Ronsdorf-Müngstener Railway

Ronsdorf-Müngstener Kleinbahn
Route length:	15 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	? =
State:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Legend Barmer Bergbahn to Barmen Am Clef Barmen Toelleturm Barmen Wettiner Strasse Barmer Stadium Barmen Scharpenacker way Barmen Lichtscheid Branch to Cronenberg / Elberfeld with Gelpetal tunnel Ronsdorf Jägerhof Split of the "city route" Ronsdorf water tower Ronsdorf Hospital Ronsdorf Waldweiche Kaiserplatz Ronsdorf Kniprodestrasse Ronsdorf market Ronsdorf technical school Ronsdorf State Railway Station Ronsdorf Gasstrasse Ronsdorf Dickestrasse Ronsdorf scratching head Ronsdorf Erbschlöer Strasse Ronsdorf In the Crimea Confluence of the "main line" Ronsdorf Ascheweg 0.0 Ronsdorf city station Confluence of the "city route" Ronsdorf Hut Ronsdorf Graben Lüttringhausen Halbach Line to Wermelskirchen (Line 4) Lüttringhausen tunnel Route to Remscheid Schöne Aussicht Remscheid Clarenbach Remscheid founders hammer Remscheid square Remscheid Gerstau Elberfeld-Cronenberg-Hasten tram Remscheid Hütz Cronenberg Breitenbruch Remscheid Aue Cronenberg Berg / Remscheid Fürberg Remscheid Morsbach Cronenberg Engelskotten 15.1 Müngsten Wupper - Grunenburg Bridge Branch line Solingen waterworks Solingen electricity company Solingen – Remscheid railway line Solingen Krahenhöhe

The Ronsdorf-Müngstener Eisenbahn is a former small train company founded by the communities of Cronenberg , Lüttringhausen , Remscheid , Ronsdorf and Solingen as well as 25 private individuals.

The meter-gauge railway line operated by the company bears the same name, which was built from 1890 by the Localbahn-Bau und Betriebs-Gesellschaft Wilhelm Hostmann & Co. from Hanover and opened in sections in 1891. Electrification took place in 1903. The line is closed today.

history

Electric freight train in Müngsten around 1906

Last RME steam train in Müngsten on April 13, 1903

Wupperbrücke Grunenburg of the Ronsdorf-Müngstener Railway near Müngsten. Was demolished in December 2014.

The railway ran from the Toelleturm in Barmen (from 1929 district of Wuppertal ) or from the Ronsdorf state train station via Ronsdorf city train station through the Morsbach valley to the waterworks (January 1, 1883, commissioning - July 1903, shutdown) and the electricity company in Solingen - Grunenburg behind Müngsten . At the Ronsdorf State Railway Station , standard-gauge freight wagons could be moved onto trolleys for onward transport . The core line between the Ronsdorf city station and Müngsten was 15.14 km long.

The line was built primarily as a freight line in order to be able to deliver coal to the two plants, among other things . The waterworks needed the fuel to operate the pumping system and the electricity company used not only water power from the Wupper but also additional steam-powered generators that needed coal as primary energy . In addition, the route was connected to numerous factories owned by private individuals involved in the railway. At the same time, however, it was also used for passenger transport by tram, in particular as a connection to the excursion destination Müngsten.

On January 10, 1894, the Ronsdorf-Müngstener Railway put a 4.4 kilometer long section between Ronsdorf and the rack railway (see Barmer Bergbahn ) at the Toelleturm into operation. This so-called forest route was commissioned by Barmer Bergbahn AG and set up at their expense. After the line was electrified, the Barmer Bergbahn AG bought it on July 15, 1897 and started using its own cars on July 22.

On November 17, 1897, the majority of the shares went to the West German Railway Company . She intended to connect the railway with the Wermelskirchen-Burger Railway and to start a new line from Müngsten to Sonnborn . These plans were not implemented because the railway was taken over by the Barmer Bergbahn AG on August 1, 1902. In 1903 the electrification of the railway began and on April 13, 1903 the last steam train was running.

From 1906 to 1908, the route for passenger traffic from Grunenburg up to Solingen-Krahenhöhe was extended and operated as tram line 9.

The railway was in contact with neighboring companies in several places. In Gerstau the crossed Crone field - - streetcar Elberfeld Remscheid the route. The Ronsdorf-Müngstener Eisenbahn was only allowed to run over these for operational purposes, so that passengers had to cross the level crossing on foot. Between Lichtscheid and Jägerhof (today the Parkstraße stop), the tracks were shared by Bergische Kleinbahn AG from August 26, 1902 . In Halbach there was a connection to the VKA route to Wermelskirchen.

At no point was the route economically viable. After the power station was shut down, there was only sporadic passenger traffic and hardly any freight traffic. The connection from Müngsten to Krahenhöhe was shut down during the First World War (January 17, 1917) and the contact wire was partially dismantled.

