during the night .
On the way, the two intermediate stations Schwöbbrücke and Unterstein-Schönau were served, in both of which there were scheduled train crossings .
The end of the railway line was the Königssee train station not far from the lake.
The operation has always been strongly influenced by tourism, according to the strong flow of visitors, the train departed from the summer season even before the First World War in the dense twenty-minute clock .
German Reichsbahn
In 1920 the Königsseebahn was incorporated into the Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen . Their successors German Railway finally set the route 1942, the reaching far conventional AC system with a voltage of 15,000 volts and a frequency of 16 ⅔ Hertz to. The reason for this was the discontinuation of the Green Electricians for the purpose of road expansion for the Nazi regime (approach to Obersalzberg) in October 1938 and the associated cutting of the power connection to the Gartenau power station. From June 1, 1942, the power supply came from the Saalach power station in Bad Reichenhall .
German Federal Railroad
In the first few years after the Second World War in particular, the Deutsche Bundesbahn operated the Königsseebahn with a high utilization rate. However, as a result of the increasing use of individual traffic from 1960 onwards , traffic on the Königsseebahn decreased . Therefore, no further maintenance measures were carried out on the railway line. From 1961, the trains only ran in the summer season. In the winter timetable took over rail buses in replacement bus operation.
The Königsseebahn was in operation as planned until the start of the winter timetable on September 25, 1965, and a last special train ran on October 2, 1965. The last run was not announced as such. Instead, notices were used to announce that operations - as in previous years - would be stopped over the winter season. It was not until the spring of 1966 that the Deutsche Bundesbahn finally announced that it would permanently switch operations to buses . As a result, rail operations were not resumed; in the 1966 summer timetable, rail buses also ran for the first time in the main season.
On March 8, 1971, the line was also legally closed , that is, de- dedicated . The tracks were dismantled in the spring of 1971. However, you can still buy continuous train tickets to Königssee, which are valid from Berchtesgaden in the regional buses of Upper Bavaria .
A small part of the former railway line is still used as a footpath, the rest of it has been renatured or built over. In addition, the railway's Art Nouveau reception building has been preserved at the end of the Königssee . It is used as a restaurant. In contrast, the Königsseer Bahnhof on the former Triftplatz was demolished on March 22, 2012. The municipality of Schönau am Königssee, on whose boundary the route is almost completely, plans to change the development plan in the area of the Triftplatz, but does not rule out that the site of the former Königsseer train station will be used again as part of the reactivation of the route.
Reactivation plans
With regard to Munich's application for the 2018 Winter Olympics and the disciplines planned at Königssee, the Pro Bahn passenger association called for the route to be reactivated years ago. Above all, this should also sustainably reduce the volume of individual traffic in the Berchtesgadener Land. The Olympic application was rejected not least because of the referendum carried out on this. Apart from that, several developments on the route make a possible reactivation more difficult.
vehicles
Initially, the Königsseebahn had five railcars from the MBCL series , which had been specially procured for this route , as well as nine closed sidecars and six open summer sidecars . After the conversion of the electricity system, they were transferred to the Hohenfurth Electric Local Railway in the Sudetenland , which was part of the Deutsche Reichsbahn network between 1938 and 1945. With the changeover to alternating current from 1942, railcars of the DR series ET 85 with specially adapted intermediate cars were used on the Königsseebahn , which, however, did not meet the requirements of a seasonally heavily frequented excursion train due to insufficient train power. It was not until 1949 that the gearbox was converted and the railcars had better tractive power, the cars ran as the ET 90 series until operations were discontinued. Today, Salzburg AG has a set of Green Electric (K.Bay.Sts.B. ) and the identical red electrical one ( SETG ). They have been restored true to the original and are used for special trips.
literature
- Manfred Angerer: Memories of the Königssee Railway, supplemented with Berchtesgaden railway history to this day . 3rd expanded edition. Berchtesgaden 2015.
- Manfred Angerer, Herbert Birkner: 120 years of Berchtesgaden railway history . H. Birkner / Berchtesgadener Anzeiger, Berchtesgaden 2009/2011. ISBN 978-3-925647-54-3 .
- Heinrich Harrer, Bruce Holcomb: Salzburger Lokalbahnen = International Archive for Locomotive History 18. Josef Otto Slezak, Vienna 1980. ISBN 3-900134-14-6
- Kk Austrian State Railways : Illustrated guide for the routes: Linz – Salzburg (Berchtesgaden, Königssee, Reichenhall) Issue 3. 7th edition. Steyrermühl , Vienna undated
Web links
- The route on www.spurensuche-eisenbahn.de
- The railway to the Königssee on koenigssee.berchtesgadeninfo.de
- Detailed route description on www.kbaystb.de
- Course book table from 1944
Individual evidence
- ^ History - Bayerische Seenschifffahrt. Retrieved September 22, 2012 .
- ^ Federal Railway Directorate Munich, Bad Reichenhall hydropower plant, 1989, p. 16
- ↑ History - Königsseebahn ( memento from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), online at berchtesgadener-land.info
- ↑ The railway to the Königssee. Retrieved October 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Former station building demolished. Retrieved December 6, 2012 .
- ↑ Pro Bahn calls for reactivation of the Königsseebahn. Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de, August 2, 2010, accessed on October 20, 2010 .