Härtsfeldbahn

Aalen – Dillingen (Danube)
Course book range :	324k (1958)
Route length:	55.49 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	1:36 = 28  ‰
Minimum radius :	80 m
Top speed:	40 km / h
Legend from Nördlingen 0.000 Aalen Härtsf Pbf 430 m to Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 0.149 first transfer track Three-rail track 0.716 second transfer track 0.780 Aalen Härtsf Gbf Aalen municipal industrial railway Brenz Railway to Ulm 3.100 Pflaumbach 4.500 Unterkochen Härtsfeldbf 5.700 Unterkochen Viaduct (85 m) 7.000 Kocherburg tunnel (96 m) 7.360 Waldhausen glassworks 10.380 Höllhau 649 m 12.320 Ebnat (Härtsfeld) 16.000 Heat wood 556 m 19.970 Elchingen 590 m 22.100 Bärenloh 24.130 Dossingen 28.050 Neresheim 504 m 29.450 Stone mill 29.900 Egau 30.100 Härtsfeldwerke Neresheim 30.860 Sawmill (Neresheim) 32.380 Iggenhausen 32.800 Egau 33.600 Katzenstein 35.900 Things 37.420 Guldesmühle 38.950 Ballmertshofen 457 m 40.200 State border between Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria 40.500 Lohgraben 40.900 Reistingen 42.480 Ziertheim 46.530 Wittislingen 48.100 Zöschlingsweiler 48.300 Egau 51.600 Dwarf stream 51.830 Lauingen Härtsfeldbf 53.980 Hausen from Neuoffingen 55.490 Dillingen (Danube) 433 m to Ingolstadt

The Härtsfeldbahn - popularly contemptuous Tere called - was a meter-gauge narrow-gauge railway on the the east of Baden-Wuerttemberg located Härtsfeld with continuation of Bavaria . The starting point of the branch line was Aalen ; Via Neresheim and Ballmertshofen , it reached Dillingen on the Danube after 55.49 kilometers . Passenger traffic ended on September 30, 1972, freight traffic two months later. The track systems were then dismantled. A section almost three kilometers long was rebuilt by an association and opened as a museum railway in 2001 .

course

Aalen – Ebnat Alb ascent

The route began with the Aalen passenger station. It was on the side of Aalen station opposite the station building , the junction of the Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt-Nördlingen railway with the Brenz Railway to Ulm. Today there is a parking lot here at the eastern exit of the Hirschbach underpass, which was built with the construction of the Härtsfeldbahn.

Former building of the Aalen freight yard

A section with a three-rail track began with the confluence of a standard-gauge transfer track . On the standard gauge rail freight cars were exchanged between the standard gauge network and the freight station 800 meters behind the passenger station. There were facilities for loading the standard gauge wagons onto roller stands , so-called roller stand pits. Passenger trains also stopped at the freight yard, and there was a separate locomotive shed here with a water tower .

Viaduct at Unterkochen

The line that ran parallel to the Brenzbahn up to this point rose from the Kocher valley . To overcome the difference in altitude to the Unterkochen train station , the train used a loop in the Himmlinger Tal with a radius of 80 m and then climbed along the slope to the Unterkochen train station. After 4.5 km, the train then reached the Unterkochen station, which had only one siding. Behind the Unterkochen train station, the train climbed further along the slope, here was the well-known Alb ascent . With a radius of 80 m, a side valley of the White Kocher was crossed on the largest engineering structure of the Härtsfeldbahn, the Unterkochen Viaduct . Shortly before the Waldhausen -Glashütte station, the train passed through the 96-meter-long Kocherburg tunnel (also known as the Wallenhau tunnel). This was walled up and serves as a shelter for bats (bat protection in the Ostalb region). The “Schättereweg” on the route leads to the tunnel, which has been designated as a natural monument under the name Härtsfeldbahn tunnel .

The Waldhausen-Glashütte station consisted of a continuous main line, a siding and a stump track with a buffer stop. Behind Waldhausen-Glashütte, the route continued through the forest and described two 180 ° bends to cope with the difference in altitude to Ebnat . In the forest in front of Ebnat there was still the Höllhau timber loading point, here there are still remains of sleepers and, above all, gravel. The course of the route can still be clearly traced to the edge of the forest; in the open field to Ebnat, the course of the route is no longer recognizable due to the land consolidation after the closure.

