Narrow gauge railway Wilsdruff – Gärtitz

Wilsdruff-Döbeln-Gärtitz

Section of the route map of Saxony 1915

Route number (DB) :

6979; sä. Flat share

Route length:

51.857 km

Gauge :

750 mm ( narrow gauge )

Maximum slope :

35 ‰

Minimum radius :

80 m

Top speed:

30 km / h

Legend

	from Freital-Potschappel
0.000	Wilsdruff	271 m
0.140	Saubachtal bridge
0.400	Saubachtal fork point
	to Nossen
0.878	Wilsdruff Hp	278 m
3.801	Clip houses	263 m
6,962	Ullendorf - Röhrsdorf	263 m
8,437	Taubenheim (b Meißen)	245 m
10,870	Small Triebisch (26 m)
10,970	Polenz	178 m
11.859	Small Triebisch (23 m)
12,164	Price kermühle	164 m
13,152	Small Triebisch (33 m)

13,362 17,556	Garsebach	147 m
13.860	Triebisch (26 m)
14.160	Triebisch (25 m)
15.241	Triebisch (69 m)
15.804	Triebisch (31 m)
15,440	Meißen bush bath
16,905	Meissen Jasper Street	114 m
17,556	Meissen Triebischtal	110 m
	(Connection to main line Borsdorf – Coswig )

17.667	Small Triebisch (18 m)
18.080	Viaduct Garsebach ( Borsdorf – Coswig )
20,543	Löthain	200 m
22,481	Görna - Krögis	180 m
23.851	Mauna	170 m
25.759	Käbschützer Bach (15 m)
26.094	Leutewitz	155 m
	First quarry
27.814	Käbschütz	138 m
28.233	Käbschützer Bach (38 m)
28.668	Käbschützer Bach (15 m)
30.060	Käbschützer Bach (17 m)
30.559	Zöthain	127 m
30.644	Ketzerbach (22 m)

33.230	Lommatzsch	158 m
	(Connection of the Riesa – Nossen railway line )
31.241 33.230	Mertitz fork point	130 m

33.828	Ldst Mertitz village	130 m
35,450	Ketzerbach (39 m)
35.714	Madness	142 m
	Riesa-Nossen
37.479	Leuben-Schleinitz	157 m
39.624	Lossen (b Lommatzsch)	175 m
41.819	Beicha	200 m
43.209	Kleinmockritz	220 m
45.654	Mochau	200 m
47.645	Simselwitz	200 m
50.700	Chemnitz-Riesa
	from Oschatz
51.857	Döbeln- Gärtitz formerly Gärtitz	175 m
	(Connection to main line Riesa – Chemnitz )
	to Döbeln Hbf

The narrow-gauge railway Wilsdruff-Gärtitz was a Saxon narrow-gauge railway . It ran from Wilsdruff via Meißen and Lommatzsch to Gärtitz near Döbeln . The line was closed between 1966 and 1972.

history

Garsebach train station around 1910

Opening dates:

Wilsdruff – Meißen-Triebischtal: October 1st, 1909
Garsebach – Löthain: October 1, 1909
Löthain – Lommatzsch: December 1, 1909
Mertitz Gabelstelle – Gärtitz: November 27, 1911

Accidents

At the Garsebach Viaduct, also known as the Robschützer Viaduct, two serious railway accidents occurred. In both cases, a freight train fell from the viaduct due to excessive speed. Both accidents were triggered by icing of the lever brake , which was still in use on this route at the time , which prevented the brake line from being actuated and thus made it impossible to brake the trains in good time on the downhill slope. The first accident on January 7, 1949 resulted in four deaths, and the second on December 25, 1962, resulted in one death. As a consequence, this type of braking was banned on the Meißen-Triebischtal-Lommatzsch section after the second accident, from then on only vehicles with a suction air brake system were allowed .

Shutdown

Bridge over the Kleine Triebisch near Polenz

On the basis of economic studies carried out in 1964, the former WG route was also planned to be closed soon. Due to the heavy goods traffic in sections, this project could only be realized piece by piece. The main interest of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was to shut down the bridge-rich section between Meißen and Löthain as soon as possible.

At the end of 1965, through freight trains ran for the last time during the beet campaign to the sugar factory in Döbeln. On May 21, 1966 the passenger train service between Meißen-Triebischtal and Löthain or Wilsdruff was stopped. These sections were officially shut down only two months later, on August 1, 1966. The Ullendorf-Röhrsdorf station was still served by freight traffic from Wilsdruff until 1969.

Next, the section between Lommatzsch and Döbeln lost train traffic. On May 31, 1969, the passenger and freight traffic on the Kleinmockritz – Döbeln-Gärtitz section was set, on the Mertitz Gabelstelle – Kleinmockritz section on January 4, 1970. The reason for the cessation of traffic there was the construction of today's federal motorway in 1970 14 in the area of the narrow-gauge route.

