Ronheider ramp

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Part of the ramp, looking downwards

The Ronheider Rampe , also known as the inclined plane of the Rhenish Railway near Aachen in older literature , is one of the oldest steep sections in the German railway network . It was opened in 1843 and has served long-distance traffic between Germany and Belgium ever since . In the first years of operation, trains were carried over them by a rope hoist driven by a stationary steam engine.

construction

The construction of today's Aachen – Liège line , which began in 1838, was the result of lengthy negotiations between the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft and a committee of high-ranking Aachen personalities, including the President of the Aachen Chamber of Commerce , David Hansemann , the Aachen Regional President Adolf Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Boitzenburg and des Tuch - and needle manufacturers Philipp Heinrich Pastor , who campaigned for the route to run via Aachen and the Weser Valley to Liège, contrary to the originally planned extensive bypassing of Aachen . Between today's Aachen main station and the Ronheide station in front of the portal of the adjoining bus tunnel , the railway line had to be laid over a 2086 m long section as a steep section with a gradient of 26.5 ‰ due to the ascent to the Aachen forest . The line was put into operation on October 13, 1843. Since the steam locomotives of that time were judged to be inadequately powerful, the Ronheider ramp was given a rope hoist with a stationary steam engine to overcome the 55 m difference in altitude , comparable to the Erkrath – Hochdahl steep ramp opened a few years earlier .

Cable operation

The steam engine was built in Ronheide station, at the upper end of the 2 km long straight ramp section. A 200 hp steam engine was installed in the machine house, as well as the tensioning device for the endless rope used. There were pulleys at both ends of the ramp. The trains were transported without locomotives; instead, heavy, six-wheeled so-called brake sleds were coupled, which in turn were clamped into the rope running in the middle of the track on a total of 420 pulleys. When driving downhill, the brake trucks were used to control the speed of travel without using the cable. The communication between the top and bottom stations was made by the first electromagnetic telegraph used on the railroad .

Due to the high level of wear and tear, the rope had to be replaced every two and a half years. In 1853 major repairs to the steam engine were necessary. During this time, locomotives were used. The positive experiences with it led to the decision in 1854 to give up the rope hoist operation. It was replaced by a locomotive with a train locomotive and two pushing locomotives, which turned out to be around 50% cheaper.

Further development

The Aachen - Liège line became the most important link between the Rhineland and Belgium. All long-distance traffic between Paris , Brussels and Cologne was carried over this ramp, including famous luxury trains such as the Nord-Express or the Ostend-Wien-Express . The high level of effort involved in using push-pull locomotives meant that a new ramp with a lower gradient was planned after the turn of the century. It was initially decided to build a new line west of the old one with an incline of 10 ‰ and to replace the bush tunnel with a parallel, lower-lying, approximately 2.2 km long tunnel. Protests and unfavorable geological conditions in the area of ​​the new tunnel led to the abandonment of the work begun in 1907 in 1909. Subsequently, a large loop section was designed with partial use of the freight line running to the Gemmenich tunnel . The implementation of this plan finally prevented the outbreak of the First World War .

As a result of the Versailles Treaty , Ronheide station became a border station with Belgium after the end of the war . This and the overload caused by the sliding locomotives from the ramp operation meant that a major expansion of the station was initially planned. Ultimately, however, Aachen Hbf was used as a border station and the stop of passenger trains in Ronheide ended in 1927, the station was renamed Aachen Süd . Since then it has served the pushing locomotives that were detached from the train and waited in Aachen South for their return journey to the main station.

In 1966 the steep line was converted to electrical operation along with the entire Aachen - Liège line. Since the Aachen main station was designed as a system interchange station, the ramp route is electrified with the Belgian 3000 V direct current system. Despite electrification, it is still not possible to do without the use of push locomotives on heavy trains. After the introduction of the Thalys between Cologne and Paris and the ICE International between Frankfurt am Main and Brussels, there are only individual night trains that require a corresponding use. Scheduled freight traffic via the Ronheider ramp existed until the beginning of the summer timetable in 1979, but only with a few pairs of trains; most cross-border freight trains between Germany and Belgium ran and run from Aachen West station via the Montzen route through the Gemmenich tunnel. From 1979 to December 2007, as planned, no freight trains ran on the route; these were only run via the Montzen route. Only during the construction work on the Göhl valley viaduct in 2003 and 2004 were there numerous diversion traffic on weekends via the Ronheider ramp. Since December 2007, freight trains have been running on the Ronheider ramp again as scheduled, but only downhill in the direction of Germany.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp , Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 , pp. 31–33.
  2. ↑ Max Becker: Road and railway construction in all its scope and with special consideration for the latest construction: e. Guide to lectures and for self-teaching for water u. Road construction engineers u. other technicians: with atlas. Textband, Volume 1. Carl Mäcken, Stuttgart 1855, p. 247 f. [1]
  3. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp , Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 , p. 108.
  4. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp , Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 , p. 121f.

literature

Coordinates: 50 ° 45 ′ 17 ″  N , 6 ° 4 ′ 36 ″  E