Rathenow-Senzke-Nauen circuit
| Rathenow-Senzke-Nauen circuit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Course book section (DB) : | ex 107n (DR), 208e (1944) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 51.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 750 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 17 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 50 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Rathenow-Senzke-Nauen District Railway (RSN) - as it was called from 1932 to March 31, 1949 - was the only narrow-gauge railway in what was then the Westhavelland district and belonged to it itself. The seat was in Rathenow . It served to develop the area between the Hamburger Bahn in the north and the Lehrter Bahn in the south.
Route and construction
The route led from the district town of Rathenow on the Havel in a north-easterly direction via Kriele and Senzke to Paulinenaue . In Senzke, a 20-kilometer stretch branched off via Ribbeck to the district town of Nauen in the neighboring district of Osthavelland . Because the route meandered through the country in order to connect as many localities as possible, what was initially known as the Rathenow-Senzke-Paulinenaue-Nauen small district railway was also given the nickname "Crooked Pauline". She was often referred to as "Stille Pauline".
Larger gradients had to be conquered near the village of Kotzen through the mountain range called Hohes Rott. The RSN overcame its northern foothills with a height difference of 17 meters over a length of 1000 meters. The lowest point of the route network was in Rathenow at 27 meters above sea level , the highest between Ferchesar and Kotzen at 47 meters. In addition, cuts had to be made on the Kriele – Kotzen section and, because of the boggy subsoil, embankments up to two meters high had to be made. The RSN crossed the Great Havelland Main Canal at three points on bridges about ten meters long.
The superstructure consisted of track yokes , each made of two nine meter long vignole rails on 13 wooden sleepers with the dimensions 1500 × 170 × 140 millimeters with a mass of 15 kilograms per meter. The three meter wide subgrade was 0.6 meters high. The track width was chosen to be 750 millimeters with an axle load of five tons.
business
Up until 1914, an average of 100,000 people and almost 50,000 tons of goods were transported each year. About 30 employees and 50 workers were employed. Until then, the RSN's revenues covered expenses for operating materials and wages.
In 1924, the RSN terminated the operations management contract that had existed since 1903 with the railway department of the province of Mark Brandenburg. Now the Westhavelland district has taken over the management of rail operations from Rathenow. From then on, two pairs of passenger trains drove daily with goods transport between Rathenow and Nauen with an intersection in Senzke, where the locomotives changed.
With constant subsidies, it was possible to maintain operations until 1945, because the RSN was urgently needed, especially for freight traffic. During the Second World War, travel increased to 200,000 cases and more per year. The RSN was primarily used by the Wehrmacht members stationed in Rathenow, as they came to Nauen cheaply in order to reach the S-Bahn traffic to the capital.
Overview of performance data:
| 1901 | 1906 | 1911 | 1927 | 1938 | 1943 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transported people | 56,764 | 104,347 | 112.101 | 69,663 | 48,916 | 223,702 |
| Goods transported in t | 36,884 | 51,916 | 48,607 | 45,660 | 40.096 | 42,319 |
| Locomotive kilometers | 84.020 | 128.115 | 130,762 | 66,424 | 65,693 | 64,781 |
history
Planning and opening
The council Westhavelland in Rathenow discussed in 1895 narrow-gauge railway projects with the goal of developing the embossed by a brisk agricultural district area traffic moderately better. In December 1895 a committee was founded to examine the possible lines. In 1896 the connection between Rathenow and Paulinenaue was considered. The Prussian Minister of Public Works was only prepared to approve the construction of a railway serving local transport needs on the basis of the Small Railway Act of 1892, and only as a narrow-gauge small railway.
In 1897 it became clear that the small railway line from Rathenow via Stechow, Ferchesar, Kotzen, Landin, Kriele, Haage, Senzke, Wagenitz and Brädikow should lead to Paulinenaue. A branch line from Paulinenaue was also planned for the development of the Pessin estate. The district council in Rathenow approved the construction of both lines on June 29, 1897. On October 28, 1898, the Royal District President in Potsdam granted the concession to build and operate the Rathenow-Senzke-Paulinenaue (RSP) railway . The first construction work on the line began in early 1899. Locomotives, passenger coaches and freight train wagons were also commissioned.
At around the same time it became apparent that the route from Rathenow to Paulinenaue only partially met traffic requirements. After appropriate preliminary investigations, the district council in Rathenow decided on April 10, 1899 to replace the Paulinenaue-Pessin branch with an additional route from the intersection of the Senzke-Wagenitz route with the Hamburger Chaussee (today's federal highway 5 ) via Pessin, Retzow, Selbelang, Ribbeck, Berge and Lietzow To build the Nauen. On April 2, 1900, the 31.5 kilometer long small railway between Rathenow and Paulinenaue was opened.
