Palatinate Oberland Railway

Neustadt – Landau
Course book section (DB) :	ex 282c
Route length:	22.8 km + 1.8 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	1000 volts  =
Legend 0.0 Neustadt Hbf 1.6 Neustadt Kiesstrasse ? Neustadt city limits ? Hambach Green Island (request stop) 2.9 Oberhambach 3.7 Mittelhambach 4.6 Diedesfeld siding 6.5 Maikammer Hindenburgstr. 6.8 Maikammer Franzplatz 8.0 Dodge Weinsper 9.1 Edenkoben Sankt-Martiner-Str. 9.4 Edenkoben Tanzstrasse (Hüner) 10.0 Edenkoben Post (angel) 10.6 0.0 1.8 Villa Ludwigshöhe 10.7 Edenkoben depot 12.1 Rhodt (sun) 14.0 Hainfeld 15.7 Flemings 16.3 Dodge Böchingen 16.5 Böchingen 17.9 Three stones 19.0 Nussdorf ? Landau Schänzel 21.4 Landau measuring site ? Landau German Gate 22.0 Landau Gerberstrasse ? Landau Ostbahnstrasse 22.8 Landau Hbf

The Palatine Oberlandbahn , popularly short Oberlandbahn or the worm called, was a means of overhead line electric powered narrow-gauge railway for passengers in the front and southern Palatinate . The railway was 22.8 km long and from the winter of 1912/13 led from Neustadt an der Haardt , which was renamed Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in 1936 , in the north via Edenkoben to Landau in the Palatinate in the south. In 1936 a branch line from Edenkoben to Villa Ludwigshöhe was opened.

After the Second World War , increasing individual traffic on the route caused ever greater problems. That is why it was gradually shut down between 1953 and 1955 and then dismantled. Only a few relics have been preserved.

course

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  Oberlandbahn in the Weinstrasse in Maikammer

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  Oberlandbahn in the Weinstrasse in Edenkoben

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  Depot with vehicle hall in Edenkoben

From Neustadt via Hambach , Diedesfeld , Maikammer , Edenkoben, Hainfeld , Böchingen , Nussdorf to Landau, the Oberlandbahn linked the communities along the German Wine Route . These were mainly communities that were located west of the state Palatinate Maximiliansbahn on the edge of the Haardt . In the southern section, however, the route did not always run along the wine route.

The tracks ran on the street or - outside the built-up areas - along the roadside. The Oberlandbahn was initially licensed as a tram , from 1933 it was considered a small train . The track width was 1000 millimeters ( meter gauge ), the contact line voltage 1000 volts direct current .

The Oberlandbahn began in the north in the city center of Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in front of the main train station and went south through the two current districts of Hambach and Diedesfeld. From Maikammer to Böchingen, today's district of Südliche Weinstrasse was crossed. The southern end point was in the city of Landau.

history

Planning and construction

The first efforts to connect Neustadt and Landau by means of a local railway already existed around 1900. The main goal was several wine-growing villages between the two cities that were off the Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Landau – Winden – Wissembourg and Karlsruhe. The license was granted on February 4, 1910. However, the Oberlandbahn was not classified as a railway, but as a tram, on the one hand because there was no significant industry in the villages at the time, and on the other hand because Bavaria, to which the Palatinate belonged at the time , Railways licensed either only as railways or only as trams.

1912 to 1929: The years under DEAG

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  Advertisement for the opening

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  Oberlandbahn on the opening day in Landau, Königstrasse

The opening of the first half of the railway line between Neustadt and Edenkoben, where the depot was located, took place on December 16, 1912. From January 13, 1913, the entire route to Landau could be used. The owner was initially the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (DEAG).

Due to the limited space in many of the wine-growing villages along the way, accidents were not uncommon. For example, vehicles derailed, there were collisions with cars, and even cyclists and pedestrians were run over by the trains, sometimes with fatal consequences.

1929 to 1955: The years under DEGA

The DEAG was in 1929 in the AG for traffic . The company was run by the Aktien-Gesellschaft für Bahn-Bau und -Betrieb (BBB), which took over the name Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG in 1929, but was now abbreviated to (DEGA).

In the interests of tourism , the 1.8 km long branch route from the depot in Edenkoben to the Villa Ludwigshöhe Palace was built on April 9, 1936 .

In 1942 efforts were made to extend the route in Neustadt to the hospital there. However, the following war years until 1945 prevented the implementation of these plans. Except during the Second World War, when open freight cars were attached to the plan trains , which mainly transported market goods, the route was only used for passenger transport.

The war and post-war times prevented modernization or even expansion of the railway. With the increase in road traffic, there were more and more mutual hindrances, especially in the narrow town streets. Finally it was decided to shut down. This began on January 1, 1953 with the section from Edenkoben to Landau. The service to Villa Ludwigshöhe was stopped on May 17, 1954. The last section Edenkoben – Neustadt followed on January 31, 1955.

As a replacement, a bus line was set up on January 31, 1955 . The operating company Weinstraßenverkehr Neustadt – Landau (WNL) still exists today as PalatinaBus GmbH within the Connex group. This bus line now bears the number 501, but the routes of individual journeys often deviate from the route of the Oberlandbahn and sometimes lead through places that were not on the old railway line.

Relics

Occasionally, for example in Landau and Edenkoben, there are overhead line rosettes that are reminiscent of the Oberlandbahn. The former car shed in Edenkoben was converted into a bus depot after the line was closed, and track remains are in the workshop floor. In Rhodt unter Rietburg there is still an overhead line mast for the railway line.

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  Catenary rosette in Edenkoben, Obergasse 25

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  Bus depot in Edenkoben, once the operating station of the Oberlandbahn

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  Remnants of track in today's Edenkoben bus depot

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  Catenary mast in Rhodt under Rietburg

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  Catenary rosette in Landau, Ostbahnstraße

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  Former end point on the Landau station forecourt

literature

• Fascination with the railways . In: District of Südliche Weinstrasse (Ed.): Heimat-Jahrbuch 2008 . Verlag Franz Arbogast, ISSN  0177-8684 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: The " snail ". Diary of a tram. The Palatinate Oberland Railway 1905–1914 . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2002, ISBN 3-9808288-0-8 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: The " snail ". Diary of a tram. The Palatinate Oberland Railway 1915–1931 . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2002, ISBN 3-9808288-1-6 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: The " snail ". Diary of a tram. The Palatinate Oberland Railway 1932–1955 . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2002, ISBN 3-9808288-2-4 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: Stories from the " snail ". The Palatinate Oberlandbahn in memory . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2003, ISBN 3-9808288-3-2 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: The " snail " in pictures . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2006, ISBN 978-3-9808288-4-0 .
• Hans-Ulrich Kroszewski: 100 years of the Palatinate Oberland Railway . Hekma Verlag, Maikammer 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814183-2-3 .
• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways . tape 1 Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland . Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1989, ISBN 3-88255-651-X .

Web links

Commons : Pfälzer Oberlandbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• General information about the "snail"
• Course book table from 1944
• The "snail" in the model

References and comments

1. ^ Advertisement drawn by August Croissant (1870–1941); from the regional newspaper Palatinate Press , January 11, 1913.
2. ↑ Illustration from Zeitbilder , Sunday illustrated by the newspaper Pfälzische Presse , Kaiserslautern, born in 1913.