Borkum horse tram
| Borkum – Hopp horse tram | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route length: | 6.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 900 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The horse tram Borkum was a horse tram that was built in 1879 with a gauge of 900 mm on the East Frisian North Sea island of Borkum to supply the construction site of the New Lighthouse with the necessary building materials.
requirements
Due to the local conditions, the building material could only be landed on the southeast side of the island during floods , but the building site was in the west of the island. In addition, horse-drawn carriage through the mudflats only allowed the vehicles to be very lightly loaded. By building a material web, a horse could move 12-16 times as much material. This was the only way to erect and operate the new lighthouse within seven months.
The train
The railway was built by the construction company Habich & Goth , which previously worked on the construction of the Ems-Jade Canal and operated a construction railway there with a gauge of 900 mm. The material used there was transported to Borkum and formed the basis of the Borkum horse-drawn railway and its successor, the Borkumer Kleinbahn . The railway was mainly laid on state-owned land.
At high tide, the building material was brought into the Hopp in shallow barges, which at that time protruded much further into the interior of the island than it does today. When the tide was low , the barges were unloaded onto two-axle lorries , which were then pulled by horses over a stretch of almost 5.5 km to the construction site. This also meant that the last 900 meters of the route were below sea level when the tide was high. This transport method turned out to be so effective that it was also used in the following years to build the beach wall and groynes on the west side of Borkum. Separate sidings were laid for this purpose, so that the network of the horse-drawn tram finally comprised 8 km.
End of the horse tram
After the construction work was finished, there were different ideas about the fate of the railway. While leading people in the municipality of Borkum wanted the railway to be removed in order to be able to take over the area of the outdoor pasture from the state, the latter spoke out in favor of the continued existence of the railway, as it would supply the population of Borkum much cheaper than before. The operators, Habich & Goth , also saw business opportunities in operating a railway. In 1882, for example, the state agreed that the tracks could remain in place for the time being. In 1883 Habich & Goth signed a contract with the city of Emden for the construction of a landing bridge and a railway connection from the landing bridge to the village of Borkum. The material of the horse-drawn tram was used for the construction of this railway - so it remained with the introduced gauge of 900 mm. Of the existing horse-drawn tram route, however, only a little less than a kilometer from the train station and to the west of the village of Borkum could be used. The remainder of the route of the new small railway, opened in 1888, which now used steam locomotives , ran south of the horse-drawn railway line.
literature
- Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The North Sea Island Railways . 6th edition, alba, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-87094-230-4
- Hans Schweers: The Borkumer Kleinbahn and the ships of the AG "Ems" . Cologne 2007. ISBN 978-3-89494-132-1