Ebnat was reached at kilometer 12.4, here there was also a siding and a head loading track. Nowadays, a loading shed can still be seen on the former railway site, which is located on the northern edge of the village south of the thoroughfare and is used for residential purposes.

Härtsfeld plateau Ebnat – Neresheim

In the further course after the Ebnat train station, the railway ran through the town in a straight line, now occupied by new houses, and then swung in an easterly direction on the outskirts to Elchingen . From the outskirts of the town, the route is no longer recognizable due to land consolidation. Behind the A 7 motorway , which was only built at this point after the railway was closed, the route went in a south-easterly direction through the forest, there is a long aisle here. After a while the embankment is recognizable again and the Brünstholz timber loading point has been reached at km 16.0.

Behind Brünstholz the dam has been preserved for a while, after which the route to the Elchingen airfield is missing again due to land consolidation . To the north of the airfield in the area of ​​the "Ins Bärenloh" industrial park was the Elchingen train station. From there the route then led in an easterly direction again in the direction of a piece of forest that was relatively straight through. At the exit of the forest, the route entered the Dossinger Valley, where the course is clearly recognizable again through vegetation on the former route. There are still three asphalt field path crossings in which the rails are present.

To the southwest of the town of Dossingen there is a cut in which the Dossingen stop was at km 24.1. After this cut, the route led along several fields through the Dossinger Valley, still recognizable on aerial photos through the field margins. Shortly before Neresheim, the valley turns south; Here was a dam with a bridge over the road, which is now slightly offset, the dam has been removed. Along the slope there was a mountain to the south, before the railway line swung east again. The dam ran above today's Härtsfeldcenter, and a street was crossed above the Seelig & Co. site. In the 1960s, the Neresheim West stop was planned here; requests for passengers in the then new development area above the railway line were already being held here at the level crossing. The embankment through the place is still largely preserved; however, it is now part of land and partly built on. There was a level crossing on the B 466 to Nördlingen , then it went over the site of a car repair shop to a dam at the BAG (warehouse of a rural cooperative, demolished in 2006, now rebuilt by the Samaritan monastery) to Neresheim station.

The Neresheim train station is at route kilometers 28.1 and thus roughly in the middle of the route between Aalen and Dillingen. It was referred to as the Central Station because the railway administration was located there. The two tracks 1 and 2 with their platforms were located directly in front of the reception building, where the access to the station square is today. There was coal on a still preserved woodshed; There were also water cranes on the platforms. The woodshed used by the association used to be a workshop, but there was no track. In the southern part of the station there were tracks for loading goods, and a head track led to the goods shed at the station building. The two-tier engine shed with a water tower was located in the eastern part of the station, and a workshop with a track in a building to the north of it. There was a siding between the engine shed and the workshop; today the main line of the Härtsfeld museum railway runs through this. In addition to the workshop, the building of the track construction fleet was still to be found, which still fulfills its function. The main line of the Härtsfeldbahn led southwest of the locomotive shed straight on to the monastery field. To the south of the main line there was still a scrap dealer who also scrapped Härtsfeldbahn vehicles.

Egautal and Danube lowlands Neresheim – Dillingen

The railway embankment leads in a long straight across the monastery field. When there is a group of trees on the L 2033, the tram swings in a little, then crosses the road with a level crossing and continues to descend in the direction of Egau. At the former stone mill there is still a stopping point where people used to stop at the level crossing if necessary. The route continues along the Egau , only to cross it at km 30.0 with the help of a steel bridge. After the bridge there is an arch and then a long straight. From 1905 to 1965 the most important freight transport customer of the Härtsfeldbahn, the Härtsfeldwerke Neresheim, was located here. The station had several tracks for train crossings and for loading wagons. In the quarries there were several field railways, some of which led around the whole mountain and whose route can be seen from a distance from the Steinmühle stop.

