Plettenberg tram
| Plettenberger Kleinbahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Course book section (DB) : | 239m (1944, 1954) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 33 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 30 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Plettenberger Straßenbahn AG (P.St.B.) served since 1896 for passenger and freight traffic in the Westphalian town of Plettenberg in the Märkisches Kreis . It was called Plettenberger Kleinbahn AG (PKB) from June 30, 1942 .
The trunk line
The Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft had already completed the Ruhr-Sieg route from Hagen to Siegen in 1861 , but the town of Plettenberg in the side valley of the Else had only received a distant train station.
The city administration and some factory owners tried to better connect the city center and other districts to the rail network. Therefore, on July 10, 1895, they founded the Plettenberger Tram Company. On April 20, 1896, this opened a meter-gauge small railway line that led from the state train station in the northern part of Eiringhausen on the road four kilometers to the center of the city.
Initially only goods traffic was served, but from May 25, 1896 also passenger traffic, which initially began on the south side of the state railway at Hotel Ostermann. Since June 10, 1896, the end point was in front of the station building on the north side. The small railroad trains pulled by steam locomotives had to cross the tracks of the state railway. This situation only ended on March 27, 1907. The passenger trains began on the south side of the State Railroad in an area where the trolley pits were initially located. These had previously been replaced by a new connecting station east of Bachstrasse in the Bannewerth area with trolley ramps (at the same time conversion from trolley to trolley operation).
Expansion of the network
A few years later, the rail network was expanded further south up the valley. From July 11, 1902, freight trains ran from the town center in the Else valley two kilometers further to Holthausen . Passenger traffic, initially only served on Sundays, was carried out every weekday from 1904 onwards. It was given up on July 14, 1912 due to insufficient passenger numbers in the Elsetal, but resumed on May 22, 1932.
Since April 1, 1906, the headquarters of the management had been at the Herscheider Strasse stop, where the workshop and the car shed were also nearby.
On 14 December 1903, the Oestertal Railway, which was six kilometers long from the city center, started operating to Wiesental. From Oesterau onwards, however, it was a private connection from the Brockhaus company, which was only released for public transport in 1923, but nevertheless remained the property of the company. From July 26, 1923 passenger trains also ran to Wiesenthal; As far as Oesterau, they were already in use on Sundays from October 1, 1904 and on weekdays from March 16, 1919 as well.
passenger traffic
The initially low passenger traffic gained in importance over the years. In 1941, for example, a brand-new diesel-electric multiple unit was used for passenger transport . This indicates that the intention has since been abandoned to electrify the twelve-kilometer network, as had been planned since the 1920s.
Although buses had also been used in the Plettenberg area since May 1932 , priority was given to rail transport. After 1950 the timetables showed more and more bus journeys parallel to the rail; at the end of the 1950s they ran between Plettenberg station and Holthausen, sometimes every half hour, sometimes every twenty minutes. Finally, the rest of the passenger traffic by rail was completely stopped on December 31, 1958 and taken over by buses.
Freight transport
From all parts of the route network, tracks led to the city's numerous large and small industrial companies; in 1940 the maximum was reached with 71 sidings. This large number shows the enormous importance of freight transport for the Plettenberg tram. Basically, the fact that, from July 8, 1915, a standard-gauge state railway from Plettenberg station to Oberstadt station and on to Herscheid had been opened parallel to the small railway did not change anything . In addition to the new Oberstadt state railway station, the second transfer station for the small railway to the state railway was built.
Although this led to a reduction in the length of freight transported on the small rail lines, the tram company still made a profit - except in 1932. Negative contrast, the need seemed off, transfer the goods to the narrow-gauge light railway vehicles or state railway carriage with dollies , from 1903 with trolley further convey. Furthermore, the trains interfered with each other in the narrow local streets with the growing amount of motor vehicle traffic. This fact led the city of Plettenberg to speak out against a sustainable extension of the concession, which was about to expire after sixty years of operation.
In 1961, freight traffic was largely discontinued. Operation on the Elsetalbahn ended on March 1st and on May 23rd on the Oestertalbahn. On April 26, 1962 came the end of the main line; The official day of recruitment was July 17, 1962. After that, numerous customers were served by road scooters and trucks from the Eiringhausen and Plettenberg Oberstadt train stations until 1974 .
After the merger of the Kraftverkehr Mark Sauerland GmbH (MS), the Kreis Altenaer Eisenbahn AG (KAE), the Iserlohner Kreisbahn AG (IKB) and the Plettenberger Kleinbahn AG (PKB) to the Märkische Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) on January 1st, 1976, the goods transport activities KAE and PKB are outsourced to the Märkische Eisenbahngesellschaft (MEG) subsidiary.
From Plettenberg train station, this still serves an approximately 1000-meter-long normal-gauge section to the Plettenberg Mitte transshipment center with the remaining narrow-gauge PKB V11 diesel locomotive . This locomotive was operated until 1972, after the acquisition of a standard-gauge locomotive, the meter-gauge track was expanded.
Relics
The two-axle box steam locomotive number 3 built by Henschel in 1927 came to the German Railway Association in Bruchhausen-Vilsen in 1968 and is still operational.
In addition, the Sauerland Kleinbahn ( Märkische Museums-Eisenbahn e.V., MME) in Hüinghausen has the last two freight cars that the association was able to take over from the disused Juister Inselbahn in 1982 . One of these cars, the OO 37, was built in 2007 in the workshop of Verein Brücke e. V., Blankenburg, completely restored or reconstructed. The second car, the GG 32, is still waiting for a suitable opportunity.
In Plettenberg itself there is a memorial at the confluence with Umlauf and Straße Am Wall , consisting of a 90-degree intersection of a three-rail track with a meter gauge track and a trolley (which, however, does not come from the PStB / PKB) and which the MME association serves Has provided. The crossing used to be on Breddestrasse at the rail connection of the former Graewe & Kaiser company . The monument was erected by the city of Plettenberg on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the opening of the company.
In the area of Bannwerthstrasse / Feldstrasse another 200 m long three-rail track begins, which runs in the road planum of a local company.
See also
literature
- Hinrichs: Introduction of superheated steam at Klein- u. Trams. In: German street and small train newspaper. No. 36, 1913.
- Joachim von Galera: PKB Plettenberger Kleinbahn AG, 1896–1962. Plettenberg 1962.
- Wolf Dietrich Groote: The railroad as a factor in economic development in Plettenberg. In: Working worlds underground and above ground. Plettenberg City History, Volume 4, Plettenberg 1996.
- Gerd Wolff, Lothar Riedel: German small and private railways, Volume 5 North Rhine-Westphalia (northwestern part). Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-88255-662-5 .
- Wolf Dietrich Groote: The Plettenberger Kleinbahn. Kenning, ext. New edition, Nordhorn 2002, ISBN 3-933613-56-6 .