Local railway Lana – Meran

Local railway Lana – Meran
The locomotive II today in the Zollstrasse in Lana
Gauge :	1000/1435 mm
Maximum slope :	51  ‰
Minimum radius :	36 m
Lana-Burgstall – Oberlana
Route length:	4.35 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	750  =
Oberlana – Meran
Route length:	7.6 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	600  =
Legend from Bolzano 0.050 Lana-Burgstall 266  m slm 0.229 to Meran 0.300 Etsch (37.4 m) 0.485 Adige Bridge 266  m slm 1.144 Toll house 268  m slm 1,778 Niederlana 275  m slm 2.083 Rectory 279  m slm 2.648 St. Peter 287  m slm 2.797 Mitterlana Tribusplatz 287  m slm 3,100 school 292  m slm 3.350 Municipal Office 300  m slm 3.729 Kapuzinerplatz 309  m slm 3.815 Hotel Royal Post Office 311  m slm 4.035 Falschauerbrücke 317  m slm 4.1     Falschauer (52.5 m) 317  m slm 4.179 0.000 Oberlana 313  m slm 1.900 Tscherms dodge 292  m slm 2.500 Feldererhof 3.800 Marling Kellerei Dodge 300  m slm 4.400 Marling village 292  m slm 5.200 Etsch 5.300 Railway line Bozen – Merano 5.600 Station Untermais Ausweiche 288  m slm Kaiserjäger barracks Supply house sports ground Franz-Ferdinand-Kai 7.600 Passer 7.600 Meran Theaterplatz 310  m slm

The generic term Local Railway Lana – Merano refers to two originally independent railway lines in what is now the Italian province of South Tyrol , which were later combined to form a joint company under the name “Società Ferrovia Lana - Merano”. This also operated the bus service after the rail traffic was discontinued. The two railways were listed in the Austrian timetable from 1914 under the numbers 76c and 76cc.

Electric train Lana - Merano

At the beginning of the 20th century, the municipality of Lana did not yet have a connection to the rail network. Therefore, efforts were made to improve the transport links to the approximately ten kilometers to the north, already well-known and much visited spa town of Merano . A small electric train was to be built parallel to a new road . The railway was celebrated as the first electric railway in Austria south of the main Alpine ridge . The engineer Luis Zuegg played a key role in the implementation, and at the same time found a buyer for his power station built in 1903 in the Gaul Gorge. After the Ministry of Railways had issued a concession for rail operations on January 20, 1906 , the "Aktiengesellschaft Elektro Bahn Lana - Meran" was founded. The company opened on August 12, 1906.

From the terminus in the Oberlana district of the Lana municipality with the three-track coach house , the 7.6-kilometer, single-track, meter-gauge line led via Tscherms , Marling and Untermais into the center of Merano. She crossed the Adige and the Passer and after a journey time of 26 minutes she reached the Ruffiniplatz at the theater. The railway used its own railway track to the supply house in Untermais; from there it drove using grooved rails to the end of the road. For passenger traffic, which was served every half hour from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., there were four railcars, a baggage car and three sidecars. Two more railcars were purchased later.

From May 9, 1908, it was possible to change to the newly opened Merano city tram at Ruffiniplatz . Their lines led to Merano railway station , to Obermais and to Forst . In the difficult war and post-war years that followed after 1914, the railway was spared from destruction. But after the Second World War , the increasing volume of private transport increasingly deprived it of passengers. On May 8, 1950, operations were discontinued and replaced by a bus line.

Electric local train Lana-Burgstall - Oberlana

The economic success of the Lana - Meran electric railway led to the planning of another 4.1 km long, single-track line. This connected Oberlana via Mitterlana and Niederlana, where there were turnouts, with the Lana-Burgstall station on the Bozen – Meran railway after a journey of 20 minutes. The owner of the concession was the market town of Lana.

The starting point in Oberlana was next to that of the local railway to Merano; the two car halls were right next to each other. A track connection was missing because the new line was laid out in standard gauge . The reason for this decision was the intention to transfer freight wagons from Lana directly to the state railway. Because the main task of the railway should be the freight transport, especially the transport of fruit. The timetable for passenger transport was inflexible and, for example, in 1914 envisaged 14 daily trips from Oberlana to Lana-Burgstall and a further 14 trips to Niederlana and back. When it opened on December 14, 1913, two electric locomotives, two passenger railcars and a sidecar were available. The operation was led by the kkStB , which used the electric locomotives series  1084 and the electric multiple units series  23.0 .

The First World War , which broke out in 1914 - one year after the company opened - prevented the railway from developing economically. After the end of the war, South Tyrol was incorporated into the Italian state and all trams and small railways were placed under state administration for a few years. When this was lifted, the "SA Tramvia Lana-Postal - Lana di Sopra" left the management of the "Electric Railway Lana - Meran". Not only the decline in passenger traffic, but also the growing competition from trucks hindered the further development of the volume of traffic. It was only when all motor vehicles had to be used for military purposes in the Abyssinian War in 1936 that rail freight traffic took off again. But after the Second World War, the income fell again. Therefore, in July 1959, passenger transport was replaced by omnibuses; at the same time, goods traffic was limited to the Niederlana - Lana-Burgstall section. Here it remained in operation until March 31, 1974.

