Lengenfeld Viaduct

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Lengenfeld Viaduct (2010)

The Lengenfeld Viaduct is a railway bridge on the former Leinefelde – Treysa railway line on the Kanonenbahn from Berlin to Metz . It spans the place Lengenfeld unterm Stein in the Unstrut-Hainich district in Thuringia and the valley of the Frieda water body . The bridge stands as a technical monument under monument protection and is considered a landmark of the town Lengenfeld unterm Stein.

construction

Construction of the viaduct (around 1877)

The Lengenfeld Viaduct, which cost 375,796 marks , was built from June 1877 to August 1879 as part of the Silberhausen - Eschwege section , which went into operation on May 15, 1880. Eleven residential and farm buildings had to give way to the seven bridge piers built from regional shell limestone . The first test drive took place on September 8, 1879.

The structure has a length of 244.10 m and a height of 24 m above ground and, in addition to the no longer existing, originally largely identical Friedaviadukt, was one of the most outstanding bridge structures on the route. The bridge lies on a curve of 400 m radius and has a gradient of 1: 110. The eight openings between the two end abutments and the seven pillars were bridged with six fish- bellied girders, each 33.30 m long, and two box girders, each 17 m long. The bridge was designed for two tracks, but initially only one was laid. In contrast to other bridge constructions for double-track lines that were initially only single-tracked (e.g. on the Wutach Valley Railway ), not only were the piers and abutments built wide enough for a second track, but also the bridge girders installed in 1879 already had them double track width.

Nevertheless, it was only after more than a quarter of a century in 1906/1907 that the second track between Leinefelde and Eschwege - and thus also on the Lengenfeld Viaduct - was laid; double-track operation began on April 30, 1907. At the instigation of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission , the second track on this section of the route had to be dismantled as early as 1919/1920 in order to minimize the strategic military use of the cannon train.

history

A comprehensive renovation of the Lengenfeld Viaduct - as was done on other structures along the route between 1910 and 1935 - never took place. As early as the early 1940s , due to damage to the bridge structure, a speed limit of max. 10 km / h can be set up. In the last days of the Second World War in April 1945, Lengenfeld's mayor Franz Müller prevented the viaduct from being blown up by retreating units of the Wehrmacht who had blown up the neighboring Friedaviadukt on April 3, 1945. From 1945 to 1965 a bridge watch from the railway maintenance service of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was stationed at the viaduct, who inspected the structure several times a day and examined it for damage.

A bridge inspection in August 1984 limited the operating permit for the structure until December 31, 1992 due to structural defects. For this reason, rail traffic between Silberhausen and Geismar was discontinued on December 31, 1992, from Geismar towards Eschwege the route was due to the zones - and inner German border interrupted since 1945. A renovation of the building was not economical with renovation costs between 15 and 20 million DM . After the cessation of railway operations, the viaduct and the tracks should first be dismantled. The designation of the building as a technical monument prevented this. The Eichsfelder Kanonenbahnverein has been operating a draisine route on the route since May 15, 2006 . Between 2006 and 2012 the draisine route was used by 170,000 guests.

Web links / sources

Commons : Lengenfelder Viadukt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Günter Fromm: The History of the Kanonenbahn. Leinefelde - Eschwege 1880–1945. Leinefelde - Geismar 1880–1992. Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza 2004
  • Paul Lauerwald: The Leinefelde – Eschwege-West cannon railway. Quedlinburg 1998, 68 pages, 23 color and 30 black-and-white illustrations, several overview plans , ISBN 3-933178-01-0
  • Eichsfelder Heimatstimmen, issue 11, November 1984

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lengenfeld under the stone. In: Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen (Hrsg.): Kulturelle Entdeckungen Thüringen. Volume 1: Eichsfeld district, Kyffhäuserkreis, Nordhausen district, Unstrut-Hainich district. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7954-2249-3 , pp. 234-237
  2. ↑ Reiner Schmalzl: Rehabilitation of the Lengenfeld Viaduct sidelined. In: Thüringer Allgemeine / Mühlhäuser Allgemeine. December 29, 2012, accessed June 15, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 46.5 ″  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 24.3 ″  E