Kahlenbergbahn (St. Ingbert)

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Mast 1 near the valley station with a swinging armchair

The Kahlenbergbahn was a chairlift that connected from the valley station between Rohrbach and Hassel , both parts of the Saarland St. Ingbert , with the approximately 350 meter high mountain station on the Kahlenberg on its northeast flank. After 22 years of operation, the plant was no longer operated in 1995 and has now been completely dismantled.

history

The intention to build the cable car was due to various interests. The Pfälzerwald-Verein (PWV), local association Rohrbach, has maintained the Kahlenberghütte since 1957, an excursion restaurant and hiking hut , which has been expanded since then. This hut previously belonged to the Rohrbach-based company Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB) , popularly known as Heckel for short , which had to give way to the construction of the BAB 6 because it was on the future route. The PHB company premises reached up to the slope of the Kahlenberg, i.e. in the immediate vicinity of the valley station. The PHB company may also have been interested in a cable car, as such a reference system was right “on their doorstep”. The Gesellschaft für Förderanlagen Ernst Heckel , which later merged into PHB, was an important employer in the town as a foundry and, thanks to its annual forest festivals, was legendary in the people's "leisure awareness": Below the Kahlenberg, i.e. close to the valley station of the later cable car they took place on a large open-air site that was laid out with the construction of the motorway.

However, the initiator was the PWV, who hoped for an increase in attractiveness through such a railway and was supported by the city of St. Ingbert. In competition with neighboring cities, the medium- sized town had some catching up to do . The construction coincides with the time of the regional and administrative reform in 1974 , when competencies and tasks had to be given to neighboring regions with which St. Ingbert was in competition.

The system was sold to the city of St. Ingbert at cost price from Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB). In addition to the municipal building yard, many local clubs and soldiers from the Zweibrücken NBC defense company , which had a partnership with St. Ingbert, helped with the construction of the facility . PHB specialized in ropeways and cable cars, which also included such well-known projects as the Sugar Loaf cable car . In addition to the Kahlenbergbahn, the cable car to the Peterberg - operating from 1974 to 2002 - and the cable car in the Franco-German Garden were built in Saarland , the only one of the three that is still in operation.

There was a previous building for this cable car, which, however, was used to transport materials.

Location and dates

Kahlenbergbahn mountain station abutment
Kahlenbergbahn mountain station abutment
Location: St. Ingbert
Design type: Chairlift
Construction year: 1973
Mountain: Kahlenberg
Height difference: 75 m
Route length: 500 m
Number of supports: 8 pcs.
Manufacturer: Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert (PHB)

The Kahlenberg belongs to the furthest upstream part of the Palatinate-Saarland Muschelkalk region , to which the Saar-Nahe Bergland joins further north . The sandstone found here was widely used as a building material until the 20th century, as evidenced by quarries on and on the Kahlenberg. At times, the stones were also transported down from Kahlenberg by cable car. Today there are no more traces of this system. The former valley station is accessible from the L 241 directly on the municipal boundary between Rohrbach and Hassel ( location ) to the south . The lower part of the route was clearly visible from the A 6, especially as it passed right by the Am Kahlenberg rest area . The route through the forest was dead straight, constantly uphill to just below the Kahlenberghütte from the PWV. The route length (as the crow flies) was approx. 500 m, making it the shortest of the three PHB cable cars in Saarland. The difference in altitude to the mountain station was 75 meters.

The construction method was a "single cable car with detachable armchairs", the diameter of the steel cable was 20 mm, the travel speed was limited to 2.2 m / second.

Structural condition

The former aisle can still be clearly seen on satellite photos, but has now largely overgrown with young trees. Shortly before the railway was dismantled, the masts and the two stations made a stable impression from the outside, and the machine house at the valley station also looked passable apart from a few graffiti . The wooden planks of the platform at the mountain station ( location ) were rotten. The suspension rope had jumped off the guide rollers on at least two masts due to falling branches. The armchairs were incomplete and rotten, the electrical installation completely destroyed by environmental influences and vandalism.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lost Ropeways

Web links

Commons : Kahlenbergbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files