Wieslauftalbahn

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Schorndorf – Welzheim
Route of the Wieslauftalbahn
Route number (DB) : 4751
Course book section (DB) : 790.21
Route length: 22.83 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class : B2
Maximum slope : 25  ‰
Minimum radius : 190 m
Top speed: 80 km / h
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt
Station, station
 0.000 Schorndorf 251  m
   
 to Nördlingen
Stop, stop
 0.600 Schorndorf-Hammerschlag (since 1995)
   
 Connection of the Württemberg porcelain manufactory
   
 1.700 Rems (35 m)
Station, station
 2,972 Haubersbronn 256  m
Stop, stop
 3.700 Haubersbronn Mitte (since 1995)
Station, station
 5,362 Miedelsbach - Steinenberg 264  m
Stop, stop
 7.517 Michelau (Württ) (formerly Bhf)
   
 8.500 Wieslauf
Station, station
 8,799 Schlechtbach 272  m
Station, station
 9,907 Rudersberg 278  m
Stop, stop
 10.600 Rudersberg North (since 1995)
Station, station
 11.400 Rudersberg-Oberndorf 289  m
   
 11.500 Infrastructure border ZVVB / Swabian Forest Railway
Bridge (small)
 11.900 State road 1080
   
 14.000 Igelsbach Viaduct (51 m)
Station without passenger traffic
 14.400 Klaffenbach - Althütte 356  m
   
 15.000 Strümpfelbach Viaduct (121 m)
Station, station
 16.900 Running mill 414  m
   
 18.000 Laufenmühle Viaduct (168 m)
Stop, stop
 20.300 Breitenfürst (since May 2010)
Station without passenger traffic
 20.500 Breitenfürst (until 1962) 493  m
Stop, stop
 22.100 Welzheim Tannwald (since May 2010) 508  m
End station - end of the line
 22.830 Welzheim 505  m
Swell:
Schorndorf station, starting point of the Wieslauftalbahn

The Wieslauftalbahn , also popularly known as the Wiesel , is a standard gauge branch line in Baden-Württemberg . The route begins in Schorndorf im Remstal , where it branches off the Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt-Nördlingen railway line, first runs in the Wieslauf valley to Rudersberg and then leads - with a maximum gradient of 25 per mille - up to Welzheim .

The Wieslauftalbahn is single-track and not electrified; however, it is only served between Schorndorf and Rudersberg-Oberndorf in the SPNV by the Württembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft (WEG) . In the Stuttgart Transport and Tariff Association (VVS), this route is run as the RB 61 regional train line. Operations on the rest of the section to Welzheim had been suspended since April 1988 as a result of a landslide , but the line was never formally closed. Since May 2007, a reactivation with the aim of a museum railway operation has been sought, which finally came to a successful conclusion on May 8, 2010 with the arrival of the first steam-driven tourist train in Welzheim.

Route

The railway line is located entirely in the Rems-Murr district and passes the communities of Schorndorf (from Schorndorf Bahnhof to Miedelsbach - Steinenberg ) in the open valley of the Wieslauf, Rudersberg (from Michelau to Klaffenbach - Althütte ) and Welzheim (from Laufenmühle to Welzheim). The lower section to Laufenmühle follows the eponymous river in the Welzheim forest . Above the former Breitenfürst train station , the line reaches its end point in Welzheim in an elongated S-curve.

  • Track side of Schorndorf station; the trains of the Wieslauftalbahn start from platform 5 (back left)

  • Schorndorf-Hammerschlag

  • Haubersbronn

  • Haubersbronn center

  • Miedelsbach-Steinenberg

  • Michelau

  • Schlechtbach

  • Rudersberg

  • Rudersberg North

  • Rudersberg-Oberndorf

history

Planning and construction

Efforts from Welzheim to develop the region from 1890 onwards were decisive for the construction of the line, as the economic situation was not very favorable due to the peripheral location of this city. The reason for this was essentially the unfavorable topography and the relatively sparse settlement of the Welzheimer forest, which did not allow good returns to be expected for a rail link. A connection that would branch off from the Remstalbahn in Schorndorf and, via Rudersberg, end in Welzheim was favored in the first place. If necessary, due to the topographical conditions, it should be designed as a rack railway . In addition, the planning was initially based on a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 750 mm, as this could have been built more cheaply with the existing terrain.

However, other routes were also investigated, where the branch line in Lorch or Schwäbisch Gmünd should branch off from the Remstalbahn. Two other projects envisaged a connection from Backnang on the Waiblingen – Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental railway line , one ending in Welzheim, the other being a connection to Schorndorf. With the latter variant, however, Welzheim would have remained without a connection.

