Killesbergbahn Stuttgart
Coordinates: 48 ° 48 '22.1 " N , 9 ° 10' 0.4" E
The Killesbergbahn Stuttgart is a park railway or Liliputbahn that has been operating in the Killesberg Park in Stuttgart since 1939 . It is the oldest of the three Liliput railways in Germany today.
It drives on a 2.1 km long circuit and has a track width of 15 British inches (381 millimeters). The locomotive material of the Killesbergbahn consists of the two steam locomotives "Tazzelwurm" and "Springerle" with the wheel arrangement 2'C1 ' of the Martens'sche standard liliput locomotive , which were acquired in 2014, and the two diesel locomotives "Blitzschwoab" (year of construction : 1950) and "Schwoabapfeil" (year of construction: 1992). The Killesbergbahn runs daily during the summer months, but the steam locomotives are only used on Sundays and public holidays.
history
The Killesberg park was only set up for the 1939 Reich Garden Show . On this occasion, a park train drove on the Killesberg for the first time. Previously it was an extensive former quarry area, which partly belonged to the independent municipality of Feuerbach. In and next to the abandoned quarries, various associations set up their forest homes, including the forest home association of employees of the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG. The Reichsgartenschau was a welcome occasion for the National Socialists to be able to terminate the lease of the Waldheim associations, some of which were freethinking. It was not until the incorporation of Feuerbach that the contiguous planning area on the Killesberg emerged. The children's tram operated by the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG , which was christened Rumpelstilzchen in 1950 , has been running on a small area of the then partly overgrown area since 1930 . However, just like the Tramer Forest Home, this had to give way to the new building of the Reichsgartenschaugelände in 1937 and moved to the Waldau in Stuttgart-Degerloch, where it was reopened in 1950. In contrast to the Killesbergbahn with 381 millimeters, the Rumpelstiltskin has a track width of 600 millimeters.
business
The operation takes place annually from the end of March to the beginning of November. The fare is 3 euros for adults (reduced 2.50 euros) and 1.50 euros for children aged 3 to 6.
vehicles
In 1939, two borrowed steam locomotives of the Martens' unit type slippery locomotive from the construction machinery rental company Brangsch (later: VEB Baumechanik Engelsdorf) from Leipzig drove on the Killesbergbahn. The 14 covered passenger cars were built by Waggonfabrik Görlitz between 1937 and 1938 , with the closed as the first class and the open as the second class. These are still in use in Stuttgart today, but there are no longer any closed cars, which means that the tariff differentiation is no longer applicable. Brangsch provided commercial operation of such railways at exhibitions and trade fairs on behalf of the respective local organizers, as was customary since the 1920s. The type of the vehicles was therefore not specifically built for Stuttgart and neither did they belong to the city of Stuttgart. The Second World War interrupted the operation of the Killesbergbahn before the planned end of the 1939 garden show. However, trips to isolated events on the Killesberg around the summer of 1941, which were mainly held for recovering soldiers injured in the war, are said to have taken place again. The steam locomotives were returned to Leipzig in accordance with the contract around 1942. From there, locomotives were sold, for example, to the Liliputbahn Prater in Vienna or, after they were outsourced, they went to the Parkeisenbahn Dresden or Leipziger Parkeisenbahn Auensee . As early as 1947, the Killesbergbahn was temporarily put back into operation. The tracks and parts of the rolling stock were still there. Because the locomotives used in the former Soviet occupation zone in 1939 were no longer available for use in the American occupation zone , Stuttgart initially made do with the use of the two-coupler machine with tender ( Schwarzer Otto , manufacturer: Krauss) of the former Affenparkbahn and a short train . From 1928 to 1932, the Affenparkbahn lay between today's streets “Am Cookinghof” and Landenbergerstraße, southeast of today's Höhenpark. In 1950 for the new garden show in Stuttgart, the Killesbergbahn was officially taken over by the Stuttgart Exhibition Company - a subsidiary of the city. This now had two locomotives reproduced in the same way as the types from 1939, which were supplemented by the "Blitzschwoab" diesel locomotive, based on the plans available from Krauss-Maffei. Before the International Horticultural Exhibition (IGA) in 1993, the "Schwoabapfeil" diesel locomotive was purchased in 1992 as a reinforcement. It comes from Diema .
In 2014, another steam locomotive of the same type was bought in Spain and initially refurbished, so that a total of three of the popular steam locomotives have been available since 2016. So even with revisions, two are still available for operation, and no replacement operation with the less attractive diesel locomotives is required at the weekend. Today a total of three steam and two diesel locomotives can be used on the circuit. The third steam locomotive was built by Krauss Munich together with three other machines of the same type in 1929 for the Ibero-American exhibition in Seville, so all four were only in operation for the six-month period during this exhibition. The four machines passed through different hands within Spain, most recently in 2001 to private individuals near Barcelona. There, in 2014 the development association for the Killesbergbahn acquired the locomotive with the serial number 8455, which has been known as the Santa Maria since 1929. Due to the state of preservation, the tenders of two machines were exchanged by the previous owners, so that serial number 8455 "Pinta" received the Santa Maria's tender and has been under this name since then. With the “Santa Maria” it was and is the other way around, since then it has figured as “Nina”. The serial number 8457 alias Nina, formerly Santa Maria, went from Spain to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in England in 2015 .
