Kleinbahn Steinhelle – Medebach
| Kleinbahn Steinhelle – Medebach | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Course book range : | 238b (1950) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 36.3 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 24 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The narrow-gauge railway stone Light-Medebach GmbH operated a 750-mm narrow gauge railway in today Hochsauerlandkreis . The Prussian state and, after 1945, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , as well as the Westphalia Provincial Association, which later called itself the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe , and the former district of Brilon were involved in the company.
The 36 km long, steep route led from Steinhelle station on the Nuttlar – Frankenberg railway to the small town of Medebach on the border with the former Waldeck region . The double hairpin between Küstelberg and Wissinghausen, at km 18 and km 23, was remarkable in Central Europe for passenger traffic .
history
The first section in the Ruhr Valley to Niedersfeld was opened on May 1, 1902, and on June 15 it went to Küstelberg, the highest point on the route at 662 m. Then the track fell again and reached Oberschledorn on December 21st. After a year, the end point Medebach (410 m above sea level) was reached on May 1, 1903, where the local management was also located. The maximum speed for the route was initially set at 20 km / h, which meant a total travel time of over 2½ hours for the " Fiery Elias ". Three steam locomotives were available for this.
The company was initially run by the Westfälische Landeseisenbahn GmbH, but since 1904 the small railway department of the Westphalian provincial administration in Münster.
The annual traffic volume was mostly between 20,000 t and 30,000 t of goods, especially timber for mining, and around 100,000 passengers, only in the years of the Second World War and the years after that was the number of passengers considerably higher.
All traffic was stopped on June 23, 1953 soon after the fiftieth anniversary, for which a commemorative publication was published, and the tracks were then demolished.
A railway-owned bus company, which had set up a network of lines, served as a replacement. This operated from December 5, 1963 as "Verkehrsbetriebe Kreis Brilon - Kleinbahn Steinhelle-Medebach GmbH", although there was no longer any rail traffic. It was not until January 24, 1979 that bus operations were incorporated into Regionalverkehr Ruhr-Lippe GmbH .
Individual railway operations buildings have been preserved along the entire route. In the Municipal Museum Medebach is a model of the light railway can see, there are also several original equipment and numerous photos are on display.
Hairpin
Between Küstelberg and Wissinghausen, 141 meters of altitude had to be overcome over 6.2 km. Steam trains took 25 minutes for this route, railcars 14 minutes. The two switchbacks were a special feature of the company. It was not possible to move the locomotive in the hairpin bends, so the train was pushed, the driver stood on the front platform and gave signals, especially on the Küstelberg – Deifeld road.
Small train in World War II
With the beginning of the Second World War , rail traffic increased sharply as the private trucks had to be handed over to the Wehrmacht. The scheduled trains were no longer sufficient for freight traffic; so the small railroad used additional trains on demand. Due to a shortage of wagons for the Reichsbahn, which grew larger and larger in the course of the war, goods were jammed at Steinhelle station. Goods were therefore divided into levels of urgency. Nevertheless, even goods with a high level of urgency stood there for up to four weeks until the Reichsbahn transported them away. Later, especially after the intensification of the air raids on the Ruhr area , all the small railroad cars had to be used at times to bring evacuees from the Ruhr area, with their belongings, to their evacuation locations along the small railroad or to nearby train stations. In autumn 1944 the first bombs fell on the small railway line. The tracks were not hit directly. Once the travelers in Wiemeringhausen had to leave the train 100 m before a dud that was four meters from the tracks and board again 100 m after it. The train only passed the explosive device with the train crew on board, which was defused by fireworks. From the beginning of 1945 there were repeated attacks by low-level aircraft on trains. However, the Allied planes did not manage to hit the trains on the winding route. After all, the train only ran in the morning hours and in the evening with the onset of dusk. In the morning the train left Medebach at five o'clock and was in Steinhelle at eight o'clock. The train was parked there at the edge of the forest and camouflaged. In the evening, the train usually had to wait two to three hours because the trains from the Ruhr area were so late and had to wait for these trains to arrive. When an ammunition train exploded in Willingen station on March 20 after a low-level aircraft attack, debris flew onto the small railway tracks. The train was therefore four hours late because the tracks first had to be checked. On March 29, after the early train arrived in Steinhelle, it was announced that US tanks had occupied Hallenberg. The train drove back to Medebach in the afternoon. Since the road in the Ruhr valley and the level crossings were clogged with fleeing Wehrmacht vehicles, the train made slow progress. In Oberschledorn it was reported that US troops were already in Medebach. With a white flag on the locomotive, the train drove unmolested to Medebach. Numerous wagons were damaged in the fighting over this place in the Easter days. The windows of the passenger cars were destroyed, most of the cars had bullet holes and bullet damage. In June clean-up work began on the route. At the beginning of July 1945 operations could be resumed.
literature
- Various authors: 50 years of Kleinbahn Steinhelle – Medebach. 1902-1952. Vogel & Wirth, Lippstadt 1952.
- Hugo Cramer: The district of Brilon in the Second World War 1939–1945 - reports from many employees from all over the district. Josefs-Druckerei, Bigge 1955.
- Paul Wambach, Friedhelm Ketteler: Serving people. 75 years of the Brilon transport company “Kleinbahn Steinhelle – Medebach”. 1902-1977. Westfälische Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, Münster 1977.
- Hinrich Rudolfsen, Marilo Lambeng, Josef Drilling: The narrow-gauge railway Steinhelle-Medebach. Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 2003, ISBN 3-933613-62-0 ( secondary line documentation 77).
Web links
- The Kleinbahn Steinhelle Medebach Part 1 on olsberg-mittendrin.de
- The Kleinbahn Steinhelle Medebach Part 2 on olsberg-mittendrin.de