Extertalbahn
| Barntrup – Rinteln | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number : | 9176 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 27.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 1500 V = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 23.81 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 140 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 30 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Extertalbahn is a railway line running through the Exter valley between Barntrup ( Lippe district in North Rhine-Westphalia ) and Rinteln ( Schaumburg district in Lower Saxony ). The privately operated line is standard-gauge and electrified .
history
Prehistory and planning phase
The Principality of Lippe received a connection to the Prussian state's railway network relatively late. After the first station on Lippe land was opened in Schieder on the Hanover – Altenbeken railway line in 1872, the north of Lippe was bypassed in 1875 with the construction of the Löhne – Hameln railway line . It was not until 1880 that the state railway line from Herford to Detmold was built in the west of the Lippe , which was extended to Altenbeken in 1895. Just one year later, the first east-west connection was made through Lippe with the construction of the Lage-Lemgo-Hameln railway line . After this dense construction sequence of railway lines in Lippe, all railway lines led around the northeast of Lippe.
For this reason, the first plans to build a railway line through the northeast of Lippe go back to around 1900. After failed negotiations with Prussia, the idea of a state railway was abandoned more and more, and the first ideas of a private railway company as operator emerged. The nearby Rinteln-Stadthagener railway should serve as the best example . Finally, in 1909, the West German Railway Company submitted a plan for the construction of two standard-gauge railway lines. On the one hand, a route through the Kalletal from Lemgo to Rinteln was suggested, and on the other hand, a route through the Extertal from Barntrup to Rinteln. The interesting thing about this planning is that it was at that time that some military use of these railway lines was being thought of. However, the associated construction requirements were so high that the implementation ultimately failed due to the resulting increased costs. Finally, the First World War delayed the construction of the railway more and more.
Later proposals came up around the time after the First World War. Both route variants, i.e. through the Kalletal and the Extertal, were still up for debate. For example, a narrow-gauge railway route was included. However, the respective start and end stations of the state railway were built in standard gauge, which would have required a cumbersome roll-stand operation or at least a laborious reloading of the goods when handing over freight wagons . After all, inflation in the early twenties continued to delay railway construction.
It was not until 1923, when the Wesertal electricity company, based in Hameln, was looking for large buyers for its electricity capacities, that planning was revived. A normal-gauge and electrically operated small railway was now being considered . At that time, this was a type of traction rarely found in northern Germany, along with the neighboring Bad Eilsener Kleinbahn . Finally, the processes accelerated and so the neighboring communities quickly came to an agreement with the Wesertal electricity company. As early as 1924, it was decided to found a joint stock company to build a railway line through the northeast of Lippe.
Construction of the railway line
The Extertalbahn AG ( EAG for short ) was founded on September 8, 1924 by several shareholders such as the neighboring communities and the municipal energy supply company Elektrizitätswerk Wesertal . In September of the same year, the first surveying work for the construction of the railway line through the Extertal took place and a little later in December 1924 the first earthworks began. The work on the electrical railway systems such as the catenary was commissioned from AEG. Eventually the line was opened in three sections between 1927 and 1929.
The first thing that happened on July 8, 1927, was the opening of the line between the city of Barntrup and the municipality of Bösingfeld, whose station was intended to be the operating center from the start. Thus, in addition to a larger wagon hall with a repair shop, Bösingfeld station also had a converter that fed the electrical current into the railway's overhead line. The second section was opened on May 15, 1928 and extends from Bösingfeld via the municipality of Almena, which has received its station a long way from the village, to Bögerhof station. This was still in the area of the Free State of Lippe , but not far from the Prussian state border. Almost two years after the opening of the first section, the third and last section (on Prussian territory) went into operation on July 15, 1929. As a result, the route extended from the Bögerhof station via Krankenhagen and Exten to the town of Rinteln on the Weser. Since a connection to the Rinteln train station was sought, a connection to the tracks of the Rinteln-Stadthagener railway, and thus also to the state railway, was implemented. For this purpose, the route was laid like a tram through the city center and over a specially newly built Weser bridge, which had to be shared with other road users, to in front of the station forecourt.
