Berga-Kelbra – Artern railway line
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.jpg) Passenger train between Berga and Kelbra
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| Route length: | 28.69 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Berga-Kelbra – Artern line was a branch line in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt , which was originally built and operated by Kyffhäuser Kleinbahn AG . It ran from Berga-Kelbra to Artern .
history
The Kyffhäuser Kleinbahn AG (from August 20, 1944 Kyffhäuser Eisenbahn AG ) was founded in 1913 by the Prussian State , the Province of Saxony , the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt as well as local authorities and private individuals. They built a standard gauge small railway on the northern edge of the Kyffhäuser Mountains in the Golden Aue . The 29-kilometer route began at Berga-Kelbra station on the Halle – Hann railway line. Münden and led via Kelbra , where the center of operations was, and Tilleda mostly on Prussian territory in an easterly direction to Artern / Unstrut on the Sangerhausen – Erfurt railway line . Only four kilometers of the route were in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
Due to the war , the construction of the railway, which could only be opened in sections, was delayed. On November 13, 1915, freight traffic was opened on the section from Berga-Kelbra to Hackpfüffel , and this section had initially been approved as a private siding. Passenger traffic followed on May 30, 1916 ; From December 21, 1916, the entire line was in full operation. In 1918 two pairs of trains ran the entire route every day, plus a pair of trains from Berga to Tilleda.
To improve and speed up passenger traffic, a railcar was used since 1924 ; A railway bus line between Berga-Kelbra and Tilleda was also operated from May 15, 1930. As the competition of private and Kraftpost -Buslinien was too large, the passenger was adjusted with railcars and railcar to the Altmärkische Kleinbahn sold. In 1935 traffic was resumed with a railcar from the Dessauer Waggonfabrik . In 1938/39, 215,934 people used the trains of the Kleinbahn. 109,698 t were carried in freight traffic. Important connections were the Artern sugar factory and coal and gravel pits.
The small railroad department of the Provincial Association of Saxony in Merseburg , since October 1945 the Saxon Provincial Railways GmbH . Although almost 80 percent of the shares were already owned by the state, the company was expropriated in the course of the economic restructuring of East Germany instructed by SMAD and assigned to the VVB Landesbahnen Sachsen-Anhalt in July 1948. From there she came to the Deutsche Reichsbahn on April 1, 1949 .
Passenger traffic was finally stopped on June 5, 1966, and freight traffic followed some time later. The last passenger train, drawn by a decorated V 36 , ran from Artern Ost on June 5, 1966 only to Tilleda. In Tilleda the journey to Berga-Kelbra was continued by motorized buses.
Three three-axle steam locomotives from Henschel and a second-hand locomotive from Hanomag were used . There were also four two-axle passenger cars, a four-axle combined seat / mail / baggage car and eleven freight cars. Some locomotives were still taken over by the DR, for example locomotive 42 as 896162.
The model railway association "Kyffhäuserland eV", based in Artern station, has set itself the goal of preserving the memory of the small train. The line from Berga-Kelbra to Artern on a scale of 1:87 (H0) with all intermediate stations was reproduced in the model.
At Artern, part of the Unstrut Cycle Path runs on the embankment of the Kyffhäuser Kleinbahn; the Unstrut Bridge also takes you into the city center of Artern.
literature
- Andreas Schmölling, Klaus Schmölling: The Kyffhäuser Kleinbahn Artern - Berga-Kelbra. 1916-1966. 2nd Edition. Local history association Aratora Artern, Artern 1994.
- Jörg Petzold, Jochen Fink: Kyffhäuser Kleinbahn . In: The Museum Railway . No. 3 , 2016, ISSN 0936-4609 , p. 18-19 .