Finally, in 1905, the Schorndorf – Rudersberg – Welzheim route prevailed. However, a shorter route with a cog was omitted. In addition, the railway should be built in standard gauge. However, because of the difference in altitude between Rudersberg and Welzheim, these decisions led to an extended route. The cost of building the railway without purchasing land was estimated at just under three million marks.

The Württembergische Eisenbahngesellschaft (WEG) was initially intended for construction and operation . However, for cost reasons, WEG only wanted to implement a narrow-gauge variant with a rack - as originally planned. Since negotiations about an increase in the state subsidy did not lead to any result, the Württemberg state government suggested that the state should build it. When building the railway, major cuts and three viaducts were necessary, especially on the mountain route from Rudersberg; In addition, heavy rains in 1910 made the work more difficult.

Development until 1945

The Royal Württemberg State Railways opened the first section to Rudersberg on November 28, 1908 and the remainder to Welzheim on November 25, 1911. At this point in time, Welzheim was the last Oberamtsstadt in Württemberg to receive a rail connection. Initially, up to five pairs of trains ran daily.

After the First World War , the line became the property of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, founded in 1920 . Contrary to the expectations associated with the construction of the line, there was no economic upturn in the region, especially in the places in the sparsely populated section of Rudersberg-Welzheim.

From the 1920s onwards, continuous excursion trains ran on Sundays between Stuttgart and Welzheim on the Remstalbahn ; the journey took around two hours. During the Nazi era , the organization Kraft durch Freude also organized excursions. Only during this time did the Wieslauftalbahn experience an economic boom.

The time under the German Federal Railroad (1945–1993)

Towards the end of the war in April 1945, train traffic was completely stopped, but resumed at the end of 1945. At the end of the 1940s, a pair of trains that ran all the way to Stuttgart was reintroduced. This train was mainly used for rush hour traffic , it drove from Welzheim to the Württemberg capital in the morning and back again in the evening. However, not all stops along the Wieslauftalbahn and on the Remsbahn were served. This connection was discontinued around 1970.

Viaduct over the Wieslauf above the former Laufenmühle station on the Rudersberg-Welzheim section

Around the same time, the Deutsche Bundesbahn began to thin out the timetable more and more and gradually replace the trains with rail buses . After all, only one pair of passenger trains and one pair of freight trains ran to Welzheim each day. Later these last two trains were merged into one freight train with passenger transport . This ran in the afternoon and was therefore not attractive either to schoolchildren or to working people; The long journey time caused by maneuvering was made more difficult. The operation was no longer profitable. As a consequence, passenger traffic on the section between Rudersberg and Welzheim, also known as the “mountain route”, was completely discontinued with the beginning of the summer timetable in 1980; The last day of operation of the mixed train was May 30, 1980. In 1984, the DB applied to the Stuttgart regional council to suspend all traffic on the section between Rudersberg and Welzheim in order not to carry out freight traffic. In 1986 the application to cease all traffic in the valley section between Schorndorf and Rudersberg followed. An expert opinion was then commissioned from the Transport Science Institute at the University of Stuttgart. In 1987, the transport scientist Gerhard Heimerl recommended, contrary to the plans of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, the continued operation of passenger traffic on the Schorndorf – Rudersberg section. After a landslide with track faults occurred on April 5, 1988 after prolonged rainfall at Grauhaldenhof (kilometer 12.9), the railway ceased all operations on the mountain route without formal approval.

Regionalization and reactivation of the Rudersberg – Oberndorf section (1993–2010)

RegioShuttle railcars at the exit from Miedelsbach-Steinenberg

After the applications made by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1984 and 1986 to cease traffic on the entire route were not granted, but the Deutsche Bundesbahn still showed no interest in continuing to operate the railway, the special purpose association Verkehrsverband was founded on December 22, 1992 Wieslauftalbahn (ZVVW) to maintain and privatize train traffic in the Wieslauftal.

In 1993, the Deutsche Bundesbahn transferred the line to the Zweckverband and contributed around 4.7 million D-Marks to the renovation of the transferred line, as well as a further 1.8 million D-Marks for the necessary costs for maintaining and improving the Passenger traffic and the continuation of freight traffic. The state of Baden-Württemberg contributed twelve million D-Marks for the expansion of the infrastructure and the purchase of new vehicles.