T 33 at the Härtsfeldwerke

800 m behind the Härtsfeldwerke station is today's Sägmühle station at km 30.9, formerly a timber loading point and the current terminus of the Härtsfeld museum railway. After the train station, the route follows the edge of the forest in the direction of Iggenhausen , at Iggenhausen it then goes to a rock formation with a radius of 100 m to the Iggenhausen stop at km 32.4. After the breakpoint, the route first leads along the slope and then changes over a higher dam, in the course of which there is a bridge over the Egau and a flood bridge, the valley side and reaches Katzenstein train station at km 33.6 . This is to be the new, provisional end point of the Härtsfeld museum railway after the current construction. The artificially created Härtsfeldsee , which serves as a flood retention basin, has been located directly at Katzenstein train station since 1970 .

After the Katzenstein train station, which consisted of a siding track and a head track with a loading ramp, the route described a 90 ° curve to turn in the direction of Dischingen . The embankment then ran largely straight to Dischingen, roughly in the position of today's L 2033. This was then crossed with a level crossing before Dischingen. The Dischingen train station at km 35.9 also consisted of a siding track and a stump track with a head loading ramp; the last originally preserved station building from the time of the Württembergische Nebenbahnen AG is still located here. The Härtsfeld-Museumsbahn e. V. owns the building and has been renovating it step by step since the acquisition; later Dischingen will be the end point of the Härtsfeld museum railway.

The railway line led from Dischingen train station in a southerly direction towards Dillingen, the route slowly descended into the valley and then ran along the valley floor in a south-easterly direction to Ballmertshofen. Today a bike path runs along the route. Ballmertshofen station was reached at km 38.9. By April 3, 1906, it formed the end point of the line from Aalen and was the central station of the Härtsfeldbahn. With the opening of the section to Dillingen, the workshop was dismantled and rebuilt in Neresheim next to the engine shed.

The route continued through the Egau valley across the Bavarian border to Reistingen , which was reached at km 40.9. The route then described an arc in a southerly direction and reached Ziertheim at km 42.4 . After another 4.2 km in a southerly direction in the valley, the train then reached Wittislingen , where there was a loading point for a quarry at the station. The route reached the Danube valley , at km 48.2 the Zöschlingsweiler stop was reached, at Lauingen the railway then swung in an easterly direction to get to Dillingen parallel to the Ingolstadt – Neuoffingen railway line . At km 51.9 the Lauingen station was located , at km 54.1 the Hausen station was reached, and at km 55.5 the Härtsfeldbahn reached its end point in Dillingen (Danube). Here again there were roller stands for loading standard-gauge freight wagons onto roller stands for transport to the Härtsfeld, passengers could change in Dillingen to standard-gauge trains in the direction of Ulm and Donauwörth . The buildings in Dillingen are still partially preserved.

history

Preparatory work and construction

The Härtsfeld was the end of the 19th century off several railway lines as main railways in Württemberg and Bavaria had arisen. Economically, the Härtsfeld was oriented towards Aalen at that time, but there was no industry, forestry and agriculture dominated. At the end of the 1880s, a railway committee was therefore formed in Neresheim with the aim of building a railway line from there to Härtsfeld in order to counteract the lack of economic prospects. On his behalf, the Stuttgart professor Sapper prepared a “memorandum on a narrow-gauge railway (75 cm wide) from Aalen via Neresheim to Dischingen aE or from Unterkochen via Neresheim to Dischingen by 1892. The 2nd line is to be partly built as a cogwheel railway. ”In addition to a justification for the necessity of a railway line, route variants and profitability calculations were already included. It formed the basis for a petition to the Württemberg Foreign Ministry in November 1892 and a petition to the Württemberg state parliament in February 1893. The Royal Württemberg State Railways , which investigated the project further, opposed it for economic reasons. They expected higher construction and operating costs and lower income and saw an annual deficit of 45,000 marks compared to Sapper, who forecast income of 21,000 marks per year. A second petition, which was submitted in 1895, emphasized the aspect of the economic emergency on the Härtsfeld. However, it was not until 1897 before further steps were taken in the state parliament. From then on, he considered the possibilities of private railways. At that time, a further project for a Härtsfeldbahn from Heidenheim an der Brenz to Neresheim and Dischingen emerged, which was rejected by the Härtsfeldern, however, as this was only seen as an attempt by Heidenheim industry to get cheap labor and no economic support for the Härtsfeld .