| Surname | Construction year | Manufacturer | Serial number | Type | Service weight / t | Power kW | Length / m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tazzel worm | 1950 | Krauss Maffei | 17674 | steam | 8.1 | 22nd | 7.4 |
| Springerle | 1950 | Krauss Maffei | 17675 | steam | 8.1 | 22nd | 7.4 |
| Blitzschwoab | 1950 | Gmeinder | 4610 | diesel | 6.5 | 25th | 3.73 |
| Schwoabappfeil | 1992 | The MA | 5198 | diesel | 6.5 | 35 | 3.91 |
| Santa Maria | 1929 | Krauss (Munich) | 8455 | steam | 8.1 | 22nd | 7.4 |
The fact that the route was not dismantled in 1939 after the end of the garden show and still exists today was a coincidence as a result of the war. The same applies to the cars that remained in Stuttgart. The transport back to the owner in Leipzig was not essential for the war in 1939/40 and was therefore not carried out. The enormously steep and winding route in Stuttgart would have required a type of locomotive with slightly smaller drive wheels and a different axle arrangement than the existing locomotives of the " Pacific " type ( axle formula 2'C1 '). Because these are actually flatland machines, which are therefore ideally suited for the other Liliput and pioneer railways in Dresden or Vienna. But since the garden show in Stuttgart in 1950 only took place for one year as usual, no other type of locomotive was designed for such a short time. Again the Killesbergbahn was preserved. The daily performance of the vehicles and employees of the Killesbergbahn on the very demanding route (in the summer half of the year) is to be appreciated all the more. The trains are occupied and weigh about 20 tons. A locomotive has an output of around 22 kilowatts (indicated output). Around 100,000 passengers and more are counted every year. The original Stuttgart locomotives still exist in the rolling stock of the railways in Leipzig and Dresden. Since the previous owner company changed the company numbers more often for advertising reasons or started with 1 and there was no way for outsiders to differentiate between the machines, it is no longer possible to determine which exactly the original locomotives from Stuttgart are today.
development
A development association has existed since 1995, which among other things achieved the protection of the railway as a technical monument in 1996 . The railway was operated by the Stuttgart trade fair company until it moved from the Killesberg location in 2007 . The formal operator from 1939 is not known. From 2007 the city of Stuttgart was responsible in the form of the municipal horticulture office. The Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG ( SSB ) has been looking after the Killesbergbahn since 2011 .
The route, which has always been ring-shaped, originally reached towards the south-western main entrance on the street Am Kräherwald and had a short artificial tunnel under the so-called Sarottitreppe at the entrance from Thomastrasse. It is said to have been 3.5 kilometers long. At times, possibly as early as 1939, at least before 1960, the line was equipped with automatic signaling and block sections for the simultaneous safe use of two trains. On the occasion of the construction of the exhibition halls at that time from the mid-1950s, the route was relocated and shortened to 2.1 kilometers, at the same time swiveled towards Stresemannstrasse. The tunnel still exists today, but is no longer used because the old route was no longer possible after the changes to the route. Today the old tunnel houses the electricity and water management for the Killesberg Park. The very arched stretch of rails with the S 18 profile is only used in an anti-clockwise direction. It is the steepest of all Lilliput lifts, as there is a gradient of up to 4.3 percent uphill and a downhill gradient of as much as 5.8 percent. This makes it the steepest railroad-like public railway in Baden-Württemberg that is used in friction mode. It manages a difference in altitude of around 60 meters. The entire track length with nine pieces of switches and the tracks in the depot is almost 2.3 kilometers.
The departure and arrival point is the parking station on Stresemannstraße in the southeast corner of the park. In the 1990s, the station consisted of just one track for a time to save money. There are now two tracks again, so that in the event of a large rush, one train can leave immediately after the second has arrived on the neighboring track. The locomotives are driven and heated by one person. The locomotive drivers have to take an examination according to the state law on amusement rides. Both the water and steam retention in the boiler on the steep route and the braking are more demanding than on any other route of this type, especially since inclines and tight curves increase the rolling resistance of the train at the same time. The cars have air pressure brakes with automatic safety action according to the system, as it is also prescribed for regular railways.
At the beginning of the 2009 season, an additional stopping point near the playground in the park was set up on a trial basis for the Killesbergbahn. There you could get off and board with a valid ticket , but it was not possible to buy tickets at this stop. For this reason, since the turnaround time of a train was extended by the additional stop, fewer courses could be traveled per day and thus fewer tickets could be sold, which was reflected in the economic results of the railway after a short time. Furthermore, the regulation that the trains were already fully occupied at the parking station caused annoyance among passengers who wanted to get on at the playground with a previously purchased card but found a fully occupied train. The attempt was therefore declared to have failed at the beginning of June 2009 and was terminated.
background
The Killesbergbahn is classified as an amusement ride within the meaning of the State Cable Car Act of Baden-Württemberg. Technically, the operational design of the Stuttgarter Bahn today is based on the building and operating regulations for pioneer railways (BOP) of the former GDR, but for historical reasons with some technical deviations. SSB AG provides the operations manager. In its main workshop in Stuttgart-Möhringen, the SSB carries out major work on the vehicles.
Another park railway in Stuttgart
The Rumpelstilzchen children's tram is a small, electric, non-public park railway system with a gauge of 600 millimeters on the grounds of the Waldheim of the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG (SSB) in Stuttgart-Degerloch . Even before the Killesbergbahn or at the same time as it, there were amusement rides of the same gauge in the so-called Affenparadies, a small zoo, on the Killesberg across the street Am Kräherwald and at the height above Stuttgart Ost on the Raichberg.
literature
- Andreas Pucka: 80 years of the Killesbergbahn . Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-9811082-8-6 .
Web links
- Internet presence of the operator SSB
- Ride with the Killesbergbahn, 1st section
- Ride with the Killesbergbahn, 2nd section
- History of the Killesbergbahn
Individual evidence
- ↑ Timetable | Killesbergbahn. Accessed December 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Fares | Killesbergbahn. Accessed December 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Draft law of the state government - First law to amend the Thuringian Mountain Railway Act , Landtag-Drucksache 6/3038, p. 2 (accessed on May 17, 2017).