Gera Park Railway
| Gera Park Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 ... at Martinsgrund train station
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| Route length: | 0.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 2.9 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route and stations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The then pioneering and now park railway Gera in the Gera zoo was opened on September 6th, 1975 on the occasion of the dahlia festival by the mayor of this city.
route
The approx. 800 m long route with a gauge of 600 mm begins at the “Martinsgrund” train station, passes a mountain slope and a stream and leads over two bridges to the end of the route, the “Wolfsgehege” train station.
The route through the zoo required the construction of a dam and three bridges. With 2.9% it has the second steepest section of all park railways in Germany.
The current route of the park railway is only part of the planned route, originally it was supposed to lead from the Martinsgrund station to the nearby exhibition center, a tunnel was built especially for this purpose (the only one of all pioneer / park railways in East Germany). This second section was not completed for financial reasons, so that the tunnel is now used as a parking facility.
history
The facility was built under the direction of the “Working Group Pioneer Railways of the City of Gera”, in which architects, construction experts, railway enthusiasts and responsible officials of the city administration came together.
The opening train consisted of two closed wagons provided by the Berlin Park Railway / Pioneer Railway Berlin and a converted mine locomotive (locomotive EA 44-01, a type EL 61 battery-powered locomotive, which was converted in the Gera motor vehicle repair plant).
In 1978 the first diesel locomotive was commissioned. In order to cope with the increasing number of visitors, two diesel locomotives (type BN 60 works locomotives) were taken over by the Berlin pioneer railway in 1979. In the same year, the converted EA 44-01 mine locomotive was transferred to the SDAG Wismut (now Ferienland Crispendorf ) holiday camp .
Specially designed open wagons were put into operation in 1978 and 1982. In 1980 spring-tongue switches were installed and a new butt track was built at Martinsgrund station. In 1983 a new locomotive shed was handed over, in 1986 the entire line track was renewed from the S 18 rail shape to the S 33 and the installation of points with clip-point locks. In 1989 the first closed car was put back into operation. In 1990, the millionth passenger was welcomed. In 1991 the pioneer railway was renamed the Park Railway.
In 1992 the Geraer Wald-Eisenbahn-Verein eV was founded as a support association. He supports the owner of the park railway, the city of Gera. As with the other park railways in the new federal states, interested students are made familiar with the railway system. Under the supervision of experienced railway workers, the students take care of the running of the train. After school, on the weekends and during the holidays, they are assigned to the route according to the duty roster, set points and signals and sell tickets. In 1994 the first park railway festival was celebrated.
In 1995 two bridges were renovated and a steam locomotive was used for the first time. In 1997 a diesel locomotive and all six passenger cars were modernized. On April 1st, 2000 the Geraer Wald-Eisenbahn-Verein eV handed over a replica of the first accumulator locomotive (EA 44-02) as a permanent loan to the city of Gera.
Since 2003 the city of Gera has not been able to secure the financing of the park railway. A low point was reached at the end of 2004, when the 240,000 euros for the main inspection - due as planned in March 2005 - could not be raised. A year postponement could be negotiated for an extension of the operating license, thus a shutdown was prevented. In order to solve the financial problems it is planned to reorganize the park railway and zoo as a GmbH under the roof of the Stadtwerke.
Current operation
Around 17 park railroaders handle the operation of the railway from April to October. They have two diesel locomotives at their disposal (but only one of them runs), a battery locomotive and two closed and four open wagons.
The railway transports around 45,000 zoo visitors every year. A total of 2,000,000 passengers were counted in it from its opening in 1975 to August 20, 2016; she covered 115,276.8 kilometers. In the 2016 driving season there were 36,026 passengers.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 51 '58 " N , 12 ° 3' 54" E