Kaldenkirchen – Brüggen small train

Kaldenkirchen – Brüggen
Route number :	9244
Route length:	12.47 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Viersen from Kempen 0.0 Kaldenkirchen to Venlo 0.56 Kaldenkirchen North 1.76 Kaldenkirchen Steyler Str. 5.85 Heidhausen 6.75 Brings 7.27 Rheinische Tonwerke 7.4 Laumans 7.5 Laumans 7.68 CCC 7.75 Naus brothers 9.0 Holter Heath depot 10.5 Gravel pit 11.1 Laumans 11.2 Thyssen 11.4 Emperor Brüggen West

The Kaldenkirchen – Brüggen small railway was a standard gauge small railway in North Rhine-Westphalia from Kaldenkirchen to Brüggen .

history

The first plans for a railway line from Kaldenkirchen, which had had a rail connection since 1866, via Bracht, Brüggen, Bellinghoven to Speick were drawn up in 1882. The clay works in the west of Kaldenkirchen requested a rail connection and so the Continentale Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft took up this project. On February 19, 1901, the traffic could be opened, initially there was only goods traffic. On January 20, 1904, the concession was extended and passenger traffic could begin on April 1.

In 1904 the railway was transferred to Industriebahn AG . This was again in 1929 in the German Railway Company (DEGA). Freight traffic developed well and reached 144,000 t per year as early as 1913. There were nine sidings in 1910.

Passenger traffic hardly played a role. Of the four existing cars, two were sold on as early as 1906. The route was aligned to the clay pits and the train stations were far outside the villages. In 1904, 1804 people took part, compared to 435 in 1906, and 120 people were transported in 1913. On August 4, 1920, the request to cease passenger traffic was granted and this was subsequently discontinued.

After the First World War, the traffic collapsed, it only recovered in the 1930s, in 1938 it was 153,000 t.

In 1941 a fuel depot for the Luftwaffe was built in Holter Heide . This made the small train increasingly a target for enemy air strikes. On November 23, 1944, all vehicles that could still be driven were evacuated to the Neheim-Hüsten-Sundern railway . After the end of the war, the railroad workers and vehicles returned; In July 1945, despite major damage, traffic could be resumed. The reconstruction brought considerable traffic to the railway. Gradually, however, all of the clay and brickworks moved to the streets. In 1960 66,000 t were transported, by 1976 the freight had dropped to 25,000 t. From the mid-1960s, the British Rhine Army , which had set up a depot on the site of the tank farm, was almost the Deutsche Bahn's only customer. The southern section of the railway from Holter Heide was discontinued in 1964. This meant that journeys through the restricted military area of ​​Holter Heide were no longer necessary.

New industrial settlements did not bring any new traffic either. The annual output leveled off between 40,000 t and 60,000 t, peaking at 71,770 t in 1991. From 1994 the Holter Heide depot was given up. On March 31, 1996 the freight traffic was stopped for the time being; the route was still preserved. Around the year 2000 the line was dismantled. Today there are no more tracks.

vehicles

Usually two to three locomotives were sufficient. Nevertheless, due to the exchange of locomotives with other DEGA group railways, there were quite a few different locomotives on the route. The first machines were two three-axle steam locomotives from Hohenzollern with the names Kaldenkirchen and Brüggen , in 1911 a third steam locomotive was also procured from Hohenzollern. After that, only used locomotives came to the railroad. The first diesel locomotive in 1948 was also used, in 1953 the DEG V 21 diesel locomotive was purchased from the Esslingen machine factory , but was rented out to other group railways the following year. The traffic initially continued to be carried by steam locomotives, including locomotives of the ELNA 5 type .

MaK locomotives were in use from 1979 .

The British Army of the Rhine had its own locomotives, including type V 36 locomotives , which were hired on a case-by-case basis. One of these locomotives has been in regular use on the line since the early 1960s. The British Rhine Army also bought the two MaK locomotives in 1980 and 1986, which then continued to operate on the line. After the cessation of passenger traffic, one car remained as a tour car, there was also a baggage car, and there were between three and five freight cars.

literature

• Gerd Wolff, Lothar Riedel: German small and private railways . 5: North Rhine-Westphalia. Northwestern part. EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, ISBN 3-88255-662-5 , p. 204-213 .
• Wolfgang Nass: The Kaldenkirchen - Brüggen small train . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1986, ISBN 3-921679-36-2 .

Web links

Commons : Kleinbahn Kaldenkirchen – Brüggen  - collection of images

• Entry on Kleinbahn Kaldenkirchen – Brüggen in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association

Footnotes

1. ↑ According to other information, passenger traffic was shut down as early as 1909 (Rolf Löttgers: Privatbahnen in Deutschland - Die Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft 1960–1969. Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-440-05162-5 , p. 97.)
2. ↑ Entry on British ammunition depot in Bracht in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on August 4, 2017.