The Neresheim Railway Committee was skeptical of the private railway plans after a negative answer to a request to the Münchner Lokalbahn Aktiengesellschaft . The profit prospects were rated as too low and the state's commitment was required. Nonetheless, in July 1898 contact was made with the West German Railway Company in Cologne, which in its own investigation only awarded the possibility of a small profit to a railway line Aalen – Neresheim – Dischingen without a rack section . She promised herself this through “brisk passenger traffic”, which is why she wanted to run the train in meter gauge. For the first time it was considered to run to Ballmertshofen and later even to Dillingen . In return for a construction subsidy of 900,000 marks and a free and unencumbered transfer of land, the company agreed to build the line. A few days after the deadline originally set by the company, the state parliament approved the project and provided 250,000 marks as the first grant installment; the state contribution should total 840,000 marks with the planned total project costs of 2.1 million marks.

The direct preparatory work for the route began in September 1899 when the construction office was opened in Aalen. The Land Acquisition Commission began its work in April 1900 to negotiate the 537 necessary purchase contracts, 16 of which were concluded by means of expropriation. The concession to operate the line was granted in July 1900 to Württembergische local railways AG, a subsidiary of Badische Lokal-Eisenbahnen AG, which in turn was a subsidiary of the West German railway company .

In July 1901 the Landtag approved the second installment of 590,000 marks. Without the land purchase, the project costs were 2,746,000 marks. The plan was to have a minimum radius of 80 meters and a maximum gradient of 28 per thousand; a viaduct and a tunnel were added to the engineering structures. 38.94 km of track should be built in 15 months.

On May 26, 1901, the first construction work began in Neresheim. Up to 700 people, in addition to local workers, also 300 Italians and Austrians, were involved in the construction of the line, which was pursued with great vigor by the West German Railway Company . On July 18, 1900, the foundation work for the Unterkochen viaduct began, in August work began on the Wallenhau tunnel, ten months later the viaduct and tunnel were completed. By July 1901, the earthworks were completed for the route, in May and June which was already with 100 truckloads of construction material arrived in Aalen. At the beginning of July, three construction locomotives with wagons arrived and work could begin. At the end of the month, the track had already been laid as far as Ebnat, and the end of the line in Ballmertshofen was reached on September 20, which corresponds to a daily performance of 700 meters. This was followed by the equipment of the route with signal boards and telegraph lines , and all buildings were in place by mid-October. The rolling stock was delivered in September and October . The planned construction time of 15 months could be adhered to, arithmetically the construction of one kilometer took eleven days, a construction pace previously unknown. The final bill came at a cost of 2.5 million marks, and another 300,000 marks were due for the operating resources. After deducting the subsidies, the West German Railway Company had to invest 1.5 million marks.

Opening and initial operation

The opening ceremonies began on October 29, 1901, and regular train operations began on October 31. Four locomotives were intended for the operation of the Härtsfeldbahn, three of which were available for commissioning. The plan was to use heavy mallets , all of which were only available from 1903. The line was operated from the ends in Aalen and Ballmertshofen , where there was a locomotive shed with space for two locomotives. In Aalen Härtsfeldgüterbahnhof there was also a railway administration and workshop, the Härtsfeld passenger station could only be approached after the end of the renovation work on the Aalen station and the inauguration of the Hirschbach underpass under the station. The first timetable showed three pairs of trains that ran the entire route.

At the time, there were no major freight customers on the Härtsfeld, which prompted the General Director of the West German Railway Company, Johannes Mühlen, to found the Härtsfeldwerke Neresheim. This lime works was located in the Egautal behind Neresheim in the direction of Dischingen and received an extensive work station with 11 switches and a track length of more than 1,000 meters.

Further construction to Dillingen

A continuation of the line to the Bavarian town of Dillingen on the Danube was already planned in the original plans of the West German Railway Company . In 1903 the dispute between the cities of Lauingen and Dillingen about the end of the route was settled so that more detailed planning could begin. The route was already laid out in March 1904 and should go into construction after the harvest season, delays in the state treaty between Württemberg and Bavaria, however, caused the start of construction to be postponed to April 1905. Another delay was due to the pending approval of the Reich Railway Office in Berlin , which was only available on May 25, 1905. The West German Railway Company received a grant of 300,000 marks from the Bavarian government for the 15 km route. 300 to 400 workers were busy on the line at high pressure, but the planned start-up in December 1905 could not be achieved. The first test drive took place on December 10th. The official acceptance took place on March 24, 1906, and the line was finally opened on April 3.

