Small train Philippsheim – Binsfeld
| Philippsheim-Binsfeld | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 8.1 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The small railway Philippsheim – Binsfeld was a narrow-gauge railway in what is now the Eifel district of Bitburg-Prüm and in the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich in the southern Eifel .
It began at Philippsheim station on the Cologne – Trier Eifel line and led from the Kyll valley in an easterly direction to the plateau, where it ended in the village of Binsfeld , which was then inhabited by 760 people.
The only 7 km long line was laid out with a gauge of 750 mm and was opened on May 6, 1900 by the Allgemeine Deutsche Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft for passenger and freight traffic. In the course of the restructuring of the Lenz Group , the railway was transferred to the property of Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG (VKA). The operation was temporarily led by the Moselbahn AG, which was also operated by the VKA, and the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft .
Passenger traffic was normal at first; Before the First World War , four pairs of trains ran every day, after that only two on weekdays. It was completely dormant from 1936 to 1945; after the war it started up again. In 1947/48 three pairs of trains drove; however, there was no traffic on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. In the 1950 summer timetable, there is only one late afternoon pair of trains on weekdays.
In freight transport, the railway was primarily used to transport clay and brickwork products. The delivery of the wagons to the clay pits took place partly over brake mountains . After the Second World War , the construction of the Spangdahlem military airfield ensured that the small railway flourished again briefly. After this material transport was discontinued, the remaining goods volume had decreased so much that the railway ceased operations on August 9, 1965. The vehicles were then sold, but the line was not dismantled until 1970. In 2010 the route of the railway was converted into a paved cycle path.
Today the former locomotive “2” is in front of the old locomotive shed of the small train, locomotive “1” in the Gerolsteiner locomotive shed.
literature
- Lothar Riedel: The small train Philippsheim - Binsfeld . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1999 ISBN 3-933613-03-5 .
- Gerd Wolff: Kleinbahn Philippsheim - Binsfeld. In: German small and branch lines . Vol. 1 Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland. Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg / Br. 1989. pp. 148-154. ISBN 3-88255-651-X .
- Rolf Löttgers: Private railways in Germany: The German Railway Company 1960-1969, Franckh, Stuttgart 1983, p. 134ff.
- Heribert Scheubly: Kleinbahn Philippsheim-Binsfeld . In: New Trierisches Jahrbuch . Trierisch Association, 1960, ISSN 0077-7765 , p. 101 .
- Joachim Gilles: The Philippsheim – Binsfeld small train was shut down 30 years ago . In: New Trierisches Jahrbuch . Trierisch Association, 1995, ISSN 0077-7765 , p. 195-200 .