Park Railway Peißnitzexpress Halle (Saale)

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Park railway hall
Park Railway Halle Zug.JPG
Route length: 2.0 km
Gauge : 600 mm ( narrow gauge )

The Parkeisenbahn Peißnitzexpress is a park railway with a 600 mm gauge. It runs on a two-kilometer circuit on the Peißnitzinsel between the navigable Saale and the Wild Saale in Halle (Saale) .

Operating facilities

Park railway station on the Peißnitz
Train on the move

The track has a track width of 600 mm. On June 12, 1960 it was opened as the eighth pioneer railway - of the last 11 (12) - in the GDR . It was built by companies in the city of Halle and by agencies of the Deutsche Reichsbahn . In 1968 a locomotive shed was built at the Schwanenbrücke block , which was expanded again in 1988/89 and with its two tracks provides storage space for all vehicles. Today's Peißnitzexpress train station dates back to 1976.

The park railway in Halle also preserves the dying railway technology of the former Deutsche Reichsbahn. The station building houses the operations management department of the park railway and has a relay interlocking as it was used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. To a somewhat simplified extent, Schwanenbrücke station is operated with almost the same technology. The barriers of one of the three barrier level crossings are still cranked by hand. Track display desk, light signals , shunting signals , electrically set points , isolated rail sections and relay blocks ensure rail operations according to the DR standard and safely enable all maneuvers in single-track operation, even when several trains are on the move. Then it is driven in the route block .

business

Children and young people between the ages of 10 and 18 can volunteer in their free time to run, maintain, maintain and repair the railway. You will receive training in railway operations. In the opening year, 18 students began their service. Today around 30 schoolchildren are integrated into the company as ticket sellers, gatekeepers , conductors , train drivers , supervisors, block attendants and dispatchers . Only the engine drivers are provided by adults. The regulations of Deutsche Bahn apply accordingly. This includes, among other things, the signal book , the driving regulations and the general regulations for safety systems as they stood before the rail reform .

The park railway usually runs from April to October. In addition, there are driving operations on selected days. There is no fixed timetable, as a rule it is driven as required. A round trip takes about 12 minutes. In 1969 about 120,000 guests used the park railway, in 2009 there were about 34,000. In 2018, the number of passengers exceeded 70,000 for the first time in 20 years.

vehicles

The railway has a total of one electric storage locomotive, three diesel locomotives of the type Ns2f as well as seven open and three covered passenger cars.

operator

After its opening, the railway was part of the youth organization of the GDR . Today the city of Halle (Saale) is the owner. The Parkeisenbahnfreunde Halle / Saale eV (Parkeisenbahnfreunde Halle / Saale eV) strive to maintain the railway and to train the volunteers. From April 1, 2008, the railway was operated for a period of two years by the Halleschen Verkehrs-AG (HAVAG), whose aim was to make the railway to make it more attractive to the public and to consolidate the economic situation. At that time, the operation of the railway caused costs of 170,000 € annually, which were offset by income of 45,000 € per year.

future

The operating contract between the city and HAVAG expired at the end of 2010 and , according to a report in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , the economic situation of the railway had not improved. In January 2011, a flood in the Saale caused considerable damage to the railway systems and again in June 2013 when the system was completely under water. The future of the railway was therefore called into question. In 2016, however, 2.5 million euros were made available from the flood relief fund of the federal government and the state of Saxony-Anhalt for the period from 2017 to upgrade the railway infrastructure . The aim is to renovate the signaling and safety technology, the stops , the locomotive shed and the reception building of the “Hauptbahnhof”. The latter will have an upper floor, in which the signal box technology will also be housed in a flood-proof manner. The Eissporthalle , Schwanenbrücke and Birkenallee stops will be demolished and rebuilt using massive construction. The work should be completed in 2018 [obsolete] .

literature

  • Rainer Panse and Christian Wodzinski: Park Railway Peißnitzexpress Halle (Saale) . Halle no year

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Tempel: New Times for Peißnitzbahn, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of April 20, 2008.
  2. ^ Jan Möbius: Peißnitzexpress on the dump ?, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of February 2, 2011.
  3. ↑ Detlef Färber: Relay becomes a water glass, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of January 30, 2011.
  4. ↑ Parkeisenbahn rolls from Saturday hallespektrum.de August 2nd, 2013.
  5. ↑ red: Park Railway Halle (Saale) . In: IBSE-Telegram 307 (June 2016), p. 4.

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 28.8 "  N , 11 ° 56 ′ 54.8"  E