Flowering time and development until 1945
After the opening, three freight trains with passenger transport will run on the route every day . The preparatory work for the branch to Nauen, authorized by the Minister of Public Works in October 1899, was in full swing. In May 1900, the royal government in Potsdam approved the construction and operation of this supplementary line, which was approved by the railway and state police on September 20, 1901. One day later the first beet train rolled from Senzke to Nauen. For the first time on September 29, 1901, a passenger train ran from Nauen to Rathenow on the occasion of a horse race taking place in Rathenow . It was also considered the route's opening move.
On October 1, 1901, the 20.1-kilometer branch line for public travel and freight was put into operation. The company administration and workshops were located in Rathenow. A railway administrator working in Rathenow was responsible for the daily operations.
During the beet campaign in particular , commodity trains were constantly rolling into Nauen. The residents used the small train mainly for shopping and visits to the authorities in Rathenow and vice versa in Nauen. The RSPN used reinforcement trains from Rathenow to Ferchesar for the occasionally lively excursion traffic in the summer months, which were very popular. Until 1914, the volume of travel and goods traffic increased steadily. Nevertheless, grants from the district budget were always necessary.
After the beginning of World War I , the economic situation of the small railway deteriorated. From 1917 the operating income no longer covered the current expenses, so that the Rathenow district administration was forced to run only two pairs of trains a day on both routes. On January 1, 1924, tourist traffic on the Senzke – Paulinenaue section was discontinued and freight traffic was limited to the Senzke – Wagenitz section. An important date in the history of the Kreisbahn is April 1, 1924. On this day, the RSPN was released from the obligation to carry between Wagenitz and Paulinenaue, but the tracks remained in place for the time being, they were only dismantled in the mid-1930s. In the years 1925 to 1931, a new locomotive could be procured by transporting larger quantities of wood from the Rhinsmühler Heide and the resulting income.
At the beginning of 1932 the RSPN changed its company name to Kreisbahn Rathenow - Senzke - Nauen (RSN). A re-gauging of the RSN to standard gauge or the introduction of trolley traffic was considered in order to reduce costs and save time when reloading goods. But there was no money for such investments. It was possible to get grants from the Province of Brandenburg for the procurement of two railcars, but these were no longer built “due to the war”.
The rationing of fuel ordered by the Nazi government at the beginning of the 1940s led to an enormous increase in the performance of the RSN, as many bus routes were discontinued. The RSN could not do anything with the profits achieved, as it did not receive any quotas for the materials required. Among other things, a locomotive and the two tank cars had to be surrendered for use in the East during World War II . On March 31, 1943, the freight traffic on the Senzke – Wagenitz section was stopped and the tracks were dismantled immediately.
On April 20, 1945, in the morning hours of the Nauen train station, allied air raids caused some serious damage. This also affected the RSN railway systems and wagons. The train traffic came to a standstill. A few days later, German associations blew up the two small railway bridges over the Havelland main canal. From Rathenow the roundabout traffic up to Kotzen got going again in July 1945. However, at the beginning of August the traffic had to be stopped because the RSN had fallen under the reparation payments to the USSR . The systems should be dismantled and transported away with the vehicles. In the late summer of 1945 the Rathenower District Administrator succeeded in convincing the occupying power of the need for the RSN.
Decommissioning and current state
A further shortening of the circular path by 17 kilometers resulted in the dismantling of the Rathenow – Kriele section in the summer of 1945. The other stations between Kriele and Nauen (25 kilometers) initially remained without train traffic after the end of the war. This was only resumed on February 9, 1946, after the bridge over the main Havelland Canal near Senzke, which had been destroyed in the war, was repaired.
In the winter timetables for 1946/47 and 1947/48, a train only ran on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 10:30 and 10:00 a.m. from Nauen to Kriele with a journey time of 105 minutes and returned at 1:05 p.m. In the summer of 1950, this pair of trains also ran on Thursdays. In the meantime, the district's own railway had been assigned to the VVB Landesbahn Brandenburg and then to the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
Passenger transport was able to maintain itself until January 24, 1961. A few weeks later, on April 1, 1961, freight traffic also ended. This sealed the fate of the former circular path.
Freight wagons and locomotives were moved to other routes and the tracks gradually dismantled.
Almost nothing can be seen of the tracks from that time. On the station forecourt of Rathenow there is still a short piece of track that is under monument protection; A section of the siding has been preserved on the site of the former Selbelang estate. On the sections Rathenow – Stechow, over the Hohe Rott, Kotzen – Senzke and Ribbeck – Nauen, cycle paths have been built (sections of the Havelland cycle path). In the forest between Selbelang and Ribbeck and between Selbelang and Retzow, remains of the former railway embankment can still be seen.