The not realized Kalletalbahn
Even before the work on the first section of the Extertalbahn was completed in 1927, the Free State of Lippe and the neighboring communities in the Kalletal urged the planning of the Kalletalbahn to move forward. However, since the Extertalbahn was in the middle of the construction phase, the Extertalbahn AG does not seem to have had the time and financial means to take on this work. It was not until 1929, on the initiative of Land Lippe and Wesertal AG , that the plans for a railway line from Exten (the section between Exten and Rinteln had already been completed by the Extertalbahn) via Möllenbeck through the Kalletal to Lemgo and from there to Detmold were completed.
The traces of this project are lost from the submission to the state police demonstration at the state of Lippe. It is also astonishing that the plans for an extension of the Extertalbahn between Barntrup- Blomberg and Barntrup- Detmold were already very advanced when the two lines came together at Großenmarpe . The resulting ring line would have had a route length of almost 100 km.
Economic development
After its completion, the Extertalbahn should enable the remote villages in the Exter valley to have an improved connection to the rail network and offer the local economy a better connection to the economic centers. The initially hoped for strong freight traffic did not materialize in the early years, however, and contrary to expectations, passenger traffic rose sharply. In 1960, 308,355 people and 48,779 tons of goods were carried. Only at the beginning of the 1960s did the relationship change due to the ever increasing amount of individual traffic . As a result, passenger traffic was discontinued in 1966 between Bösingfeld and Barntrup and in 1969 between Bösingfeld and Rinteln. Since from 1969 the route to Rinteln Nord was only used for freight traffic, this was quickly seen as a burden in the old town of Rinteln. Finally, in 1970, the route through the city was dismantled and the end of the route was built at Exten station. As the last major expansion of the Extertalbahn, Exten station was renamed Rinteln Süd in September 1972 and expanded with a 1.45 km long industrial mainline. This industrial track was extended again in 1981 by 470 m, after which the final construction was achieved.
Conversion of EAG into the Extertal transport company
In connection with the further development of Extertalbahn AG into a transport company with several divisions (1960 freight transport, 1965 freight forwarding), the company was converted into Verkehrsbetriebe Extertal-Extertalbahn GmbH (vbe) on December 4, 1967 .
Condition until 2007
Sporadic freight transport was carried out on the entire route until 2001. After that only one of the Landeseisenbahn Lippe e. V. - Freundeskreis der Extertalbahn organized tourist museum traffic with special trains in the summer months and in the run-up to Christmas.
Most recently, in the summer of 2005, the copper wire overhead line was repeatedly destroyed, stolen and probably sold as scrap metal on some sections by strangers, so that in the meantime there was no longer any museum train operation with the historical electric multiple units.
The catenary system between the operating center Bösingfeld and Alverdissen was repaired again in November 2006, since the Santa Claus rides in 2006 the historic electric train has been running to Alverdissen again. The further section from Alverdissen to Barntrup is to follow once the financing has been clarified.
The Bösingfeld – Rinteln Süd section was closed for railway operations on November 1, 2007. The Rinteln Süd train station was also completely demolished from October 2007 to March 2008, except for the track leading to the draisine shed, and a modern warehouse was built over a large area by the fruit juice manufacturer riha WeserGold Getränke .
The vehicles
Since the Extertalbahn was opened as an electric small train with direct current at a nominal voltage of 1500 volts, the vehicles had to be specially commissioned for these conditions. Since the AEG company had already received the order to build the electrical railway systems, it was also commissioned to procure the electric vehicles. The wagon construction part of the vehicles was not taken over by AEG, but by two wagon factories. In the end, AEG only built the electrical components in the vehicles.
Vehicles for passenger transport
At the request of AEG , the company offered Killing & Sohn of Extertalbahn AG , 1926 three-axle rail cars and two-axle trailer cars for the passenger to. These vehicles were very similar to the trams used by other transport companies at that time and had a central coupling ( trumpet coupling ) instead of the usual pull and butt coupling . As early as 1927, when the first section opened, the vehicles were completed and, as a kind of intercity tram, gave the route an idiosyncratic character. For the first few years these vehicles appeared to be ideally suited for operation. As early as 1929 a third sidecar was ordered for passenger traffic and delivered on time for the opening of the last section. Due to the heavy use of the Second World War , the first railcars were so worn out that in 1950 three new railcars had to be purchased.
In order to be able to continue to make passenger traffic attractive, two new passenger railcars equipped with bogies were ordered from the United West German Waggonfabriken (Westwaggon) in 1951 . These vehicles were completed in the spring of 1953. These new railcars also proved themselves so well that in 1956 a third, identical railcar was delivered by the Rastatt wagon factory .