Operation from 1906 to 1953

The new section of the route gave Neresheim a locomotive shed. The operating concept for 1906 and 1907 continued to regard the Aalen – Ballmertshofen section as independent and the Neresheim – Dillingen section was also served. Weaker engines were sufficient for the more favorable topography, so that two box locomotives came from the Filderbahn . In 1909 the C-coupler “ Echterdingen ” came to Neresheim. When the timetable changed in 1907/08, the center of operations was completely relocated to Neresheim, the Ballmertshofer locomotive shed was demolished, and parts of it were used in the new workshop building in Neresheim. The workshop was now here and in 1908 the railway administration moved.

Another innovation with the opening of the Bavarian section was the introduction of the roller-jack operation , which was already included in the concession for the Aalen – Ballmertshofen section, but could not be carried out for the Aalen – Höllhau section due to the insufficiently robust braking systems. The use of railroad freight cars has since decreased significantly.

In the early years up to the First World War, the earnings of the railway, which in 1903 were 21,225 marks, in 1907, 14,237 marks, were encouraging. Around 200,000 people and 40,000 to 50,000 tons of goods were transported each year.

Train of the Härtsfeld Museum Railway exiting the Neresheim station with locomotive 12 at the head

As a replacement for the former box locomotives and to rationalize operations, the Württembergische Nebenbahnen AG, which had taken over operations on the Härtsfeldbahn on January 1, 1910 after several business changes in the private railway sector, procured two superheated steam tender locomotives with the numbers 11 and 12 from the Esslingen machine factory. These machines, known as “small locomotives”, were approved for one-man operation and proved to be extremely economical and efficient. Originally intended for the Neresheim – Dillingen section, they were also used on the Aalen – Neresheim section during the First World War , when numerous employees were drafted into the military. Towards the end of the First World War, the Mallet locomotives were only used for special freight trains, locomotive 3 also had to be handed in for war missions and did not return. Despite bad coal and a lack of locomotives and staff in 1919, the Härtsfeldbahn set new records for people (380,000 passengers) and goods (60,000 tons) that year. The number of passenger traffic then fell again, and freight traffic reached a new peak in 1922 at 73,000 tons. As a replacement for locomotive 3, the Württembergische Nebenbahnen AG procured an army field railway locomotive of the type HK 91 from Krauss in Munich in 1919, which was available as locomotive 5 from 1920.

From 1921 the desolate superstructure was renovated, which had a negative impact on the result. Declining passenger numbers and freight volumes and the global economic crisis from 1929 made the railway administration to create, 1931 the loss was 81,000 marks, which is why the company wanted to shut down the railway line in 1932 . Only an emergency aid of 36,000 Marks organized by the states of Bavaria and Württemberg and various municipalities ensured continued operation, and an emergency schedule was also introduced. From that year onwards, increasing freight volumes from the Härtsfeldwerke ensured a better result.

During the Second World War , the number of passengers carried reached a new record of 587,000 people in 1944, and the amount of freight carried from 1937 to 1944 was around 70,000 tons. Two air raids on trains in 1945 killed 16 people, several cars were damaged and three locomotives were no longer operational, locomotives 5 and 11 were still available. On April 20, the traffic was finally completely stopped, after the normalization of the situation, trains ran again from June 13.

As after the First World War, the economic situation of the railway was increasingly worse due to expenses for the repair of the superstructure, and reserves were also lost due to the currency changeover. In the summer of 1952, shortly before Neresheim, there was a head-on collision between two trains on the single-track line. From 1948 the railway had only recorded losses, on June 12, 1953 it was finally to be shut down . With the help of a provisional monthly grant from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance of 15,000 to 20,000 marks, operations could be continued.