vehicles
Steam locomotives
Permanently used steam locomotives:
| RSN no. | DR no. | design type | Manufacturer | Construction year | Factory no. | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C1'n2t | Krauss | 1899 | 4111 | 1948 reparation | |
| 2 | C1'n2t | Krauss | 1899 | 4112 | 1948 reparation | |
| 3 | 99 4511 | C1'n2t | Krauss | 1899 | 4113 | Replaced by a new building in 1966 |
| 4th | C1'n2t | Orenstein & Koppel | 1899 | 845 | after 1942 handed over to the Heeresfeldbahn | |
| 5 | 99 4512 | C1'n2t | Orenstein & Koppel | 1901 | 846 | |
| 6th | Dn2t | Borsig | 1928 | 12090 | 1948 reparation |
Temporary steam locomotives:
| DR no. | design type | Manufacturer | Construction year | Serial number | Period of use | origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99 534 | B'B'n4vt | Hartmann | 1898 | 2275 | 09.10.1953 - 27.06.1954 | Mill |
| 99 542 | B'B'n4vt | Hartmann | 1899 | 2384 | 01/30/1956 - 03/17/1956 | Mill |
| 99 552 | B'B'n4vt | Hartmann | 1908 | 3205 | 02/09/1953 - 10/19/1953 | Mill |
| 99 553 | B'B'n4vt | Hartmann | 1908 | 3206 | 08/09/1951 - 12/28/1951 | Chub |
| 99 555 | B'B'n4vt | Hartmann | 1908 | 3208 | 02/23/1955 - 04/28/1955 | Freital-Potsch. |
| 99 4502 | Cn2t | Hartmann | 1897 | 264 | 09/10/1954 - 03/29/1955 11/12/1956 - 03/22/1960 |
Pearl Mountain |
| 99 4503 | Cn2t | Hartmann | 1899 | 2622 | 16.10.1954 - 08.03.1956 | Pearl Mountain |
| 99 4541 | Qh2 | Kriskingo | 1934 | 0042 | August 26, 1958 - June 6, 1961 | Truse Valley |
| 99 4611 | Cn2t | Young | 1891 | 119 | May 24, 1957 - October 8, 1957 | Truse Valley |
| 99 4651 | Cn2 (t) | Henschel | 1941 | 25797 | 02/27/1955 - 04/28/1955 | Dahme |
| 99 4653 | Cn2 (t) | Young | 1944 | 10123 | November 24, 1955 - January 24, 1956 | Dahme |
Diesel locomotives
Temporarily used diesel locomotives:
| DR no. | design type | Manufacturer | Construction year | Serial number | Period of use | origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6002 | C-dm | Schwartzkopff | 1936 | 10429 | 08/16/1957 - 01/04/1960 | Bw Neustrelitz |
| 6003 | C-dm | Deutz | 1944 | 36101 | April 13, 1955 - October 5, 1961 | Raw Dessau |
| 6004 | B-dm | Deutz | 1944 | 1185 | 01/01/1960 - 03/16/1961 | Raw Dessau |
Passenger cars
The RSN had twelve passenger coaches until 1945. Among the four-axle passenger cars, there were two vehicles with second and third class compartments as well as a mail and luggage compartment. There were also two so-called market wagons with large compartments for third class. The RSN also had six optional cars . All passenger coaches were built by Hofmann in Breslau .
Passenger car stock:
| 1901 | 1906 | 1911 | 1927 | 1938 | 1943 | 1948 | 1958 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6th | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 7th | 4th | 4th |
Freight wagons
The RSN owned nine closed four-axle freight cars with a load capacity of ten tons. Two tank cars , a pair of turntable cars and three stake cars , as well as nine two-axle O-cars . Part of the car park had spindle brakes . There was no other braking technology at the RSN.
After the Second World War, nine closed freight cars, four two-axle open freight cars, 35 four-axle open freight cars, a stake car and an optional car that was burned out in Nauen and which was later converted into a rail car remained on the remaining route.
Freight wagon inventory:
| 1901 | 1906 | 1911 | 1927 | 1938 | 1943 | 1948 | 1958 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74 | 76 | 86 | 88 | 88 | 82 | 50 | 55 |
literature
- Machel, Wolf-Dietger: Rathenow-Senzke-Nauen district railway - collection of secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany , basic work (1994), GeraNova-Verlag, ISSN 0949-2143
- Richter, Reinhard / Machel, Wolf-Dietger: Kreisbahn Rathenow - Senzke - Paulinenaue - Nauen 2003, booklet accompanying the special exhibition of the Falkensee Local History Museum and the Friends of the Kreisbahn RSPN
- Preuß, Reiner and Preuß, Erich: Archive of German Small and Private Railways: Narrow Gauge Railways in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg 1996 , transpress Verlag, ISBN 3-344-71023-0
- Wagner, Hermann: Forgotten narrow-gauge railways of the GDR: The crooked Pauline, in ModellEisenBahner 11/95
- Ebert, Roland: Nauen and his train stations in Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter 6-1994 , pp. 130-139
- Brandt, Walter: From the fiery Elias and the gentle Elise / The private railways and small railways of the Mark Brandenburg and Berlins 1968 , Albis Verlag
- Klaus Kieper, Reiner Preuß: Narrow gauge between the Baltic Sea and the Ore Mountains , transpress, Berlin 1980, license Alba, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-87094-069-7