RegioShuttle railcar from Rudersberg Nord at the entrance to the Rudersberg train station

As a result, the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WEG) was able to take over operations on the Schorndorf – Rudersberg section of the route on behalf of the association in 1995 . Since Welzheim had not initially joined the association, the disused section of the line could not be modernized at first. However, it was reactivated over a length of 700 meters by building the new Rudersberg Nord stop, which has since served as a connection to the nearby school center.

In March 1998, an expert opinion by WEG came to the conclusion that reactivating the almost one kilometer long section from Rudersberg Nord to Rudersberg-Oberndorf would also be economical. In May 2004, the Stuttgart regional council approved the extension of the railway to Oberndorf. However, due to financial problems on the part of the municipality of Rudersberg, this could not be realized at first. It was about the cost of securing the roundabout at the Rudersberg Nord stop. The Welzheimer Bahn association provided 20,000 euros for this. It was not until July 26, 2005 that the local council approved the extension and released the corresponding funds. After the planned re-commissioning was delayed by several years due to increased construction costs and pending lawsuits against the construction measure by individual residents, the measures to repair the section Rudersberg Nord – Rudersberg – Oberndorf began in 2007. The commissioning took place on June 16, 2008. The construction costs for the 900 meter long section amounted to around 1.9 million euros, as the superstructure had to be completely replaced and a road overpass had to be renewed. This was criticized by the taxpayers' association in 2006 as “public waste”.

Museum railway (since 2010)

Museum train with the 41 018 locomotive

A final closure and de-dedication of the section to Welzheim, also known as the Obere Wieslauftalbahn , has been prevented for decades. The Welzheimer Bahn e. V. had made it their business to reactivate the scenic section to Welzheim and to prepare it for tourist rail traffic. Together with the city of Welzheim, he founded the Schwäbische Wald-Bahn GmbH (SWB), which leases the rail infrastructure from the owner ZVVW. With the aim of running the railway for weekend tourism, work began on May 22, 2007 to reactivate the line from Oberndorf to Welzheim. The costs for this were estimated at 2.9 million euros, with the planned steam train speed of only 30 km / h helping to limit costs. First, points and platform were renewed in Welzheim station, from there work was continued in the direction of Rudersberg. In the original planning, the first continuous journeys of the Sunday museum steam trains from Schorndorf to Welzheim were planned for Whitsun 2008, but this date could not be kept. Regular tourist traffic on the entire route began on May 8, 2010.

In the course of reactivation, the new Tannwald stop was built on the southern outskirts of Welzheim; At times it was planned to name this city park. Breitenfürst also received a new breakpoint; this is 200 meters west of the old train station. The Klaffenbach-Althütte station was not reactivated for tourist traffic. Nevertheless, from an operational point of view it is still a train station, there is a butt track used as a siding .

The Strümpfelbach Viaduct was named " Monument of the Month " in December 2007 by the Baden-Württemberg Monument Foundation together with the Lina electric locomotive of the Trossingen Railway .

In 2011, 29,700 passengers were carried, which exceeded the prognoses prior to commissioning.

business

Train stations

Michelau station, today only one stopping point

The station buildings of Rudersberg and Welzheim are unit stations of type IIb and IIIb respectively and correspond to the buildings as they were built in Württemberg along many branch lines. The building in Welzheim was larger, as it also served to accommodate the train crew. In addition, locomotive sheds used to exist in Rudersberg and Welzheim, but they have since been demolished. The other stations were built in a simpler architectural style that was not used on any other railway line in Württemberg. They were built according to a uniform design, some of them mirrored. The building in Breitenfürst was demolished in November 1974. In 1992 the route including the buildings was placed under monument protection. All train stations except Michelau originally had a siding, although these tracks were either expanded in the seventies between Rudersberg and Welzheim or dismantled into a butt track.

In the course of the fundamental renovation in 1993, numerous train stations were also rebuilt. The Hammerschlag, Haubersbronn Mitte and Rudersberg Nord stops have been completely rebuilt. Miedelsbach-Steinenberg was expanded for train crossings. The platforms are low and do not allow barrier-free access to the trains. Only the platform in Rudersdorf-Oberndorf has a platform height of 76 centimeters.

Vehicle use

Not much is known today about the locomotives at the time the line was opened. Locomotives of the Württemberg type T 3 were definitely in use. The Württemberg class B was also used. From the beginning, the trains carried the second, third and fourth class of car .