Modernization and decommissioning

In the second half of 1953, under the direction of the Stuttgart traffic scientist Carl Pirath , a report was drawn up which demonstrated the economic importance of branch lines using the example of the Härtsfeldbahn and outlined the consequences of a closure for the region. It came to the conclusion that with a rationalization of the operation, supported by the state, a greater benefit could be achieved than with an expensive expansion of the road network. In 1954, the state of Baden-Württemberg approved financial aid of 950,000 marks for the renovation of the superstructure and the procurement of new traction vehicles. The Free State of Bavaria participated. The Württembergische branch lines AG ordered then in WAGGONFABRIK FUCHS in Heidelberg two 600 hp towing railcar (T 30 and 31), which were provided with Normalspurzug- and buffing gear for the transport dolly. In addition, two railcars of the disused Kleinbahn Bremen – Tarmstedt (T 32 and 33) were acquired second-hand .

For the summer schedule of 1956, it was possible to start operations with the three railcars 30, 31 and 32, which were accelerated to 40 km / h, the steam locomotives 5, 11 and 12 remained in place as a cold reserve. Two passenger cars were modernized into a railcar trailer with a new body. Thanks to an expanded timetable, the number of passengers rose to up to 367,000 people (1957), but then fell permanently and steadily. In 1963, the range of trains was adapted to this fact. The closure of the Härtsfeldwerke in 1965 caused a significant decrease in the volume of goods transported.

A serious accident on May 1, 1964 with the two railcars 30 and 31 near Katzenstein once again brought about the return of the steam reserve. The railcar 33, which is currently being modernized, was completed faster. The MAN T 37 railcar, originally used by the Württembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft for the Amstetten – Laichingen route, from the Walkenried – Braunlage / Tanne narrow-gauge railway, which was shut down in 1963, came to the rescue.

From the 1950s onwards, the Härtsfeldbahn was a test route for several vehicle manufacturers, on which meter-gauge vehicles to be delivered abroad were occasionally tested. It started in 1954 with a diesel locomotive for Brazil from the Jung locomotive factory , which is available as a museum vehicle in Neresheim. Furthermore, a locomotive from the Krupp company for Burma , railcars for the Greek Peloponnese railways from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen and Ferrostaal railcars for Indonesia were tested.

In 1966, the closure of the Neresheim abbey church due to dilapidation resulted in a further drop in passenger numbers, especially in Sunday traffic. From 1967 the districts of Aalen, Heidenheim and Dillingen as well as the city of Dillingen paid an annual subsidy of 50,000 to 100,000 marks to compensate for the deficit. The number of passengers in 1971 was 114,172, with Württembergische Nebenbahnen GmbH itself operating parallel bus services and no longer offering a pair of trains between Neresheim and Aalen on weekdays. The refusal of the district of Heidenheim at the end of 1971 to pay further subsidies led to an application for closure by the operating company on April 25, 1972. She justified this with an existence-threatening deficit of around 150,000 marks, which she expected for 1972. As in 1954, a great discussion ensued and again an expert opinion was drawn up, this time from a purely economic point of view, which approved the application for decommissioning. Preservation as a museum and tourist railway was desired, but did not materialize. The passenger traffic ended on September 30th, the goods traffic for the farms had to be continued until November 30th. The dismantling of the line began in 1973 and dragged on until 1976, with most vehicles being transported to the Amstetten – Laichingen line.

Museum train

Association, reconstruction and operation

In 1985 the association “Härtsfeld-Museumsbahn e. V. ”with the aim of reactivating the Härtsfeldbahn on the Neresheim – Dischingen section as a museum railway . The originally planned reconstruction of the Alb ascent at Unterkochen had to be discarded. Starting in Neresheim, the association has been rebuilding the 2.865 km long section Centralstation Neresheim – Bahnhof Sägmühle since 1996. The opening took place on October 20, 2001, shortly before the centenary of the opening.

Since May 1, 2002, steam locomotive-hauled trains and diesel multiple units have been running in the summer months. Driving days are always on the first Sunday of the month from May to October, additional dates are the start of the season on May 1st, as well as the "day of the open engine shed door" on Ascension Day, Pentecost Sunday and Monday, Corpus Christi, the Neresheim city festival (last Sunday in June), the “Neresheimer Bahnhofshocketse” on the second weekend in August and the “ Open Monument Day ” in September. On the 2nd Advent, St. Nicholas trips are now offered. In addition, special trips with steam locomotives or railcars can be booked at any time. 16 days of operation were scheduled for 2019.

