Kriens-Lucerne Railway
The Kriens-Luzern-Bahn (KLB) is a former railway company in the Lucerne agglomeration . From 1898 to 1997, the railway was part of the Lucerne Transport Authority (VBL); in the last few years of operation it was again an independent company with the commercial name KLB-Betriebsgenossenschaft . Since 1900, the KLB has been a standard-gauge freight railway serving the locations of Rösslimatt, Kupferhammer and Kriens , a suburb of Lucerne.
history
The KLB was opened on October 25, 1886 as a standard-gauge steam tram between Lucerne Pilatusplatz and Kriens . In 1898 the city of Lucerne bought the KLB and converted it into a meter-gauge, electric tram . The standard-gauge passenger traffic with steam tramway locomotives ended on September 2, 1900. The standard gauge in the form of a three-rail track was retained for freight traffic between Kriens and Eichhof. At Eichhof, the KLB built a short connection to the Brünigbahn in 1897 and set up a four-rail track from Eichwald to Lucerne station (outside standard gauge, inside meter gauge of the Brünigbahn). From 1926, the KLB handled freight traffic with an electric locomotive (Ee 4/4 1) with direct current (600 volts) under the tram overhead line that was taken over from the Wohlen-Meisterschwanden-Bahn . The train transport on the Lucerne – Eichwald section was taken over by the SBB.
In 1961 the tram operation in Lucerne was stopped and replaced by the Lucerne trolleybus . In 1968 the KLB gave up the electrical operation of the freight railway and bought a diesel locomotive (V34 ex Jülich Kreisbahn ). In 1973, as part of the construction of the motorway, the connection point from Eichwald had to be relocated to Rösslimatt and the four-rail track extended accordingly. In 1979, the increasing freight traffic required the purchase of a four-axle diesel locomotive. Because of the low price, the locomotive (Em 4/4 35) was bought in Romania, which turned out to be a very expensive savings measure. Numerous repairs with the rental of replacement locomotives were necessary.
The freight railway represented an (unloved) foreign body within the Lucerne transport company (VBL), which is why it was sold to the KLB operating cooperative in 1997 and the concession was transferred to them. In 1998 the Federal Council released the copper hammer – Kriens line from its concession; the track still existed as a rarely used siding until it had to give way to road renovation in 2004. The KLB operating cooperative did not take over the Romanian diesel locomotive, but procured a two- way shunting vehicle of the type "Lok D 14.240" from Belloli SA in Grono .
The continuation of the four-rail track from the Rösslimatt to Horw was as a private siding financed and built, had therefore nothing to do directly with the KLB; however, there were some personal ties. Incidentally, it was likely to have been a legally unique construction (private standard-gauge siding on licensed meter-gauge railway line).
At the end of 2009, the KLB license was transferred to the Zentralbahn (ZB) and changed to a standard gauge connection between Lucerne and Horw. To this end, the ZB took over the Rösslimatt – Horw four-rail track from the Horw-Kriens industrial track cooperative . The goods traffic still remaining in the Kupferhammer are mainly transferred to Horw. The KLB operating cooperative began its liquidation on December 31, 2009. On November 8, 2012, the last train ran on the Lucerne – Eichwald – Rösslimatt route; From November 12th, the new double-lane tunnel route Lucerne – Kriens Mattenhof was put into operation, which is equipped with a three-rail track for freight traffic to Horw. The last systems of the former KLB will disappear.
Rolling stock
| model series | Manufacturer | Construction year | origin | number of pieces | Discarded | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| series | Numbers | total | today | ||||||
| Shunting locomotives | |||||||||
| Ee 4/4 | 1 | AEG | 1917 | WM (1926) | 1 | 0 | 1968 | ex Ee 4/4 51 | |
| Em 2/2 | 1 | MaK | 1965 | JKB (1968) | 1 | 0 | 1979 | ex V 34; on paper Biberist sold | |
| Em 4/4 | 35 | FAUR | 1979 | 1 | 0 | 1998 | at Lok Service Burkhardt sold | ||
| Tm | 36 | Belloli | 1998 | 1 | 0 | 2007 | «Zephyr»; to Josef Meyer Waggon sold | ||
swell
- Paul Stäuble: 100 years of the Kriens-Luzern-Bahn 1886–1986. Kriens-Luzern-Bahn, Kriens 1986, no ISBN.
- Paul F. Schneeberger: Lucerne City Transport Authority, 100 years of trams, buses and trolley buses. Minirex, Lucerne 1999, ISBN 3-907014-12-X .
- Hans Waldburger et al .: Railways and stations in Lucerne, official book for the opening of the new Lucerne train station. Minirex, Lucerne 1991, ISBN 3-907014-05-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ The Kriens-Luzern-Bahn ceases operations , Neue Luzerner Zeitung, December 28, 2009
- ↑ Swiss Railway Review 12/2012, pages 622–625