Kinnsfelstunnel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kinnsfelstunnel
Kinnsfels tunnel
Kinnsfelstunnel
East portal of the Kinnsfelstunnel
use Railway tunnel
traffic connection Glantalbahn
place Waldböckelheim , Oberhausen an der Nahe
length 284 m
Number of tubes 1
construction
Client Society of the Palatinate Northern Railways
completion 1904
location
Kinnsfelstunnel (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates
West portal 49 ° 48 ′ 5 "  N , 7 ° 44 ′ 0"  E
East portal 49 ° 48 ′ 7 "  N , 7 ° 44 ′ 22"  E
Board on the east portal

The Kinnsfelstunnel - also known as the Kinnsfels tunnel - is one of the three tunnels of the Glantalbahn, which has been closed since 1996 , alongside the Elschbach and Meisenheim tunnels . It was located in the northern section of the Odernheim - Bad Münster route . Along this railway line, which was built for strategic reasons, the tunnel, which was commissioned in 1904, was the longest of its kind with its 284 meters. The tunnel was designed for two tracks, but between 1929 and 1939 only one track ran through it.

location

The western area of ​​the tunnel is located on the district of Waldböckelheim , the larger and eastern area, however, on that of Oberhausen an der Nahe . Immediately in front of the tunnel at the west end was the Bavarian- Prussian border at the time of its construction , which is still marked with a boundary stone . The purpose of the tunnel was to cope with a narrow valley near the Gangelsberg .

Characteristics

The tectonics must have been difficult to control because the tunnel is completely lined to give the vault support. The resulting costs can only be explained by the military importance of this strategic path. Probably for the purpose of checking a fault line , a corridor was also created over a length of about 150 meters above the tunnel with a headroom between 1.50 m and 2.20 m. Both at the west and at the east end of the corridor it was connected to the actual tunnel by iron ladders. This passage is rare in tunnels.

history

Planning, construction and opening

The earliest plans for a railway line along the Glan go back to 1856. Also in the 1870s there were efforts to build a strategic route from Homburg to Bad Münster. However, the plans did not materialize until the end of the 1890s when Franco-German relations deteriorated. The approval of the project planning from Bavaria , to which the Palatinate belonged at that time and whose northwestern area was crossed, took place on January 27, 1898.

In addition to the existing Glan-Münchweiler-Altenglan and Lauterecken-Odernheim lines, which were opened in 1868 and 1896, respectively, a total of three new sections were to be created: Homburg - Glan-Münchweiler , Altenglan- Lauterecken and Odernheim-Bad Münster. In the spring of 1903, construction work began between Odernheim and Bad Münster. In order to be able to break through the Kinnsfels, which represents the northern foothills of the Gangelsberg towards the Nahe, a 284-meter-long tunnel was built on this section, the so-called Kinnsfelstunnel , which also became the longest of the entire strategic railway.

In the area of ​​the tunnel, railway lines ran for a few kilometers both north and south of the Nahe . This was done for two reasons. Firstly, the Glan Valley Railway should be a competition in this way to the Nahe Valley Railway form. In this context, Bavaria also hoped for financial advantages, because it could be run on Bavarian territory until shortly before Münster am Stein . On the other hand, capacity bottlenecks on the local line between Bad Münster and Staudernheim were avoided in this way ; In addition, this saved the head of the trains in Sobernheim or Staudernheim. The first train ran from Scheidt to Bad Münster on April 16. The same train went in the opposite direction on April 22nd. The official opening of the route took place on May 1st.

Further development (1904–1963)

Due to its strategic importance, so-called "railway guards" existed along the Glantalbahn during the two world wars, who were supposed to counter sabotage. The guard in Duchroth-Oberhausen was assigned the task of securing the Kinnsfelstunnel during the deployment of troops in World War I.

Referring to the Versailles Treaty , the Allied Ambassadors' Conference in 1922 called for the Glantal Railway to be dismantled on a track. This caused resistance on site. Seven years later, the Reich government at the time achieved that only the Odernheim – Bad Münster section had to be reduced to one track and the Glantalbahn continued to retain the status of a main line. It was also determined that starting September 1, 1929, the dismantling work had to be completed within nine months; the latter began on November 12 of the same year. This had no impact on rail traffic. This meant that there was temporarily only one track left in the Kinnsfelstunnel. In 1938 the second track between Odernheim and Bad Münster was restored in preparation for the Second World War .

After the war, the Glantalbahn rapidly lost its importance. The section between Odernheim and Bad Münster in particular was always very lightly frequented. For this reason it was shut down on September 29, 1961. The tracks and signal systems were dismantled in 1962 and 1963.

Tunnel without tracks (since 1963)

Due to the missing section Odernheim – Bad Münster including the Kinnsfelstunnel, all trains of the Glantalbahn had to travel eastwards over the connection that had existed since 1897 to Staudernheim and turn heads there before it was completely shut down in 1996.

To the east of the tunnel, which is still accessible today, a cycle path was opened on the former railway line in May 1994. The municipalities of Odernheim and Oberhausen have been considering extending this through the Kinnsfelstunnel to Odernheim since the mid-2000s.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 27 .
  2. ^ Eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de: Line 3281: Kinnsfels tunnel . Retrieved February 9, 2013 .
  3. ↑ nahebahn.de: Bad Münster - Odernheim: The chin rock tunnel . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved February 16, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nahebahn.de
  4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 16 f .
  5. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 21st f .
  6. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 23 f .
  7. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 39 .
  8. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 42 .
  9. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 44 f .
  10. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 49 .
  11. ^ Klaus D. Holzborn : Railway Reviere Pfalz . 1993, p. 39 f .
  12. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 55 .
  13. ↑ achim-bartoschek.de: Rail route cycling - details - Germany> Rhineland-Palatinate> south of the Nahe - RP 3.06 Nahe cycle path: section Niederhausen - Bad Münster am Stein . Retrieved February 9, 2013 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 48 ′ 7 ″  N , 7 ° 44 ′ 15 ″  E