Clearing work for the purpose of extending the route from Sägmühle station to Katzenstein

An extension of the museum railway to the Härtsfeldsee has been under construction since September 2007 and is intended to almost double the current route length. The provisional terminus will then be the Katzenstein station at km 5.6, which is located directly on the banks of the Härtfeldsee. The opening is planned for September 18, 2020.

The investments in the museum railway in 2008 amounted to almost half a million euros. Financing is provided through grant programs, the association, donations and symbolic sales of track meters. The station buildings of Neresheim and Dischingen were renovated inside and outside in accordance with monument protection. The station building of Neresheim houses a museum and an archive, both of which deal with the route. The 42 meter long and 10 meter wide locomotive shed was reactivated and is used for museum railroad operations. A themed trail with information boards was set up between Neresheim and Dischingen. The track construction company Leonhard Weiss and the locomotive manufacturer Voith deploy apprentices as part of their training to rebuild the line or to recondition historical traction vehicles. The “holistic museum approach” of the Härtsfeld Museum Railway was praised as a “prime example” by the specialist press.

Vehicle fleet

Operational vehicles:

• Locomotive 12 ( Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 1913, No. 3711, in use by the Härtsfeldbahn until 1963, then climbing toys in Heidenheim, 1986 HMB, operational since 1994)
• T 33 ( Wismar wagon factory , type Frankfurt , 1934 to Kleinbahn Bremen – Tarmstedt , 1956 to Württembergische Nebenbahnen AG (Härtsfeldbahn), 1961–1964 new construction by Auwärter , 1973 to WEG Amstetten – Laichingen, 1985 HMB Neresheim)
• Passenger car HMB 1 ( Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 1896, " Zacke " of the Filderbahn-Gesellschaft (called WN from 1906), 1920 SSB, later no. 117, parked in 1982, 1992 HMB, refurbishment 1994-2001, in use since 2001)
• HMB 5 passenger car ( Herbrand wagon factory , Cologne, 1909, to the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft for the route to Käfertal, OEG , 1967 to DGEG , 2000 to HMB, refurbishment 2000-2006, in use since 2006)

T 33 when moving in the saw mill, in the background TA 101

• Passenger car HMB 7 ( Schweizerische Industriegesellschaft , Neuhausen, 1888, to Brünigbahn , 1949 from SBB to WEG Amstetten-Laichingen, 1978 DGEG, 1998 loan to HMB, refurbishment until 2001, in use since 2001)
• Baggage car Gw 153 ( Waggonfabrik Kelsterbach 1901, ex WEG Amstetten-Laichingen, in use since 2001)
• Gw 155 buffer car (Waggonfabrik Kelsterbach 1901, ex WEG Amstetten-Laichingen, in use since 2008)
• Ow 301 low side car (Waggonfabrik Kelsterbach 1901, ex WEG Amstetten – Laichingen, in use since 1998, e.g. for route construction and bicycle transport)
• Ow 303 low side car (Waggonfabrik Kelsterbach 1901, ex WEG Amstetten – Laichingen, in use since 2004)
• Railcar trailer TA 101 (1954–1956 new structure from Auwärter based on the old Herbrand C4i No. 1 of the Härtsfeldbahn, 1973 to WEG Amstetten – Laichingen, 1986 to HMB, 1999–2004 refurbishment, in use since 2004)

Locomotive 12 with a special train

Other existing, non-operational standard vehicles :