From around 1925 locomotives of the Prussian class T 14 1 , now run as class 93.5, were used, which proved themselves and were used until 1962. The T 14 1s were temporarily withdrawn during the Second World War and replaced by class 94 and class 75 locomotives, which, however, were not so well suited for this demanding route. The 94 series stressed the track too much, so that track repairs had to be carried out more often. The 75 series could not provide the required performance and had too little friction weight to lead longer trains over the incline to Welzheim. From 1947 the T 14 1 was used again.

On May 27, 1962, the Waiblingen – Schorndorf section of the Remstalbahn, from which the line branches off, was converted to electrical operation. At the same time, the T 14 1 on the Wieslauftalbahn were replaced by class 50 locomotives for freight and 64 for passenger transport. Rail buses of the VT 98 series were also used. From the 1968 summer timetable, the passenger trains were operated as push-pull trains with silver coins and class 212 diesel locomotives . From 1971 the freight traffic was switched to diesel operation and the steam age in the Wieslauftal ended.

NE-81 control car in Schorndorf station

traffic

RS1 and NE 81 multiple units of the Wieslauftalbahn

Regular operation

Monday to Friday run railcars of type NE 81 and Regio-Shuttle RS1 is between about 5:00 and 20 pm in the 30-minute cycle , later on Saturdays and every hour. Traffic is idle on Sundays and public holidays. The travel time between the current endpoints Rudersberg-Oberndorf and Schorndorf is 21 minutes. The timetable provides direct connections to the regional trains Stuttgart – Ellwangen and to line S2 of the Stuttgart S-Bahn at Schorndorf station . The route has been part of the Stuttgart Transport and Tariff Association (VVS) since October 1, 1993 . 5,000 travelers use the train every day, after only 1,125 passengers in the early 1990s. Freight traffic no longer takes place.

Between September 3, 2016 and October 1, 2016, regular passenger traffic between Rudersberg-Oberndorf and Welzheim was temporarily resumed to replace the bus traffic that had been interrupted due to the closure of state road 1080. The trial operation cost the city of Welzheim around 60,000 euros and was also intended to determine passenger potential.

Tourism traffic

DBK steam train near Michelau

The DBK Historische Bahn association carries out tourist traffic with historic trains between Schorndorf and Welzheim on Sundays and public holidays on its own account in consultation with the route operator Schwäbische Waldbahn GmbH and Förderverein Welzheimer Bahn eV, mostly using the 64 419 locomotive . In 2017, for example, a total of 17 steam and 15 diesel driving days were planned on the Wieslauftalbahn.

Others

The reception building of the Laufenmühle station on the reactivation section is available from Vollmer as an H0 model .

literature

  • Albrecht Ebinger: The Wieslaufbahn . Transpress, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-613-71085-4 .
  • Albrecht Ebinger: 100-year-olds with a future . In: railway magazine . No. 10/2008 , p. 28-31 .
  • Albrecht Ebinger: Of ups and downs . In: Railway history . No. 6/2004 , p. 34-39 .
  • Albrecht Ebinger: Schorndorf – Rudersberg – Welzheim . In: Branch and narrow-gauge railways in Germany . S. 1–16, 68th supplementary edition .
  • Albrecht Ebinger, Christian Kling: The Wies career through the ages . Förderverein Welzheimer Bahn e. V., 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-030271-8 .
  • Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 165-168 .

Web links

Commons : Wieslauftalbahn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
  2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
  3. ↑ Württemberg law of July 28, 1905 (Württemberg law gazette, year 1905 No. 20, p. 121)
  4. ↑ Press release of the Baden-Württemberg local transport company, State Secretary Dieter Hillebrand: Congratulations to the 'Wiesel makers' ( memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), January 15, 2005
  5. ↑ Data and facts about the Wieslauftalbahn ( memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  6. ↑ schwaebische-post.de on September 27, 2009: A bridge to nowhere ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung of June 25, 2007
  8. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Backnanger Kreiszeitung from February 12, 2008@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bkz-online.de
  9. ^ Eisenbahn-magazin 3/2012, p. 20
  10. ^ Rainer Stein: The Württemberg standard station on branch lines . In: Eisenbahn-Journal Württemberg-Report . tape 1 , no. V / 96 . Merker, Fürstenfeldbruck 1996, ISBN 3-922404-96-0 , p. 80-83 .
  11. ↑ railway magazine 10/2008, p. 30
  12. ↑ Christian Siekmann: Welzheim: Wiesel drives on trial. In: Winnender newspaper. August 17, 2016. Retrieved August 28, 2016 .
  13. ↑ 64 419 ( Memento from September 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ The Swabian Forest Railway - Timetable 2017. DBK Historische Bahn eV, accessed on June 11, 2018 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 24, 2009 .