Geesthacht – Krümmel railway line

Geesthacht crumbs

Location of the railway line in the urban area

Route length:

(formerly 8.46 km) 3.930 km

		Railway line from Hamburg-Bergedorf
	13,854	Geesthacht
	14.057 0.055	Start of the route
	0.073	Dune road
	0.100	Sand road
	0.446	Elbstrasse
	0.752	Sielstrasse
	0.818	outdoor pool
	0.937	Ferry road
	0.988	Ferry road
	1,890	Easter spring
		Connection of the HEW pumped storage plant
	2.512	Energy park
	3.401	Crumbs
	3.531	Krümmelstrasse
	3,642	Connection of the Krümmel nuclear power plant
	3,985	Connection ex. Dynamit AG (DAG)
	4.850	Westerhäse marshalling yard
	6.320	Otto-Hahn-Strasse
	6.820	Jahnstrasse
	7.170	Busch marshalling yard
	7.860	Max-Planck-Strasse
	8.510	Connection of the Grüner Jäger industrial area (ex Wilhelmsburger Maschinenfabrik)

The Geesthacht – Krümmel railway was built in 1915/16 to safely transport the products of the Krümmel dynamite factory to customers. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel founded Alfred Nobel & Co. (later “ Dynamit AG ” (DAG)) in Hamburg in 1865 and began building the plant in Krümmel in the same year . Until then, the raw materials and explosives produced there were transported across the Elbe or the street.

history

When the railway ( Bergedorf-Geesthachter Eisenbahn ) (BGE) reached Geesthacht in 1906, the powder factory located in Düneberg also received a rail connection. The dynamite factory Krümmel, however, has not yet been connected to the rail network. The goods still had to be transported by ship across the Elbe or with carts and cumbersome (also dangerous) reloading from the Geesthacht train station. In 1910, Dynamit AG pushed ahead with the continuation of the BGE via Hasental on to Büchen , with a rail connection to Krümmel in between. However, this project failed due to money issues.

During the First World War , the products made from crumbs were important to the war effort and money was no longer an issue. In autumn 1915, at the expense of the DAG, planning began for the urgently needed siding from Geesthacht to Krümmel. As part of the Hindenburg program , construction work began in October 1915. The route along the foreland of the Elbe required some effort, as the Geest slope almost extends as far as the banks of the Elbe. With the help of Russian prisoners of war, the first train reached Krümmel in March 1916. A height difference of 12.5 m with a gradient of 1:70 had to be overcome to the Krümmler factory premises. The Westerhäse works station was completed in June 1916 and was secured by a key mechanism so that no wagons could roll down the ramp independently. A locomotive shed was also built there for the company's own locomotives . No steam locomotives were used in the plant due to the risk of explosion . Used came battery - and Dampfspeicherloks .

By further expanding the track system in the plant, a track length of 43 km was achieved by 1945. The BGE carried out the operation on the Krümmelbahn up to the Krümmler train station and the transfer tracks behind it. From there on, the DAG was responsible. Passenger traffic from Geesthacht to Krümmel was only allowed to factory employees and people living in Krümmel, which is why the Krümmelbahn is not listed in any course book . The Fährstraße station was built only for employees who crossed from the other bank of the Elbe by ferry . There were continuous workers' trains from Hamburg to Geesthacht with a transition to Krümmel. Up to 16 pairs of trains ran on the Krümmelbahn until 1918.

At the end of the First World War, the transport performance dropped suddenly. The production of the DAG was switched back to civilian purposes. The Krümmelbahn was on Prussian and Hamburg territory. At the end of the war, the concession for the construction and operation of the Krümmelbahn expired on the Hamburg side. The main reason was, among other things, the resistance of the Edmundsthal-Siemerswalde lung sanatorium due to noise and smoke and the Geesthacht community, which would lose its value as a destination for excursions on the Geest slope and Elbe bathing site for Hamburg residents. The DAG then took over the operation up to the Sandstrasse train station. For the final concession, Hamburg asked for battery locomotives to be used in order to protect the pulmonary hospital. At the same time, the Sandstrasse station was expanded to BGE with transfer tracks.

When the NSDAP came to power , the volume of traffic on the Krümmelbahn gradually increased again. The DAG in Krümmel increased its production again in the course of the armament of the Wehrmacht . From 1940 the Deutsche Reichsbahn took over the continuous worker traffic from Hamburg Central Station to Krümmel, pulled by class 64 locomotives . The expansion and the transport service on the Krümmelbahn reached their peak. After the war ended in 1945, the DAG was dismantled and, until 1949, the Krümmelbahn as well.

In 1953 the city of Geesthacht rebuilt a track to Krümmel to provide an incentive for new companies to settle. The Wilhelmsburger Maschinenfabrik moved to the Grünen Jäger, followed by the Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke AG (HEW) with the pumped storage plant and the Society for Nuclear Energy Utilization in Shipbuilding and Shipping ( GKSS ) and finally the Krümmel nuclear power plant . The volume of operations served by the AKN has been falling on the Krümmelbahn for years . In 1990 the Geesthacht-based working group Geesthacht Railway started regular steam train services on the Krümmelbahn.

literature

Stefan Meyer: 100 years of the railroad between Bergedorf and Geesthacht. From the BGE to the AKN freight railway. Lokrundschau Verlag, Gülzow 2006, ISBN 3-931647-21-8 .
Jürgen Opravil: The Bergedorf Geesthachter Railway. Kurt Viebranz-Verlag, Schwarzenbek 1978, ISBN 3-921595-01-0 .
Hans Egon Metzger, Hermann Scharping, Axel Weber: The railways in Geesthacht. Walter Flügge, Geesthacht 1982. ISBN 3-923952-01-5

Web links

Geesthacht Railway Working Group