There are still some evidence of the route and the railway operations. The iron truss bridge over the Adige at Lana-Burgstall station is still an impressive monument to the railway . This was for a long time on land along the Adige, but was moved about 200 meters to the south in 2012 and stretched across the river again, completely restored. Here it now connects the Adige Cycle Path , which runs parallel to the Bolzano – Meran railway, with the opposite bank of the Adige . In Lana, a freight locomotive , the former kkStB 1084.002 of the Austrian Siemens-Schuckert -Werke Vienna, is set up as an attraction after it had been standing on Tribusplatz for years. Your twin locomotive was literally rescued at the last minute from the remise at the bus station in Oberlana, which had been released for demolition, and was transported to the iron truss bridge at the station in Burgstall in 2012. A technical site was also set up there in 2012 orographically to the right.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the grand opening of this local railway Lana-Burgstall - Oberlana, the railway world in Rabland presented a special exhibition in 2013 and 2014 about the history of this legendary Tyrolean local railway. This exhibition was put together by Albert Innerhofer from Lana and Werner Schröter from Innsbruck. In addition, an extensive brochure on the history of this local railway and a personalized postage stamp have been published by Austrian Post.

Today there are calls for the reintroduction of the railway at regular intervals from local politicians.

gallery

• 

  Detail of the Adige Bridge at Lana-Burgstall station

• 

  The Adige Bridge before its restoration

• 

  Route of the railway near the intersection Bozner Straße – Zollstraße

• 

  Detail of today's restored Adige Bridge

• 

  Locomotive I on the west bank of the Adige after its rescue and restoration

• 

  The restored Etsch bridge and its new location approx. 200 m further south

• 

  Engineer's cab of locomotive II

• 

  Remise of the local railway Lana - Meran on February 26, 2013

literature

• Oskar Ellmenreich: The opening of the Lana – Meran electric railway . In: Meraner Zeitung , supplement, No. 96/1906, August 12, 1906. Pötzelberger, Meran 1906, ZDB -ID 2430311-2 , p. 19 f. - Full text online .
• Konrad Hierl: The Lana – Meran tram . In: Tram magazine . No. August 25 , 1977, ISSN  0340-7071 , p. 262-265 .
• Konrad Hierl: The Lana-Burgstall-Oberlana tram . In: Tram magazine . No. May 28 , 1978, ISSN  0340-7071 , p. 142-147 .
• Dirk v. Harlem, Hans Lehnhart: The Merano tram . In: Tram magazine . No. February 31 , 1979, ISSN  0340-7071 , p. 15-22 .
• Josef Dultinger : On a narrow track through South Tyrol . Narrow gauge railways south of the Brenner Pass. Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Erhard, Rum 1982.
• Albert Innerhofer, Reinhold Staffler: Steel bridges. The cable car pioneer Luis Zuegg . Edition Raetia, Bozen 1996, ISBN 88-7283-078-8 .
• 1906–2006: 100 years of the Lana-Meran-Bahn - South Tyrol's first electric tram. The Lananer Bahn, the local railway Oberlana – Lana-Burgstall, the Merano tram, the Vigiljochbahn, the Bozen-Meran-Bahn, Luis Zuegg . Special publications on railway technology, volume 4. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Eisenbahnarchiv Tirol, Innsbruck 2006.
• Werner Duschk, Walter Pramstaller, among others: Local and trams in old Tyrol . Self-published by Tiroler Museumsbahnen , Innsbruck 2008.
• Albert Innerhofer: "Up to lofty heights" . 100 years of the Lana - Vigiljoch cable car, 1912–2012. Lana 2012.
• Albert Innerhofer: “Get on, please!” 100 years of the Lana-Burgstall - Oberlana local railway, 1913–2013. Lana 2013.
• Walter Kreutz: Lana – Meran . In: Railway . No. 1 , 1958, ISSN  0013-2756 , pp. 12–13 (part of the series of electric local and trams of Austrian origin in South Tyrol ).
• Walter Kreutz: Lana-Burgstall-Oberlana . In: Railway . No. 2 , 1958, ISSN  0013-2756 , pp. 26–27 (part of the series of electric local and trams of Austrian origin in South Tyrol ).

Web links

Commons : Lana-Burgstall – Oberlana railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Lana – Meran railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Some pictures from the time of the company
• Preserved vehicles of the electric train Lana-Burgstall - Oberlana
• Descriptions of the Lana – Meran and Lana-Burgstall – Oberlana routes on the Tyrolean Museum Railways
• Concession for the Lana – Meran line, January 20, 1906: RGBl. 1906/16. In:  Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrathe , year 1906, p. 16 ff. (Online at ANNO ). .
• Concession for the Lana-Burgstall – Oberlana line, December 8, 1913: RGBl. 1913/259. In:  Reichsgesetzblatt for the kingdoms and states represented in the Reichsrathe , year 1913, pp. 905–910. (Online at ANNO ). .
• The first day of operation of the electric . In: Meraner Zeitung , No. 97/1906, August 15, 1906. Pötzelberger, Meran 1906, ZDB-ID 2430311-2, p. 3, center left. - text online .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Etschufer: Flood, cultural and landscape protection project implemented . Autonomous Province of Bolzano. Retrieved August 22, 2019.

Coordinates: 46 ° 36 ′ 58 "  N , 11 ° 8 ′ 26"  E