Local railway Ober-Grafendorf – Gresten

Ober-Grafendorf-Gresten
Train with diesel locomotive of the 2095 series in Wieselburg an der Erlauf (1989)
Route number :	154 01 (Ober Grafendorf – Wieselburg) 158 01 (Wieselburg – Gresten)
Course book route (ÖBB) :	115
Gauge :	Ober Grafendorf – Wieselburg: 760 mm. Wieselburg – Gresten: 1435 mm
Maximum slope :	27  ‰
Minimum radius :	80 m
Top speed:	60 km / h
Legend Mariazellerbahn from St. Pölten 0.000 Ober-Grafendorf 276  m above sea level A. Mariazellerbahn to Mariazell 3.533 St. Margarethen - Rammersdorf 253  m above sea level A. 7,593 Bischofstetten 265  m above sea level A. 9,940 Devil's village 274  m above sea level A. 12,905 Kilb 300  m above sea level A. 15.830 Heinrichsberg 302  m above sea level A. 18.007 Deficiency 296  m above sea level A. 21,889 Lehenleiten 270  m above sea level A. 25,576 St. Leonhard am Forst 240  m above sea level A. Melk 26,561 Ruprechtshofen 242  m above sea level A. 30.638 Grabenegg - Rainberg 255  m above sea level A. 32.798 Reisenhof - fiefdom 306  m above sea level A. 35.766 Breiteneich b. Wieselburg 250  m above sea level A. Erlauf Erlauftalbahn from Pöchlarn 37.593 Wieselburg on the Erlauf 252  m above sea level A. Erlauftalbahn to Kienberg-Gaming 40.07 Bodendorf-Edelmühle 264  m above sea level A. 41.12 Marbach 267  m above sea level A. 44.30 Zarnsdorf 287  m above sea level A. 46.19 Wolfpassing 298  m above sea level A. 48.06 Steinakirchen am Forst 303  m above sea level A. 51.19 Wang 321  m above sea level A. 54.49 Perwarth 345  m above sea level A. 57.56 Randegg 368  m above sea level A. 59.70 Hörhag 387  m above sea level A. 61.78 Connecting railways from Welser 62.34 Gresten 407  m above sea level A.

The Ober-Grafendorf – Gresten local railway , better known under the colloquial name Krumpe , more rarely also known as the Grestner Bahn , was originally a completely narrow-gauge railway line with a gauge of 760 mm ( Bosnian gauge ) in the Lower Austrian Alpine foothills . It was a branch line of the also narrow-gauge Mariazellerbahn . The section from Wieselburg on the Erlauf to Gresten was converted to standard gauge and is used exclusively for freight traffic, it is still in operation today. The section between Wieselburg and Ruprechtshofen was closed in February 2000, followed by the discontinuation of the sections Ruprechtshofen– Mank in December 2002 and finally Mank– Ober-Grafendorf in December 2010. The section between Ober-Grafendorf and St. Margarethen is on Saturdays, Sundays - and public holidays operated as part of nostalgia trips.

history

With the opening of the Empress Elisabeth Railway in the 1850s, western Lower Austria received its first railway line. Branch lines in the foothills of the Alps to the south were built by the Lower Austrian Southwest Railways in the form of the Leobersdorfer Bahn and the Erlauftalbahn until 1877 . A further development of the region in the area failed for the time being due to the financial means, as did the project of a standard gauge railway from Melk to Mank.

Construction of the first section

Typical regional railway train with a U series locomotive from around 1900, here on the Waldviertel narrow-gauge railways

Special train with Bh.1 at Mank

The Lower Austrian Local Railway Act passed in January 1895 and the associated creation of the Lower Austrian Regional Railway Office in May of the same year made the construction and financing of local railways much easier. On February 6, 1895, the Lower Austrian Parliament decided to build the Pielachtalbahn as the first section of the planned Mariazellerbahn. That project was expanded to include a branch line to Mank instead of the normal-gauge connection originally desired. The concession for both railways was granted on July 11, 1896. Construction of the railway branching off from the Pielachtalbahn to Mank in Ober-Grafendorf began in September 1897, and the 18-kilometer route was completed after 13 months. Public transport commenced on July 27, 1898 after the use permit was granted. Operation on both branches of the joint stock company of the local railway St. Pölten – Kirchberg an der Pielach – Mank was taken over by the State Railway Authority - later the Lower Austrian State Railways - itself. From the beginning an extension to Wieselburg an der Erlauf or Gresten was considered.

