Muttentalbahn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sign for the Muttentalbahn

The Muttentalbahn was a six-kilometer long railroad that was used in the 19th century to transport coal from the mines in Muttental in the southeast of the Ruhr area to the coal depots and the loading stations. It is considered to be one of the oldest horse-drawn trams on the European continent. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Muttentalbahn was one of the most important railway lines alongside the Prinz-Wilhelm-Bahn and the Schlebusch-Harkorter Kohlenbahn .

history

Building grounds and planning

The surface transport of the mined coal from the mines to the customers was extremely laborious and labor-intensive in the 18th century. The coal was transported by coal drivers on horses or mules. Sacks that were loaded onto the pack animals served as transport containers. After the Ruhr was made navigable, the coal from coal depots was shipped across the Ruhr. Up to the coal defeat, the coal was transported by carts over a sliding path to the Ruhr. However, the transport route over the Ruhr could not be used continuously, because the river was only navigable for part of the year. At the beginning of the 19th century the trades of the Turteltaube , Frielinghaus , Eleonora , Nachtigall , Louisenglück and Morgenstern collieries decided to create a better transport route to the Wittener Hauptkohlenstraße. On April 27, 1829, the mine owners applied for the construction of the Muttentalbahn. The main initiators were the trades Freiherr Levin von Elversfeldt and the businessman Carl Berger . The railway was supposed to connect the Hardensteiner Revier with the Wittener Kohlenstraße. In addition, the coal was to be transported by train to the banks of the Ruhr. The construction of this railway should improve the sales of the coal.

Construction, operation and decommissioning

The Muttentalbahn was built in the short construction period of less than a year and was completed in December of the same year. Thus, the reported trades on December 9, 1829 the Oberbergamt the completion and the start of operations by train from Muttental to Elberfelderstraße. With the Muttentalbahn, the coal could be transported much more easily and quickly than before with manual transport. At the end of the railway line, a storage area was set up in Bommerholz . Here, the coal transported by the Muttentalbahn was loaded onto horse-drawn vehicles. In 1832 the Muttental Railway was extended to the Neptun shaft and until the coal defeat at what is now the Nachtigall Bridge. With its design, the Muttentalbahn was one of the first in Europe. However, due to the changed traffic routes, it lost its importance after just twenty years. Nothing changed when the tradesmen had a wooden bridge built over the Ruhr for the railway to extend the railway to the station in Witten. In 1874 the Ruhr Valley Railway also reached the mines in Muttental. In the same year the Muttentalbahn was shut down.

facts and figures

The Muttentalbahn was built by the entrepreneur and railway pioneer Friedrich Harkort . The track had a total length of around six kilometers. The route led from the coal defeat of Nachtigall on the Ruhr in a southerly direction uphill through Muttental to Bommerholz on Elberfelder Straße. The track had an average rise of 1.5 degrees. Another coal defeat as the southern end of the Muttentalbahn was on today's Bommerholzerstraße.

The rails, like the sleepers, were made of wood. The running surface of the rails was shod with steel strip. This type of rail had already been used by the Generaler and the Rauendahler Pferdebahn , as it reduced wear and tear on the rails. From 1838 the wooden rails were exchanged for rails made of cast iron.

Replica of the Muttentalbahn trolleys

The carts used to transport coal were fitted with cast-iron wheels. These wheels were fitted with flanges so that the carts would not jump off the rails. The capacity of a cart was six bushels . The carts were pulled by horses, a horse pulled between four and six wagons. The travel time was around 75 minutes per trip.

Current condition

Today, reconstructed wagons are still reminiscent of the Muttentalbahn. The wagons are part of the Muttental mining trail . The former route of the Muttentalbahn is still preserved today and can be easily recognized. A small section of the rails has also been preserved; this can be found at the intersection of Am Masling and Kohlseggenstraße. At the southern end of the Muttentalbahn there is now the Falkenhof riding center.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Muttentalbahn. In: Witten Tourist Office (ed.): Muttental mining circuit. 7th edition. Witten 1988.
  2. ↑ a b Walter Buschmann : Collieries and coking plants in the Rhenish coal industry. Verlag Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-7861-1963-5 .
  3. ↑ a b Peter Bankmann: When Schälgen Thee in the Ruhr valley. 1st edition. Hummelshain Verlag, Essen 2013, ISBN 978-3-943322-02-6 , pp. 61–63.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Gerhard Koetter (Ed.): Mining in the Muttental. 1st edition. Druckstatt Wöhrle, Witten 2001, ISBN 3-00-008659-5 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Kurt Pfläging: Stein's journey through the coal mining industry on the Ruhr. 1st edition. Geiger Verlag, Horb am Neckar 1999, ISBN 3-89570-529-2 , p. 120.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Gerhard Koetter (Ed.): From seams, tunnels and shafts in the Muttental. 1st edition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-612-6 .
  7. ↑ a b c Rald Stemel, Jürgen Weise (ed.): Bergisch-Märkische entrepreneurs of early industrialization. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien. Volume 18, 2004, pp. 141-145.
  8. ↑ a b Association of Friends of Art and Culture in Mining (ed.): The cut. 1974, pp. 32-33.
  9. ↑ a b Ulrike Karn: A very special place. In: The NRW Foundation 1/2005. P. 11.
  10. ↑ Nightingale colliery in 58452 Witten-Bommern. A historical review (online, last accessed on December 28, 2012; PDF; 182 kB)
  11. ↑ The early mining on the Ruhr: Muttentalbahn. (last accessed on December 28, 2012)

Web links

Commons : Muttentalbahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files