Rittersturzbahn
The Rittersturzbahn was a mountain railway that ran from 1928 to 1959 from the exit of the Laubach Valley in Koblenz to the Rittersturz lookout point in the Koblenz city forest . The track had a gradient of 27.6% and was 408 meters long. The railway overcame a height difference of 93.3 meters and led uphill with a slight curve on a mountain slope and supported by a retaining wall. In the middle there was an escape point as a meeting point. The train only ran in summer. Both the valley station and the mountain station could be locked, so they were both used as a car hall.
history
The Rittersturz mountain railway was built in 1928 by the Koblenz tram company as a funicular to connect the Laubach tram stop with the Rittersturz hotel. The official opening took place on June 2, 1928.
In the 1950s, the railway became increasingly uneconomical. When the income could no longer cover the operating and maintenance costs and there were also high maintenance costs, especially for the retaining wall, the railway was operated for the last time on October 25, 1959 after the end of the 1959 summer season. In 1960 it was no longer in operation, so that it was officially shut down by the Koblenz district government on October 16, 1960 and subsequently dismantled. For a while, buses were still running to the hotel on the Rittersturz as a substitute; the connection was made redundant when it was closed and demolished in 1971.
vehicles
Two wagons built by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen were in use. The cars had three compartments with transverse seats, two of which were initially only closed by a half-height sheet metal door, so that they were partial summer cars. However, photos from the 1950s show that later all three compartments were apparently closed with sliding doors.
Both cars were attached to a rope that ran over a pulley in the upper station and was driven by a 30 kW winch motor. This enabled the cars to reach a maximum speed of 7.2 km / h.
literature
- Michael Kochems and Dieter Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany - Volume 12: Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland .
- Axel Reuther: Even back then, very old in: Tram magazine 12/16.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 19 ′ 45 ″ N , 7 ° 34 ′ 53 ″ E