The timetable has been thinned out over the years, so that in 1939 there were only six trips on Sundays and public holidays. In the autumn of this year, passenger traffic was stopped. Freight traffic continued until April 5, 1944.

Several meter-gauge tram lines later emerged from the railway.

Route sections in Ronsdorf

In Ronsdorf, the railway and later the tram had several route sections:

• The main line or station line that led from the state train station (today Wuppertal-Ronsdorf station ) via Ascheweg station and the city station to Müngsten.
• The forest route from Ascheweg station via Lichtscheid (with connections to other tram lines) to the Toelleturm with a connection to the Barmer Bergbahn .
• The city ​​line that led from the city station through the city center of Ronsdorf to Parkstrasse / Lichtscheid, where it then reunited with the forest line .

However, it was only used by trams and generally (with the exception of operational closures of the forest section) not by freight trains, as it had a significantly higher gradient in contrast to the forest section. The street Ascheweg got its name from the fact that the boilers of the steam locomotives were emptied of ash and slag residues by the stokers in the run-up to the operational supply station .

In tram operation, the forest and city routes were only used with one-way traffic (the forest route in the direction of Ronsdorf Stadtbahnhof, the city route to Lichtscheid / Toelleturm), so that there was practically a ring traffic. This led to the curiosity that there was a stop at Wilhelmstraße (later (since 1929) Kniprodestraße ) on both branches of the route , but they were about 500 meters apart.

Opening dates

The following sections were opened:

with steam operation:

• May 28, 1891: from Ronsdorf, Staatsbahnhof to Stadtbahnhof
• August 21, 1891: from Ronsdorf, Stadtbahnhof to Clarenbach
• November 16, 1891: from Clarenbach to Müngsten
• Beginning of 1892: siding to the Solingen waterworks in Müngsten
• January 10, 1894: from Ronsdorf, Ascheweg to Toelleturm in Barmen

in electrical operation:

• March 4, 1903 Ronsdorf, Staatsbahnhof - Ronsdorf, Stadtbahnhof
• April 14, 1903 Ronsdorf, Stadtbahnhof - Müngsten
• September 5, 1908 Müngsten - Solingen, Krahenhöhe

Decommissioning dates

The following sections were closed:

• January 27, 1917 Krahenhöhe - Müngsten
• November 5, 1944 Müngsten - Morsbach
• November 26, 1954 Morsbach - Founder's Hammer
• 4th July 1959 Toelleturm - Ronsdorf (to Clarenbach for passenger traffic)
• August 30, 1959 Gründerhammer - Ronsdorf Stadtbahnhof (last freight train)
• September 6, 1959 Ronsdorf Stadtbahnhof - Ronsdorf DB train station

Search for clues

Today there are only a few references to be found from the route. In the consciousness of the population, the railway is also hardly available any more. Since the majority of the route was on the road, it is usually no longer possible to identify a route. The only traces still recognizable today are:

• Indications of track remains in the asphalt of Wettiner Straße in Wuppertal near the Toelleturm as well as still existing masts of the electrical systems in the course of the road. Also in Elias-Eller-Str. there are still some concrete poles that are now equipped with street lamps.
• The still clearly recognizable route in the Ascheweg (today partly a footpath, which in the northern section is still popularly called the railroad ) and in the Ronsdorf facilities . The forest switch , a meeting point on the single-track line, where goods traffic to Lichtscheid / Toelleturm was only sporadically, was located on today's Langen Wiese .
• Today's name Ronsdorfer Stadtbahnhof
• The abutment benches of the demolished Grunenburg bridge near Grunenburg.
• The subsequent embankment over a private property
• A goods shed at the Gerstau station .
• The hiking trail between Grunenburg and Theegarten, which has been converted into a mountain railway route .
• A brick bridge over the Wuppertal-Oberbarmen – Solingen railway line

monument

Monument at the Ronsdorf city station

On March 25, 2006, a memorial was inaugurated in Ronsdorf in the street “Am Stadtbahnhof” , which is intended to commemorate the time of the railway line. The monument, which was erected roughly on the site of the former Ronsdorf city station next to the city ​​baths , consists of a short piece of track measuring one meter wide with a spoked wheel set on top . The track section is supplemented by an information board on which two historical photos of the railway, the schematic route and the most important historical data of the railway line are documented.

Web links

Commons : Ronsdorf-Müngstener Eisenbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Announcement concerning the addition to the list attached to the International Convention on Freight by Rail (1893)  - sources and full texts

• Website about the section Müngsten - Krahenhöhe
• A private collection of historical postcard views of Müngsten with track and train
• Another private collection of historical postcard views of Müngsten with track and train
• tramtracks.de, a private homepage with today's traces of the forest route
• same source, with pictures from the area around the former city ​​train station in Ronsdorf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pictures of the small train route 92003: RME / BB (closed / intercity tram with goods traffic) , on eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de