Rees – Empel railway
| Empel-Rees-Rees | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 5.24 km, originally 5.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 750 volts = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Rees-Empel small railway operated from February 28, 1915 to December 31, 1966 a standard-gauge small railway between Empel- Rees station on the Oberhausen – Arnhem railway line and the city of Rees . The route kilometers had their zero point at the station of the state railway.
history
The origins of the railway go back to an initiative of the construction company Havestadt & Contag , which in 1897 built a meter- gauge line called the Rees connection railway between the Prussian State Railways station in Empel and the city of Rees. The concession for the approximately 5.8 km long railway was awarded on June 2, 1896 for a period of 60 years. In the following years there were repeated differences between the construction company and the city of Rees, so that they took over the railway on June 1, 1909. In 1910, the city decided to switch the railway to the standard gauge. Since the planning of the Wesel – Rees – Emmerich small railway was well advanced at this time, the city transferred the operational management to it on July 1, 1911.
On May 15, 1914, operations ceased and work on the route began. The route, which until then had been laid almost entirely in the pavement of Provinzialstraße, was laid parallel to it on a separate track. In addition, a track connection to the Wesel – Rees – Emmerich small railway was established so that both lines shared a 320-meter route. In addition, the wagons of the Kleinbahn Rees – Empel were housed in the depot of the Kleinbahn Wesel – Rees – Emmerich.
The inspection of the route took place on February 27, 1915 by the police. The next day, light rail traffic began on the now 5.24-kilometer route. The route was traveled a total of 19 times on working days. Four of these were intended for the carriage of mail. On Sundays the train ran 17 times. Since 1936, Rheinisch-Westfälische Straßen- und Kleinbahnen GmbH (RWSK) has been running the business on behalf of RWE.
During the Second World War , the railway suffered considerable damage and had to cease operations on February 24, 1945. From autumn 1944 the railway line at Rees-Groin served as the southern boundary of the forced labor camp , which existed until it was liberated on March 25, 1945. As early as mid-1945, operations were resumed with a steam locomotive borrowed from the Deutsche Reichsbahn . It was not until December 29, 1950 that the electrical equipment was restored to such an extent that electrical small rail operations could be resumed. The route was now traveled eleven times on weekdays and eight times on Sundays. Three of the trips on weekdays were used to transport mail.
On April 1, 1961, the railway was taken over by Rees County . On February 28, 1964, the district council in Wesel decided to discontinue the railway due to the increasingly worsening utilization. On April 30, 1966, the lease agreement with RWE, which ran until 1976, was canceled . The last line between Rees and Empel then ran on December 31, 1966. The line was dismantled in 1967 and the wagons were scrapped. The wood of the superstructures was used as firewood.
literature
- Dieter Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany , Volume 9. Lower Rhine without Duisburg . EK-Verlag, Freiburg i.Br. 2004, ISBN 3-8825-5390-1 .
- Evert Heusinkveld: The small railways Rees - Empel and Wesel - Rees - Emmerich . Kenning, Nordhorn 2013, ISBN 978-3-933613-89-9
Web links
- Finding aid Kleinbahn Wesel-Rees-Emmerich Kreisarchiv Kleve