The trains were initially run with the U series locomotives also used on the main line as mixed trains ( freight trains with passenger transport ) with two-axle passenger and freight cars. There were only two scheduled train pairs with second and third class cars that ran from Ober-Grafendorf; passengers to and from St. Pölten had to change trains. Between 1904 and 1908 the steam railcars 10–12 were also used on the Manker line, with which the offer could be expanded at low cost.

Extension to Ruprechtshofen

In 1901 a petition for the rapid extension of the narrow-gauge railway to Wieselburg and Gresten was submitted to the Lower Austrian state parliament. The concession for the next stage from Mank to Ruprechtshofen was granted on June 1, 1904. After construction began in September 1904, this section with a length of 8.5 km was completed in July of the following year. On August 5, 1905, this section of the route was officially opened together with the extension of the Pielachtalbahn to Laubenbachmühle. In 1909, the transport of bolstered standard-gauge freight wagons using trolleys was introduced.

The local railway Ruprechtshofen – Gresten

Three P series locomotives (ÖBB 199) were built in 1926 for the extension to Gresten

Immediately after the extension to Ruprechtshofen, planning for the extension to Gresten was started. A pre-concession for the project was granted on June 15, 1908, construction negotiations were completed by November 1909, but the granting of the concession and building permits were delayed until March 1913. In the same month, construction work began on this longest section of the local railway. Used track material from the standard gauge Stammersdorfer local railway was planned for the superstructure . After the outbreak of the First World War , the planned exchange of rails did not take place. Since no other track material was available either, work on the narrow-gauge railway was stopped on August 20, 1914 after the substructure and the bridges had largely been completed .

In January 1915, a section of the route leading from Wieselburg train station in the direction of Ruprechtshofen, about one kilometer long, was provided with rails and used as a material rail for the construction and supply of a prisoner of war camp. After the end of the war, the line was not completed for financial reasons, existing material such as a pedestrian walkway and signals from the Wieselburg station were even dismantled and used on other lines. The concession was finally withdrawn on October 3, 1924.

With the takeover of the Lower Austrian State Railways by the Federal Railways , the unfinished local railway also passed into their ownership. Efforts to resume construction were crowned with success when financing was secured at the end of 1925. Complications of a geological nature, especially in the section between Randegg and Gresten, where the substructure had not yet been completely constructed, resulted in delays in construction and the budgeted costs being exceeded. On April 15, 1927, the concession for the line officially known as the Ruprechtshofen – Gresten local line was renewed. On June 29, 1927, in the presence of Federal President Michael Hainisch, it was opened as the first new railway building in the Republic of Austria and opened to general traffic the next day. This completed the narrow-gauge network from St. Pölten in its maximum extension of 153.9 km. Further expansions, especially a connection with the Ybbstalbahn, for which several planning variants were worked out, were no longer possible. For the commissioning of the new line section, the Federal Railways procured three new steam locomotives of the P series and several passenger and freight cars.

Introduction of diesel traction

2190.03 with maximum trailer load

Initially, however, the economic success did not materialize to the desired extent. The first application to cease operations has been documented as early as the 1930s, but this was rejected by the responsible authorities in 1937. In an effort to limit the expensive steam operation, two diesel locomotives were put into service in 1934 . However, the two machines designated as BBÖ 2040 / s had only little performance and could only cope with the inclines of the local railway with a maximum of three two-axle passenger cars.

After the “Anschluss” in 1938, the Mariazellerbahn and branch line, like all Austrian railways, were incorporated into the Deutsche Reichsbahn . In 1945, the year of the war, the railway facilities in Ober-Grafendorf were blown up by the Wehrmacht .

Federal railway after 1945

A freight train is shunted into the workshop in Gresten, 1991

Freight train in Gresten station, 1991

The repair of the war damage was followed by the stationing of several diesel locomotives of the series 2041 / s in Ober-Grafendorf over the next few years . With these locomotives, which were slightly more powerful than the 2040 / s (they were able to transport four two-axle vehicles), passenger transport could largely be converted to diesel operation. The steam locomotives, especially the former Mariazellerbahn mountain locomotives of the Mh and Mv series, were still indispensable for busier routes and heavy goods traffic . In 1953 the numbering scheme that is still valid today was introduced at the Austrian Federal Railways, and the following year the most extensive modernization program to date began on their narrow-gauge railways. Between 1954 and 1957, new steel superstructures of a uniform design were placed on the underframes of the passenger cars. In the 1960s, some of the cars were lengthened by welding in spacers. In the 1950s, plans were again discussed to connect the network of the Mariazellerbahn with the Ybbstalbahn. These plans, which were based on projects by the German Reichsbahn from the 1940s, provided for the laying of a third rail on the standard gauge Erlauftalbahn between Wieselburg and Kienberg-Gaming .

The procurement of the 2095 series diesel locomotives finally replaced steam traction in the early 1960s. The next two decades were strongly characterized by the exodus of passengers as a result of motorization and the associated trend towards the discontinuation of branch lines. Investments and further modernization of the vehicle fleet were therefore largely omitted, and passenger traffic was largely determined by school and commuter traffic. In freight transport, mainly agricultural products were transported, subject to strong seasonal fluctuations. Substantial changes were brought about in 1985 by the establishment of a metalworking industrial company in Gresten, which, as a major customer of the railway, ensured a sharp increase in freight traffic.

The necessity of transporting four-axle standard-gauge freight wagons with bogies led to the conversion of the Wieselburg - Gresten section to trolleys, as the previously used roller stands were only suitable for the transport of two-axle wagons. As a result, the railway was also increasingly used by the woodworking companies in Randegg and Gresten. In 1987, trolley traffic was also introduced on the other sections of the route and the Mariazell Railway. The increasing trend in freight transport posed problems for the company. The powerful locomotives of the 2095 series were only available in small numbers and only a few stations were equipped with sidings for handling train crossings . For this reason, from March 26, 1990, passenger traffic between Wieselburg and Gresten was carried out on working days as a replacement bus service. On May 31, 1992, passenger traffic in this section was completely stopped, and train control was introduced in 1993 .

The remaining passenger traffic between Ober-Grafendorf and Wieselburg experienced a significant upgrade with the introduction of the NAT91 - an Austria- wide interval timetable in 1991 - up to the hourly service between Ober-Grafendorf and Ruprechtshofen on working days. However, the offer was gradually withdrawn again in the following years due to lack of use. Another modernization step was the delivery of three diesel multiple units of the 5090 series in 1995 , which were purchased to replace the old 2091 series. In 1997, train control was also introduced on this section of the route.

Re-gauging and setting of sections

Nostalgic special train with SKGLB locomotive 4 in Steinakirchen am Forst, 1996

Gresten station with standard-gauge tracks

Ruprechtshofen station, 2000

From around the mid-1990s, the conversion of the Wieselburg - Gresten line to standard gauge was planned as a measure to increase capacity and efficiency in freight transport and it was decided in 1997 after the financing had been clarified. The amount of freight carried had grown from around 20,000 tons in 1984 to 140,000 tons in 1997, the last year exclusively with narrow-gauge operation. The last narrow-gauge freight train was put into service on April 3, 1998 as a special train with the Mh.6 steam locomotive, and the removal of the narrow-gauge tracks began immediately afterwards. During the renovation, the transports for the industry in Gresten were handled alternatively via the Erlauftalbahn and from the Neubruck train station on the street. With two exceptions, the standard-gauge railway was laid out with a minimum arc radius of 150 meters, and the maximum speed was set at 40 km / h. Loading points for goods traffic have been set up in the train stations Steinakirchen am Forst , Wang , Randegg-Franzenreith and Gresten. Since a resumption of passenger traffic was not planned, the other stops were closed. On November 16, 1998, the first freight train ran on the standard gauge. As before, traffic will be handled on the narrow gauge in train control. At the end of 1998, freight traffic on the narrow-gauge section of the "Krumpe" and the Mariazell Railway was stopped.

The section east of Wieselburg had lost its function as a feeder for vehicles in the direction of St. Pölten when the profitable Grestner route was rebuilt. Passenger traffic between Ruprechtshofen and Wieselburg was only moderately accepted beforehand, an additional thinning of the timetable led to further migration of passengers to other means of transport and from February 15, 2000 the route was served by bus replacement in rail replacement . On December 15, 2002, traffic between Mank and Ruprechtshofen was also discontinued. Passenger traffic on the remnant section from Ober-Grafendorf to Mank continued to be operated with class 5090 railcars, individual courses were run from Mank continuously to St. Pölten. In January 2010 it was decided that the Krumpe will be taken over by the state of Lower Austria with the cut-off date January 1, 2011. Whether the branch line between Ober-Grafendorf and Mank would continue to operate or be shut down was an open question for a long time, and it was finally decided to shut down the Krumpe on December 11, 2010. Since then, the places along the route have been served by buses.

present

In 2005, the first concepts for a tourist use as a draisine train were presented and implemented from April 2011 in the section between Ruprechtshofen and Wieselburg.

For the section between Ober-Grafendorf and Ruprechtshofen, the subsequent use was unclear for a long time. Ober-Grafendorf's mayor wanted to keep the tracks and also offer bicycle trolley traffic on this section. Other municipalities wanted a cycle path to be built on the railway line. In the summer of 2015, the Bischofstetten – Ruprechtshofen section was finally dismantled. Museum traffic operated by the Mh.6 Railway Club was implemented between Obergrafendorf and Bischofstetten. The Ruprechtshofen - Wieselburg route could be ridden by rail bikes until the 2017 season. However, since the Reisenhof-Lehen - Wieselburg section was dismantled in October 2017, from the 2018 season onwards it was only possible to operate between Ruprechtshofen and Reisenhof-Lehen.

Accident 2016

On October 19, 2016, five unloaded, partly four-axle freight wagons with stanchions unrolled in Randegg on the Gresten – Wieselburg route, probably rolled over 10 to 12 km for about 20 minutes and hit Wieselburg near the train station and around 11:45 a.m. CEST the brewery on the occupied regional train 7012, consisting of 2 railcars, which was traveling from St. Pölten via Wieselburg to Scheibbs . 4 people were seriously injured, 8 slightly. The Erlauftalbahn ran again from October 20th at 6:00 a.m.

Route description

The local railway ran in the hilly foothills of the Lower Austrian Alpine foothills through a predominantly agricultural region. Between Ober-Grafendorf and Wieselburg it crossed several valleys of waters flowing north from the Alpine foothills to the Danube. This circumstance made a route with repeated incline changes and some ramps necessary.

Ober-Grafendorf-Mank

Special train with 2190.03 and 2091.11 on the ramp near Ober-Grafendorf

Two class 5090 railcars at the Heinrichsberg stop

The starting point of the "Krumpe" was the Ober-Grafendorf station of the Mariazellerbahn. There is Austria's only roundhouse for a narrow-gauge railway, which was the operational center of the local railway until the office was closed. Since 1987 it has been the seat of the Railway Association Club Mh.6 ; in August 2008 the boiler house ensemble was placed under a preservation order.

The train left Ober-Grafendorf station in a right curve in a westerly direction, and immediately afterwards in a steep opposite curve to overcome a step in the terrain that bounded the plain of the Pielach valley. In contrast to the Mariazell route, which traverses the plain in a long straight line, this "crooked" - in the local dialect "crooked" - lines gave the route its colloquial name. Immediately afterwards, the route descends into the Sierning valley , a tributary of the Pielach , which it follows for the next few kilometers in a westerly direction. The railway touched the towns of St. Margarethen an der Sierning , Bischofstetten and Kilb . Between Kilb and the Heinrichsberg stop, it crossed the watershed between two smaller streams and reached the town of Mank after 18 kilometers.

Mank-Wieselburg on the Erlauf

Class 5090 railcars near St. Leonhard am Forst, June 2002

The 27-per-mil-ramp near Grabenegg-Rainberg (November 2000)

Behind the Mank train station, the railway line approached the Mank valley , but did not follow it directly, but ran in the undulating terrain a little further south of the river and in a more direct line approached the market town of St. Leonhard am Forst, on the northern outskirts of which the train station lay. The railway then crossed the Melk and shortly afterwards reached Ruprechtshofen. Here was a boiler house that was no longer used in the last few years of operation for locomotives.

The continuation, which opened in 1927, did not touch any localities until Wieselburg and had only three stops for passenger traffic, which essentially served scattered farmsteads. Between the Grabenegg-Rainberg and Reisenhof-Lehen stops, the task was to overcome the watershed between the Melk and Erlauftal valleys. In this section, the route has a maximum gradient of 27 per thousand, comparable to the steep ramps of the mountain railway to Mariazell. Before Wieselburg, the local railway crossed the Erlauf on the largest bridge on the route. At Wieselburg an der Erlauf station there were more extensive track systems and a roller-block and later roller-cart relocating system for freight reloading onto the standard-gauge Erlauftalbahn , as well as another boiler house.

Wieselburg on the Erlauf-Gresten

From Wieselburg, the normal-gauge route since 1998 leads into the valley of the Kleine Erlauf, a tributary of the Erlauf, which was initially still wide. It initially touches the market town of Steinakirchen am Forst , from here the valley narrows noticeably. The landscape is now changing significantly, becoming significantly more forested, which is causing heavy loads in timber traffic. Via Wang and Perwarth, the railway follows the water upstream in a south-westerly direction, deeper and deeper into the Alpine foothills. At Randegg , the valley and with it the railway swings in a south-easterly direction; after four more kilometers, the end station Gresten is reached. The place, which had a certain importance as a summer resort at the time of the railway construction, has also been a regionally important industrial location since the 1980s, sidings lead directly into the factories.

literature

• Josef Otto Slezak , Hans Sternhart: Renaissance of the narrow-gauge railway in Austria . International Archive for Locomotive History , Volume 36, ZDB -ID 256348-4 . Slezak, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-85416-097-6 .
• Walter Krobot, Josef Otto Slezak, Hans Sternhart: Narrow gauge through Austria. History and fleet of narrow-gauge railways in Austria. 327 photos, 1063 vehicle sketches, 23 route plans, 36 station plans, 11 type drawings . 4th edition. International Archive for Locomotive History , Volume 3, ZDB -ID 256348-4 . Slezak, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-85416-095-X .
• Markus Strässle: Narrow-gauge railway activities in Austria . International Archive for Locomotive History , Volume 43, ZDB -ID 256348-4 . Slezak, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-85416-184-0 .
• Peter Wegenstein (text), Helmut Bogner (photo): Mariazellerbahn and "Krumpe". This volume deals with the St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof – Gußwerk and Ober Grafendorf – Wieselburg an der Erlauf – Gresten routes . Bahn im Bild, Volume 204, ZDB -ID 52827-4 . Pospischil publishing house, Vienna 1999, OBV .
• Hans Peter Pawlik : Technology of the Mariazellerbahn . International Archive for Locomotive History , Volume 46, ZDB -ID 256348-4 . Slezak, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85416-189-1 .
• Horst Felsinger, Walter Schober: The Mariazellerbahn . Pospischil, Vienna 1971, 1973, 1979, 2002, OBV .
• Wolfdieter Hufnagl: The Lower Austrian State Railways . Transpress, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-71214-8 .

Web links

Commons : Lokalbahn Ober-Grafendorf - Gresten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mostviertel rail bike
• Club Mh. 6
• Krump is sold
• Thomas Zeller: Short film about the Krump
• Photo documentation of the beginnings of the operational operation as a museum railway.

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Krumpe": A new old railway line. noe.orf.at, July 28, 2019, accessed on July 28, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 19.
3. ↑ Wegenstein, Bogner: Mariazellerbahn and "Krumpe" , p. 3.
4. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 29.
5. ^ Hufnagl: Die Niederösterreichische Landesbahnen , p. 159.
6. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 35.
7. ↑ Krobot, Slezak, Sternhart: Schmalspurig durch Österreich , p. 227.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Wegenstein, Bogner: Mariazellerbahn and "Krumpe" , p. 5.
9. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 99.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Opening of the Ruprechtshofen – Gresten local railway. In:  Die Lokomotive , year 1927, No. 7 (July) / 1927 (XXIV. Year), p. 126 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
11. ↑ Local railway Ruprechtshofen – Gresten continues to operate. In:  Die Lokomotive , year 1937, No. 7 (July) / 1937 (XXXIV. Year), p. 134. (Online at ANNO ). .
12. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 113.
13. ↑ Krobot, Slezak, Sternhart: Schmalspurig durch Österreich , p. 80.
14. ↑ Felsinger: Die Mariazellerbahn , p. 131.
15. ↑ Upward development of the Wieselburg narrow-gauge railway on the Erlauf – Gresten . In: Eisenbahnverkehr aktuell , No. 1/1986, ZDB -ID 568412-2 , p. 4.
16. ↑ Freight traffic displaces passenger trains . In: Eisenbahnverkehr aktuell , No. 6/1990, p. 4.
17. ↑ Österreichisches Kursbuch Inland, Winter 1991/92, Timetable No. 11b
18. ↑ Wegenstein, Bogner: Mariazellerbahn and "Krumpe" , p. 7.
19. ↑ Standard gauge to Gresten . In: Eisenbahnverkehr aktuell , No. 1/1999, p. 14.
20. ↑ Further shortening of the "Krumpen" . In: Eisenbahnverkehr aktuell , No. 4/2003, p. 7.
21. ↑ Mostviertler Eisenbahnradl Mostviertler Eisenbahnradl Internet presence
22. ↑ NÖN : Concept for the route (accessed on March 17, 2011)
23. ^ "Krumpe": A new old railway line. noe.orf.at, July 28, 2019, accessed on July 28, 2019 . 
24. ↑ Train accident: wagons driverless for 20 minutes orf.at, October 19, 2016, accessed October 19, 2016. - With a sketch of the intersecting routes.
25. ↑ Wieselburg: After a ghost ride: Several seriously injured people in a train accident kleinezeitung.at, October 19, 2016, accessed October 20.
26. ↑ Finally a monument . In: Niederösterreichische Nachrichten , No. 36/2008.