After the arrival of the new railcars, the railcars that were first procured were referred to as old railcars, slowly taken out of service and initially parked as reserve vehicles. They were gradually scrapped until 1965. The three new railcars were then used in planned traffic until the final cessation of passenger traffic in 1969 and in the same year were sold to the small railway company Stern & Hafferl in Austria .
As early as 1972, two passenger cars were purchased in order to be able to offer museum transport with the two freight railcars and thus locomotive-hauled trains.
Vehicles for freight transport
In 1927, the Extertalbahn acquired two freight railcars with the numbers 21 and 22. They each had a baggage and mail compartment . For passenger transport with trams, the railcars have a trumpet coupling , which is no longer used today. The railcars have screw couplings and side buffers for transporting freight trains . Both vehicles carried freight trains up to 2001, making them the oldest electric locomotives that were in continuous use in Germany. They are still preserved today, railcar 22 has in the meantime received a refurbishment and general inspection by the Lippe State Railway and has been in use again in a museum between Bösingfeld and Alverdissen since May 2013.
Monument protection
The two original E 21 and E 22 railcars have been under monument protection since 1986 . In addition, since August 2008 the route in the area of the municipality of Extertal has been a listed building. In the area of the city of Barntrup , monument protection is to follow soon so that the museum can continue to operate on this historical monument of technology.
State Railway Lippe (LEL)
The Landeseisenbahn Lippe (LEL) is an association that operates a museum railroad with a historical fleet of vehicles on the rails of the Extertalbahn and Begatalbahn. After the route maintenance has been discontinued by the vbe, the association will also carry out the entire route work on the railway lines.
The association was founded on January 23, 1985 under the name Freundeskreis der Extertalbahn (FkdE). Initially, the association's interest was limited to the Extertalbahn, on which a St. Nicholas Day trip, completely planned and organized by the FkdE, took place in the winter of 1987, for which an electric locomotive and the vbe fleet of vehicles were used. In order to maintain the Lippe railways beyond the Extertal, the name of the association was changed on March 11, 1992. Since then the association Landeseisenbahn Lippe e. V. , but still bears the subtitle “Circle of Friends” as a sign of its roots. In addition, the abbreviation FkdE has been replaced by the shorter LEL . The association currently has around 200 members across Germany.
Draisine traffic
Since April 2001, an operation with special bicycle carts has been offered on the route . While the draisines "started" at Alverdissen station in the first year, the starting point was relocated to Rinteln Süd station from the second season. The reason was the steep incline on the way back to Alverdissen, which caused many handcar drivers to fail.
After the Rinteln-Bösingfeld section was closed, the bicycle trolleys are the only vehicles that are allowed to drive on this section.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brief summary of the history of the Extertalbahn. Retrieved May 16, 2010 .
- ↑ Spiegel-Online: Raw material robbers "They are getting bolder and bolder". Retrieved May 4, 2010 .
literature
- Bernd Heise: Extertaler annual magazine. Issue 3/1986 . Published on behalf of the Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Bösingfeld eV, 1986, ZDB -ID 1139478-X .
- Ingrid Schütte, Werner Schütte: The Extertalbahn . 2nd Edition. Uhle & Kleimann, Lübbecke 1991, ISBN 3-922657-56-7 .
- Garrelt Riepelmeier, Ingrid Schütte, Werner Schütte: The railway in Lippe . DGEG, Hövelhof 2005, ISBN 3-937189-17-3 .
- Helmut Roggenkamp: The electric traction in the freight traffic of the non-federally owned railways and the works railways. In: Lok Magazin , issue 117, November / December 1982, pp. 458–469.
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 11: Lower Saxony. Part 3: South of the Mittelland Canal . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-670-4 .
- Ludger Kenning: With the electric Extertalbahn from Rinteln to Barntrup . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 2013, ISBN 978-3-944390-01-7 .
Web links
- Landeseisenbahn Lippe eV - Friends of the Extertalbahn
- Transport company Extertal
- Vehicle list of the Extertal transport company
- Vehicle list of the Extertalbahn AG
- Lippebahn: Railway in Lippe
- Tourist bicycle trolley in Extertal
- Legal basis for the construction of small railways in Lippe
- Article about the theft of the overhead line on www.spiegel.de
- Historical extract about the Extertalbahn
- History of the Extertalbahn (private homepage, German)
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Extertal Railway in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Map with all coordinates: