Ludwigshafen – Meckenheim railway line

Ludwigshafen – Meckenheim
Route number :	3414
Course book range :	279b (1944) , 243b (1939)
Route length:	18.84 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	12  ‰
Minimum radius :	70 m
Top speed:	15 km / h
Legend from Frankenthal 0.0 Ludwigshafen train station Tram, from 1902 Tram, from 1902 0.9 Ludwigshafen Bridge until 1930 from Mannheim 1.2 Ludwigshafen Bleichstrasse from 1930 1.7 Ludwigshafen rifle house 3, x Mundenheim Koenigstrasse until 1929 Tram from Rheingönheim 3, x Mundenheim Schwanen 3, x Mundenheim kl. cross to Kaiserslautern 4.3 Mundenheim station 5.8 Mundenheim Hochfeld 6.0 Mundenheim shooting house 7.0 Maudach place 7.5 Maudach stop 9.7 Mother city place 10 ,? Mutterstadt stop 13.2 Dannstadt 15.3 Assenheim 16.5 Hochdorf 18.8 Meckenheim

Mundenheim station

Fiery Elias in Mother City

The Ludwigshafen – Meckenheim railway was a single-track, meter-gauge local railway that connected Ludwigshafen on the Rhine with Meckenheim in the Palatinate and was also known as the Fiery Elias  . It was part of the Ludwigshafen local railways, which also included the Ludwigshafen – Frankenthal and Frankenthal – Großkarlbach lines .

history

The rapidly growing city of Ludwigshafen with its expanding industry led to increasing transport needs in the surrounding area at the end of the 19th century, which prompted the Pfalzbahn to build several meter-gauge routes into the surrounding area. During the construction, the Pfalzbahn also had an interest in keeping competitors such as the equally interested railway entrepreneur Hermann Bachstein away.

The preliminary planning for the Ludwigshafen – Dannstadt and Ludwigshafen – Frankenthal routes was completed in 1887. In 1888 the routes were approved by the Bavarian State Government, in 1889 the land was purchased and construction began in spring 1890. The routes were intended primarily for workers' traffic and therefore largely used the existing roads and led through the middle of the villages. There were protracted arguments about the form in which the track system should be embedded in the road or run along it. It was also discussed whether a steam tram would be appropriate for an up-and-coming city like Ludwigshafen, a discussion that even resulted in the resignation of the mayor of Ludwigshafen. Meanwhile, the wagons that had been built in the Ludwigshafen wagon factory were ready in August 1889. Both lines were opened on October 15, 1890. It was emphasized that the planned construction costs were undercut. The lines were connected to each other at the main station, the common depot was Ludwigshafen Depot. However, there were no through trains from Dannstadt to Frankenthal.

In 1900 the Ludwigshafen Brücke station, which previously only had a siding in the street, was expanded with two additional siding so that trains from the direction of Mundenheim could end here and not have to drive through the city. After the tram to Mannheim opened in 1902, many passengers switched to the tram to Mannheim or other districts of Ludwigshafen. A track for milk trucks was also built. The route Ludwigshafen Bridge – Hauptbahnhof was used jointly by trams and local trains.

Freight handling has also taken place in Mundenheim since 1900, so that apart from the milk wagons, no freight wagons were brought to Ludwigshafen. From Dannstadt, the route was extended to Meckenheim on March 1, 1911. This was preceded by efforts by the community of Meckenheim and a railway committee since 1890. It was not until 1909 that an application had been made to Prince Ludwig that the state pushed for approval. The municipalities not only had to provide land for the route, but also land for the extraction of railway construction materials, as well as create all the necessary access roads themselves. In contrast to the previous routes, the extension to Meckenheim was mainly laid out on its own track.

The Pfalzbahn was nationalized as the last large private railway on April 1, 1909 and was thus part of the Royal Bavarian State Railways .

In 1911 the timetable provided for nine (seven on public holidays) train pairs over the entire route, two more to Dannstadt and four train pairs Ludwigshafen – Mundenheim. In addition, there were two freight trains.

In 1912 negotiations began to lease or sell the routes to Rhein-Haardtbahn GmbH , but they did not make any headway. After the First World War , the railway management in Ludwigshafen made an offer to sell to the cities of Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Frankenthal in 1918. These in turn had their own report drawn up. Even then, the closure of the line through Ludwigshafen and the electrification of the remaining lines were planned. In 1920 the Reichsbahn made another purchase offer . Negotiations continued until 1929 without reaching a result.

Traffic in Ludwigshafen declined due to the increasing importance of the tram. In 1928 the Ludwigstrasse (bridge) station, which had been the terminus of many trains, was demolished and replaced by a siding at the same point. On June 12, 1933, traffic between Ludwigshafen and Mundenheim was completely stopped after only one or two pairs of trains had run since 1930. The trains began and have since ended in Mundenheim; This also meant that the level crossing in Mundenheim was no longer necessary.

With the summer timetable in 1939, Maudach station was renamed Ludwigshafen-Maudach .

