Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen
The Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen were owned by the former Prenzlau district in the Uckermark . It had a route network of 108.25 km.
They consisted of the following four routes:
The operation
On December 2, 1902, the district's own railway company put two standard-gauge small railroad lines into operation, starting from the small train station in the district town of Prenzlau :
- in a northerly direction to Strasburg in the Uckermark via Dedelow, where a branch line to Fürstenwerder went off and
- in an easterly direction via Damme to Brüssow.
This was followed by the line to Löcknitz , which was opened on November 29, 1898 by the Uckermärkische Lokalbahn AG, on the main Stettin – Pasewalk line . Shortly beforehand - on November 27, 1902 - the property had passed into the ownership of the Kreisbahn. The total length of the route was 84 kilometers.
Another district-owned small railway ran from November 1, 1915 with goods traffic and from October 4, 1916 also with passenger traffic from the district town of Prenzlau 15 kilometers northeast to Klockow .
The Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen also operated the Schönermark – Damme district railway , which from December 13, 1905 (goods traffic only from February 6, 1906) a cross-connection from Damme on the Prenzlau – Löcknitz small railway to the south via Gramzow to Schönermark on the Stettin – Angermünde state railway line manufactured. This route, also known as the Angermünder Kreisbahn, was jointly operated by the Prenzlau and Angermünde districts. This meant that the Prenzlauer Kreisbahn was subject to a route network with a total length of almost 125 kilometers, on which 13 steam locomotives and four railcars drove.
The economic situation of the Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen was much better than that of other small railways for most of its existence. The motor transport company, which opened on April 15, 1928, also contributed to this; in 1939 it operated 15 bus routes that went from Prenzlau in all directions and had a total length of 234 kilometers, on which ten buses were used. However, this part of the business was restricted in favor of rail transport during the Second World War. After all, there were two city bus routes in the district town during this period.
The Prenzlau network in state operation
From April 1, 1943, operational management was transferred to the Brandenburg State Transport Authority . Although the Kreisbahn was a purely municipal operation, it was incorporated into the Provincial Railways of the Mark Brandenburg in 1945 and finally joined the Deutsche Reichsbahn on April 1, 1949 . In the meantime, several sections had been dismantled, but they were rebuilt after a short time. In the winter timetable 1946/47, only three pairs of trains drove daily on the Prenzlau – Kutzerow route (13 km) and the branch from Dedelow to Falkenhagen (3 km). A year later, all routes could be found in the timetable again, with the exception of the Gramzow – Schönermark section, which was in operation again in sections until 1949.
The DR continued to operate the extensive network for decades. Decommissioning only began in the 1970s. It started on July 3, 1972 with the Prenzlau – Klockow passenger service, which had been interrupted for months in 1970/71. Freight traffic was also discontinued and the route dismantled. On September 30, 1978 the Dedelow – Fürstenwerder line was completely shut down; also on May 26, 1979 Gramzow – Schönermark.
The other transport services were maintained until the years after the fall of the Wall. On the main line Prenzlau – Löcknitz there was still passenger traffic until September 11, 1991, which was then operated between Damme and Löcknitz as a replacement rail service. At the same time, freight traffic was also stopped on this section. The rest of the passenger traffic was stopped on May 27, 1995, as was passenger traffic by rail between Prenzlau and Strasburg and between Damme and Gramzow. On December 31, 1994, Deutsche Bahn AG also terminated the rest of the freight traffic on the remaining routes. They were shut down on June 30, 1997.
Current condition
The railway line between Damme and Gramzow (part of the former Schönermark – Damme circuit) and from Damme to shortly after Eickstedt has been preserved. The Brandenburg Museum for Small and Private Railways, located in Gramzow, has been running museum railroad trips here since 2009. The section from Schmölln via Brüssow to Löcknitz belongs to the Randowtal railway property company, which plans to transport traffic on the route for tourist purposes. The operating workshop of the circular railways at the former district train station in Prenzlau is a listed building.
literature
- Wolf-Dietger Machel , Rudi Buchweitz : Small railways in the Uckermark . VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-933254-88-7 .
- Erich Preuß : Archives of German small and private railways: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin . transpress, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-344-70906-2 , pp. 109-124 .
Web links
- Prenzlauer Kreisbahnen on railway lines in Brandenburg
- Gramzow Railway Museum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urs Kramer, Matthias Brodkorb: Farewell to the rail - freight lines 1994 to today. Transpress, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-71333-8 , p. 156.
- ↑ Official Gazette for the Gramzow Office No. 6/2009 of June 17, 2009 (PDF; 1.1 MB) p. 10.
- ^ Prenzlauer Zeitung , April 13, 2007.
- ↑ List of monuments of the State of Brandenburg, District Uckermark, as of December 31, 2010. (PDF)