• Locomotive 11 ( Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 1913, No. 3710, in service with the Härtsfeldbahn until 1963, then a memorial in Neresheim, 2010 HMB, since then in refurbishment)
• D4 (Jumbo) ( Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik 1954, 12022, test drives 1954 on the Härtsfeldbahn, cement works in Finland, 1972 Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn , 2005 HMB, since then in refurbishment)
• T 37 ( MAN 1960, VT 14 of the Südharz-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , 1964 to Härtsfeldbahn, 1973 to WEG Amstetten-Laichingen, 1987 HMB, in preparation)
• Railcar trailer TA 103 (1954–1956 new structure from Auwärter based on the old Herbrand C4i No. 3 of the Härtsfeldbahn, 1973 to WEG Amstetten-Laichingen)
• Railcar trailer TA 253/254 (1962 new structure by Auwärter based on the old SIG C3 No. 11/12 of the Härtsfeldbahn, 1973 to WEG Amstetten – Laichingen (no operations), 1976 to Inselbahn Langeoog, narrowing of the car body, 1998 to the Jan Klein small railway museum eV, 2002 to HMB, TA 254 operational reconditioning since 2010)
• HMB 2 passenger car ( Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 1896, " Zacke " of the Filderbahn-Gesellschaft (called WN from 1906), 1920 SSB, later no. 116, parked in 1982, 2000 HMB)
• HMB 4 passenger car ( Maschinenfabrik Esslingen 1896, " Zacke " of the Filderbahn-Gesellschaft (called WN from 1906), 1920 SSB, later no. 119, 1978 to the Hanover Tram Museum, 2009 HMB)
• Passenger car HMB 6 ( Swiss Industrial Company , Neuhausen, 1889, to Brünigbahn , 1949 from SBB to WEG Amstetten – Laichingen, 1986 HMB)
• Auxiliary parcel truck PW 154 (Kelsterbach wagon factory 1901, ex WEG Amstetten-Laichingen)
• Freight car Gw 156 (Waggonfabrik Kelsterbach 1901, ex WEG Amstetten – Laichingen)
• Rw 322 stake car ( Herbrand wagon factory , Cologne, 1899, monument in Neresheim, operational refurbishment since 2008)

The locomotive 11 is one of the few listed building locomotives in Germany. It is currently being worked on in order to restore its driving readiness. In spring 2011, the work on the frame was completed with a new paint job, and the work continued on the boiler and the driver's cab.

literature

• Kurt Seidel: The Härtsfeldbahn Aalen – Neresheim – Dillingen . Horst-Werner Dumjahn Verlag, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-921426-12-X (1st edition: Brücke zum Härtsfeld, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1962).
• Andreas M. Räntzsch: The Härtsfeldbahn then and now . Verlag Wolfgang Bleiweis, Schweinfurt 2001, ISBN 3-928786-84-9 (1st edition: Schmalspurig über's Härtsfeld, Schweinfurt 1993).
• Marcus Benz: The Härtsfeld Museum Railway is under steam again! In: Railway courier . No. 263 / Volume 28/1994. EK-Verlag GmbH, ISSN  0170-5288 , pp. 34-36.
• Volker Wollny: The Härtsfeld Museum Railway. A railway for a poor area . In: Railway courier . No. 322 / Volume 33/1999. EK-Verlag GmbH, ISSN  0170-5288 , pp. 66-69.
• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 214-218 .

Movie and TV

• SWR: Das Härtsfeld - [1] (first broadcast June 9, 2009)
• SWR: Eisenbahn-Romantik - Ortloffs Ferientipps (episode 609) Contribution to magazine broadcast
• SWR: Railway romance - 100 years of the Härtsfeldbahn (episode 432)
• SWR: Eisenbahn-Romantik - Härtsfeld-Museumsbahn (episode 917) (First broadcast: November 25, 2017)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/i4002.html
2. ↑ Ernst Kern : Seeing - Thinking - Acting of a surgeon in the 20th century. ecomed, Landsberg am Lech 2000, ISBN 3-609-20149-5 , p. 181.
3. ^ Website of the Härtsfeld Museum Railway Association
4. ↑ Flyer Timetable 2019, accessed on November 10, 2019
5. ↑ Heidenheimer Zeitung of October 29, 2019, accessed on November 10, 2019
6. ^ ^{A b} Editing of the LOK Report: Germany / Museum Operation . In: LOK Report August 2009, pp. 31–34.

Web links

Commons : Härtsfeldbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Härtsfeld Museum Railway
• Timetable from the course book from 1944 as a picture
• Route of the Härtsfeldbahn as a relation on Openstreetmap.org
• Information about the viaduct (PDF file; 378 kB)
• Forgotten paths
• Representation of the museum railway line on the OpenRailwayMap