On October 1, 1955, passenger traffic was also discontinued on the Mundenheim – Meckenheim section, and on December 24, after the end of the beet season , goods traffic was also stopped .

traffic

Eight pairs of trains operated in the opening year. There was no connection in Ludwigshafen to the trains on the other line, in some cases the trains ran from Mundenheim beyond the station to Anilinfabrik. Since there was no transfer track there, a second locomotive had to pick up the train from there. In 1901 12 trains ran to Mundenheim, 14 trains came from Mundenheim. They usually had eleven cars, and up to 16 in the morning.

All trains carried the 2nd and 3rd carriage classes . There were no toilets in 1910. A 3rd class carriage was run as a women's carriage . All passenger cars had spindle and Körting brakes as well as steam heating.

In 1913 1,560,000 passengers were carried, in 1915 1,171,000. Of these, more than 1.2 million were carried by workers and school children, only 13 percent of the travelers paid the full fare. Around 32,000 tons of goods were transported. In 1916 1.25 million passengers used the train.

From 1930 onwards, only two pairs of trains ran between Mundenheim and Ludwigshafen on weekdays and only one on Sundays.

Otherwise, the number has remained fairly constant over the years: in 1944, nine pairs of trains ran on the remainder on weekdays and six on Sundays. After the Second World War , however, there were restrictions in the timetable from 1947, and travel times also deteriorated, so that the bus journey, despite higher fares, became increasingly attractive, as the bus only needed half the journey to Ludwigshafen. In 1947 the number of daily passengers had dropped from 4,000 to 1,800. Every year there was a deficit of 440,000 D-Marks.

In freight traffic, sugar beet traffic was also important on this route, as on the one to Frankenthal. Around 12,000 tons were driven off each year.

vehicles

Ludwigshafen depot

Locomotive Friesenheim in the small train station Ludwigshafen Bridge

Local train station Dannstadt, from an old postcard

The artistically slightly alienated model of a train of the former local railway Mundenheim - Meckenheim on the roundabout Riedstrasse / Ludwigshafener Strasse in Dannstadt, made by Walter Brauchler from sheet steel.

The initial stock of the two Ludwigshafen railways were seven locomotives of the later L 1 series . They were stationed in Ludwigshafen Depot, Dannstadt and Frankenthal, and from 1911 also in Meckenheim. In Mundenheim, after the Ludwigshafen line was closed in 1933, a new engine shed was built. The locomotives were housed in Dannstadt and Meckenheim even after the Ludwigshafen lines were closed in 1933. On the occasion of the extension of the route and due to the growing traffic, several locomotives were built, the last in 1910. In 1913 there were a total of 13 steam locomotives. The locomotives got around the whole network through inspections and repairs. From 1923 three more modern locomotives from the Palatinate Pts 3/3 H were procured. In 1948 two L1 and three Pts 3/3 H were stationed on the route.

In 1896 experiments were made with a benzene railcar . Unfortunately, details are not known. A gas locomotive was tested in 1896. In 1896, two two-axle battery-powered railcars from the Kummer & Cie company in Niedersedlitz near Dresden with 16 seats and 16 standing places began. The engine output was twelve horsepower. These were replaced in 1898 by two four-axle units from the Gastell brothers' wagon factory in Mainz . These railcars were used for 22 intermediate journeys on the route to Mundenheim. The parallel construction of a tram to Mundenheim made the railcars superfluous. In 1904 the railcars were converted into normal passenger cars.

In 1953 three new class V 29 diesel locomotives were purchased. They proved themselves in normal traffic, so that the majority of the steam locomotives could be handed in or parked. But they had the major disadvantage that they did not have a steam heating device, so that steam locomotives had to be kept available for passenger transport. To streamline operations and to replace the steam locomotives, steam storage cars were introduced on the route .

Traffic was started with 30 3rd class passenger cars and six 2nd class passenger cars. Six more 2nd class cars had been procured by 1890. In 1891 another 20 3rd class passenger cars were added, and in 1900 another 27. In 1913 there were a total of 94 passenger cars and 118 baggage and freight cars. In 1923–1929, 42 new passenger cars, ten baggage cars with mail compartments and six boxcars were procured. These cars are likely to have run mainly on the routes to Meckenheim and Großkarlbach.

In the end, there was a large number of vehicles, even if not all vehicles were needed. Many of the open freight cars were only used in the beet campaign.

literature

• Günter König: From the history of the meter-gauge local railways in the Ludwigshafen am Rhein area . In: The Museum Railway . 1/1999 to 3/1999, ISSN  0936-4609 , p. 1/1999: 10-29; 2/1999: 14-38; 3/1999: 16-31 .
• Wilhelm Distler, Jochen Glatt: The local railways in the Vorderpfalz. On narrow-gauge tracks between Meckenheim, Ludwigshafen, Frankenthal and Großkarlbach . Pro Message, Ludwigshafen 2010, ISBN 978-3-934845-43-5 .

Web links

Commons : Ludwigshafen – Meckenheim railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Miriam Hauk: "The Fiery Elias" in the historical town hall . Ed .: Official Journal Mother City. Mother City 2010.
2. ↑ Jochen Glatt: Extension of the local railway to Meckenheim. in: Die Museums-Eisenbahn, 4/2011, p. 14.
3. ↑ Jochen Glatt: Extension of the local railway to Meckenheim. in: Die Museums-Eisenbahn, 4/2011, pp. 14–22.
4. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of December 31, 1938, No. 61. Announcement No. 834, p. 388.