Hetzbach – Beerfelden railway line
| Hetzbach – Beerfelden | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 5.12 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 20 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Hetzbach – Beerfelden railway line (also known locally as Schellekattel ) was a non-federal branch line in Hesse . It ran from Hetzbach to Beerfelden in the Odenwald . In a long S-curve, it connected the Hetzbach station of the Odenwaldbahn Darmstadt / Hanau - Eberbach with the small town of Beerfelden, 75 meters higher, with the two terminal stations only about 2.5 km apart as the crow flies.
Surname
The name “Schellekattel” comes from the operational peculiarity that numerous level crossings were crossed on the short stretch , which ran over two loops , so that the locomotive had to ring the signal bell for almost the entire route. A bell is called a “bell” in the Odenwald, a “kattel” is an old lady.
history
The single-track line was opened on May 1, 1904 by the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG). At the same time the previous station was Hetzbach-Beerfelden in Hetzbach renamed. On the basis of Article 95 of the Weimar Constitution , the law on the State Treaty on the Transfer of State Railways to the Reich of April 30, 1920, transferred railway supervision from the People's State of Hesse to the German Reich on August 1, 1922 , in fact from the Hessian Ministry of Finance to the Railway Directorate Mainz .
After the Second World War , the Hetzbach – Beerfeldener Bahn, like all other SEG branch line operations, sometimes caused high deficits after the currency reform. With the entry into force of the Hessian Constitution of 1946, the railways or overhead lines in Hesse were transferred to public ownership (nationalized), which also affected the two Hessian SEG lines Hetzbach-Beerfelden and the Gersprenztalbahn . Due to the unclear legal situation, the nationalization was initially not carried out, as the Essen headquarters of the SEG was not in the state of Hesse and the applicability of Article 41 of the Hessian constitution remained in dispute. It was not until June 6, 1952 that the Hessian State Court ruled that both railways had been awarded to the State of Hesse with retroactive effect from December 1, 1946. However, operational management remained with SEG on behalf of and for the account of the State of Hesse until the license expired. Since the SEG did not submit an application for an extension, public transport ended after the concession expired on May 31, 1954. The city of Beerfelden acquired the railway line as a siding and had the Deutsche Bundesbahn carry out freight transport. Since there was no maintenance of the route, it fell into disrepair. On June 23, 1964 there was a derailment , whereupon the line was closed and the connection contract with the Deutsche Bundesbahn was terminated. The route was then dismantled.
The traffic was always modest. There was always only one train on the route. 1-2 carriages were sufficient for passenger transport. The transport services almost consistently showed fewer than 50,000 travelers per year. With 8 pairs of trains per day, that was less than 10 passengers per train. The freight traffic took place with mixed trains , pure freight trains were not driven.
The last railway administrator at Beerfelden station was Max Kamprath (born March 20, 1901 Weißenfels , † September 4, 1986 Waldbrunn )
Locomotives
The following T-3 steam locomotives that were used on this route are known from photos:
No. 339 built in 1904, serial no. 6513 from Henschel. Scrapped in Endingen in 1955.
No. 342 built in 1905, serial no. 6843 from Henschel. Scrapped in 1967.
No. 347 built in 1885, serial no. 1921 by Henschel. Scrapped in Endingen in 1955.
The locomotives were serviced in the Gersprenz Valley Railway's workshop in Reichelsheim .
Source: The branch line Hetzbach - Beerfelden, railway history of the city on the mountains. Georg Dascher 1994.
traces
Today there is little to remind us of this train. Examples of this are the reception building in Beerfelden, the location of the level crossing on the B 45 (meanwhile removed as part of a construction project) and the railway embankment below this location. Remnants of the track can still be seen at the level crossing of the B 45, two more meters of the track still look out of the dirt road that is on the old route today. The lower part of the railway line is used as a cycle and field path. Dams, cuts, the moderate gradient and the large curve radii show that this is a former railway line. The route can also still be seen in the upper section between the former level crossing on the B45 and the connection to the sawmill. However, it is only partially used as a dirt road.
literature
- Gerd Wolff and Andreas Christopher: Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen , Volume 8 Hessen, Freiburg 2004, p. 16 f.
- Georg Dascher: The branch line Hetzbach – Beerfelden . Reinheim 1994.
- Topographic maps, own inspections of the former route.
Film and audio documents
There are privately owned film recordings (normal 8 black and white and color) of the farewell trip on May 31, 1954 and the operation before that. The Hessischer Rundfunk reported through its reporter Gottfried Hoster from the farewell trip in 1954 with a sound report in the program “Die Zeit im Funk”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
- ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of April 23, 1904, No. 21. Announcement No. 188, p. 300.
- ↑ RGBl. 1922, p. 773.
- ^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of August 19, 1922, No. 49. Announcement No. 919, p. 558.