The Löthain – Lommatzsch section was the last to remain in operation for all traffic until October 28, 1972. This route was important until the end for the removal of the china clay and clay mined in Löthain .

remains

Former Mertitz Gabelstelle train station

Remains of the large railway bridge in Garsebach, 2015

At Leuben-Schleinitz , the small railway crossed under the Riesa – Nossen railway line in the middle curve .

Many earlier reception buildings have been preserved along the route, most of them were given new uses and thus saved from demolition. In the former Löthain train station , an association built a small museum for the narrow-gauge railway Wilsdruff – Meißen – Lommatzsch – Döbeln, which shows the typical state of many stations during the last years of operation of the WG line.

Today there is a large heating plant on the former station premises in Meißen-Jaspisstraße. Until the beginning of the 1990s, remnants of the former stump track were visible on the platform in Meißen-Triebischtal station. One of the most remarkable testimonies of the former narrow-gauge railway are the remains of the large viaduct near Garsebach. The old bridge piers have been preserved there to this day, while the superstructures were removed in the 1970s. In the section near Leuben-Schleinitz , the crossing under the former Riesa – Nossen railway line still exists.

The waiting hall in Kleinmockritz was opened in 2015 by the Waldheimer Eisenbahnfreunde e. V. salvaged. It is to be rebuilt in the Rauschenthal station on the Waldheim – Kriebethal railway line .

From Klipphausen to the former Mertitz Gabelstelle train station , the Meißner 8 cycle path runs along the route. The rest of the way to Döbeln follows the Elbe-Mulde cycle path (Zehren – Döbeln) in sections .

Todays use

In 1984, the construction of the Wilsdruffer museum complex on the site of the former Wilsdruff Hp station began. The city of Wilsdruff acquired the area of the Wilsdruff train station in 2000 .

In 2007, the redesign of the depot as a railway museum began. Today a collection of railway vehicles and objects from the railway operations in the Wilsdruffer network can be seen on the area of three tracks. In addition, the history of the Saxon narrow-gauge railways and the Wilsdruffer network is presented.

In the immediate vicinity of the train station is the Saubach Valley Viaduct , which has been preserved at least over its largest extension. Only the area across Parkstrasse was partially removed.

Today, most of the former route can be used as a cycle or hiking trail. The entire sections from Nossen to Wilsdruff and from Kesselsdorf to Freital-Potschappel are accessible by bike. Some sections, like a large part of the former waiting halls, were completely removed and returned to agricultural use.

Vehicle use

Photo at the beginning of the redesign of the Wilsdruff depot in 1993

The more powerful IV K class (99.51-60 series) was used on the line from the start. Between Wilsdruff and Meißen, the powerful class VI K (class 99.64-71) was used in front of all trains from the 1920s . Only in special cases - such as during the beet campaign - did these locomotives come to Lommatzsch.

Goods traffic was initially handled primarily with narrow-gauge freight wagons. Rolling vehicle traffic was also introduced later . The cars used corresponded to the general Saxon building and procurement regulations for the narrow-gauge railways and could therefore be freely exchanged with vehicles on other Saxon narrow-gauge lines.

literature

Wolfram Wagner, Peter Wunderwald: The narrow-gauge railway Wilsdruff - Meißen Triebischtal and the large army field railway exercise in Meißner Land 1909 , Wunderwald Bahnbücher, Wilsdruff 2019.

Ludger Kenning: Narrow-gauge railways around Mügeln and Wilsdruff . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 2000, ISBN 3-933613-29-9 .

Wolfram Wagner: Narrow lanes through the Meißner Land . German Model Railway Association of the GDR, District Board Dresden, 1987.

Erich Preuss, Reiner Preuss: Narrow gauge railways in Saxony . transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-613-71079-X .

Gustav W. Ledig, Johann Ferdinand Ulbricht: The narrow-gauge state railways in the kingdom of Saxony . 2nd increased and improved edition. Engelmann, Leipzig 1895 (Reprint: Zentralantiquariat der DDR, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-7463-0070-3 ).

Joachim Braun: Mertitz fork point. A remarkable wedge station on the Saxon narrow-gauge network . Lok Magazin issue 2 1996 pp. 42–45.

Web links

Commons : Schmalspurbahn Wilsdruff – Gärtitz - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

[1] Information on www.rauschenthalbahn.de

[2] Website about the museum complex Wilsdruff Haltpunkt on the website of the IG Verkehrsgeschichte Wilsdruff e. V.

[3] Website about the museum of historical locomotive sheds in Wilsdruff on the website of IG Verkehrsgeschichte Wilsdruff e. V.