Kleinbahn Kirchbarkau – Preetz – Lütjenburg

Kirchbarkau – Preetz – Lütjenburg
Course book range :	103g (1936)
Route length:	41.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Segeberg 0.0 Kirchbarkau to Kiel 2.7 Great Barkau 4.0 Honey lake 6.2 Sieversdorf Bridge over the Postsee 10.4 to Preetz train station Kiel – Lübeck railway line 10.9 Preetz Kleinbahnhof Bridge over the Schwentine 13.3 Rethwish Bridge over the Spolsau 15.4 Rastorf Bridge over a Spolsau branch 17.6 Wildenhorst 18.7 Rastorf Passau 20.2 Klinten 22.1 Ellhornsberg 23.4 Racks Dam over the Lammershagener ponds 25.2 Lammershagen 27.1 Friedeburg 28.1 Loyalty field 30.0 Rantzau 32.8 Vörstenmoor 33.5 Connection of God's gift 35.3 Seekrug (Neuhaus) 38.4 Klamp 39.9 Lütjenburg small train station from Malente 41.5 Luetjenburg

The Kleinbahn AG Kirchbarkau-Preetz-Luetjenburg (KPL) was established on 21 July 1908 the district of Plön took more than 75% of the shares. The cities of Preetz and Lütjenburg were also involved. In Preetz there was a connection to the Kiel – Ascheberg railway line opened in 1866 ; however, the small train station was about 600 m away from the state train station. In Kirchbarkau there was a connection to the Kleinbahn Kiel – Segeberg, which opened in 1911 .

The small train was intended to economically develop the landscape of eastern Holstein , which is characterized by large agricultural goods . It served the goods Rethwisch , Rastorf , Wildenhorst , Wittenberg , Lammershagen , Friedeburg , Rantzau , Neuhaus , Klamp and Helmstorf , but also brickworks and a gravel pit.

Opening of the routes

The first section Preetz Kleinbahnhof – Lütjenburg was opened on October 1, 1910.

A few months later, the Kirchbarkau – Preetz Kleinbahnhof section began operating on April 2, 1911. For the construction of this road section of was in a preexisting Seeenge Post Lake at Sieversdorf piled up a dam and built a bridge that separated the post see in a north and south.

In total, the standard gauge line was 41.5 km long. The company was Lenz & Co GmbH , from 1920/27 the Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH .

Early end of the small train

The small railway line was abandoned in the 1930s because trucks were more flexible for transporting goods and the route spared many villages. The use of the route for passenger transport was no longer worthwhile, so that the transport services were taken over by competing bus lines, which, among other things, were able to establish the direct connection to Kiel. Initially four pairs of trains ran daily, later the number of pairs of trains was reduced. In 1936 three pairs of trains ran daily (including Sundays) between Preetz and Lütjenburg.

There was a transition to the state railway in Lütjenburg and Preetz. In Preetz, the trains were tailored to the traffic in the Preetz state train station, but the small and state train stations were about 600 m apart. In Kirchbarkau the transition to the small railway Kiel – Segeberg was possible. Although both railways were under the same management, the timetables here were not coordinated.

As early as April 1, 1930, passenger traffic between Kirchbarkau and Preetz Kleinbahnhof was given up. On the eastern part to Lütjenburg, it was able to hold its own until May 15, 1938, when goods traffic was stopped on the entire route. The Kirchbarkau – Preetz Kleinbahnhof – Seekrug section was then dismantled and the company dissolved by 1963.

By contract of 6./9. June 1940 the German Reich (Reich Treasury) acquired the entire superstructure, the facilities and the car park of the KPL. The material was used for the construction of the Westerland – Hörnum line on Sylt. In 1940 the Treasury also acquired the Seekrug – Lütjenburg section as a siding for the Bellin Seefliegerhorst on Lake Selenter . The Deutsche Reichsbahn took over the operation of the siding until around 1942/1943, after which this section was finally shut down and broken off. Some of the facilities in Lütjenburg were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Despite the removal of the rails, the route can still be seen in some places in the landscape. Some of the handsome reception buildings are also still standing.

vehicles

For the opening, four three-axle steam locomotives were procured from the Humboldt mechanical engineering company , which were classified as Lenz type c . One of these locomotives came to the Reichsbahn General Directorate or later to the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1946 as 89 7354 (second occupation) after it was decommissioned and used on Sylt . There were also four 2nd and 3rd class passenger cars, four 3rd class passenger cars, two combined mail / baggage cars, twelve boxcars and eight open freight cars, as well as a long timber transport car.

In 1922 two used four-axle Rowan steam railcars were used, which were ten years old and built near Borsig for the Uetersen railway . Your mission was probably not very successful. In 1924/25 one of the two railcars was converted to benzene suction gas propulsion for 27,000 RM; however, the suction gas system never worked properly. In 1925, both railcars were scrapped. As a replacement, a used locomotive ( Prussian T 3 ) had to be procured from ADEG .

literature

• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 12: Schleswig-Holstein 1 (eastern part) . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88255-671-1
• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways; Part 1 . Zeunert, Gifhorn 1972, ISBN 3-921237-14-9
• Gerd Stolz: Kleinbahn AG Kirchbarkau – Preetz – Lütjenburg . in: Die Museums-Eisenbahn, 3/2010, pp. 14–21

Web links

• History of the small train
• Route on OpenStreetMap