Rottenbach – Katzhütte railway line

Rottenbach – Katzhütte
Route number :	6690
Course book section (DB) :	562
Route length:	24,950 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	37  ‰
Minimum radius :	180 m
Top speed:	60 km / h
Legend from Saalfeld (Saale) 0.000 Rottenbach to Arnstadt 0.850 Infrastructure border DB Netz / DB RegioNetz 2.480 Köditzberg to Königsee 4,850 Bechstedt -Trippstein 7.362 Schwarzburg 10.634 Sitzendorf - Unterweißbach 14,410 Obstfelderschmiede to the mountain railway 14.50 Oberweißbacher Bergbahn 16,442 Mellenbach-Glasbach 18.380 Circle 22.028 Meuselbach-Schwarzmühle 24,950 Katzhütte

The Rottenbach – Katzhütte railway , also known as the Schwarzatalbahn , is a branch line in Thuringia . The 25-kilometer route leads from Rottenbach to Katzhütte in the Thuringian Forest . The railway line takes its name from the Schwarza River , a left tributary of the Saale , which it follows in the middle section from Schwarzburg to Katzhütte.

history

Water tower of the Sitzendorf-Unterweißbach train station

In order to develop the Schwarzatal with its Schwarzburg forest areas and the wood, glass and porcelain industry located there, a state treaty between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Principality was signed on January 30, 1895 by building a railway line from Rottenbach to Katzhütte, with a branch line to Königsee Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt closed. Since the hunting grounds of Prince Günther Victor von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt were in the lower Schwarzatal, an elaborate route from the valley of the Rinne over a ridge to the Schwarzatal was used to bypass them . The first section from Rottenbach, where there is a connection to the Arnstadt – Saalfeld railway line , via Köditzberg to Königsee was opened on December 16, 1899. Six months later, on June 27, 1900, the section from Köditzberg to Sitzendorf was put into operation, and on August 18, the whole line was completed. The Schwarzatalbahn was built and operated by the Prussian State Railways until 1920 . The extension of the route to Großbreitenbach to the Ilmenau-Großbreitenbacher Eisenbahn or via Scheibe-Alsbach to Eisfeld was not realized due to the difficult topography.

Because of the complicated topographical conditions and for local political reasons, there was a lot of argument at the time about where stations should be set up on the route and how they should be named. That is why there are an unusually large number of double names in the station names.

The line was expanded on March 15, 1923 with the opening of the Oberweißbacher Bergbahn , which was connected to the line at the new Obstfelderschmiede stop .

In 1999, failure to maintain the route led to the suspension of all traffic on the section between Obstfelderschmiede and Katzhütte; on May 28, 2000, the remaining route was closed. Two years later, the "DB RegioNetz, Oberweißbacher Berg- und Schwarzatalbahn" was founded and the rehabilitation of the line began. The restart of the Schwarzatalbahn was celebrated on December 15, 2002.

route

The railway line branches off to the west of the Rottenbach train station at around 280 meters above sea level from the main Arnstadt – Saalfeld line towards the south and follows the federal road 88 to Unterköditz. In Unterköditz, the route turns south-east and leaves the valley of the Rinne creek to reach the culmination point of the route at about 400 meters behind Bechstedt . The Schwarzburg train station is located on the northern slope of the steeply sloping Schwarzatal, which runs east-west, at a height of 385 meters and is reached after a tight right-hand bend. The subsequent descent into the Schwarzatal ends in Sitzendorf at around 305 meters above sea level. The next 14 kilometers to the Katzhütte terminus is the Schwarza railway line, crossing it thirteen times.

Logo of the Oberweißbacher Berg- und Schwarzatalbahn

traffic

Initially, up to six pairs of passenger trains ran on the route every day. The travel time was approximately 70 minutes. Locomotives of the Prussian T 15 series were first used as locomotives , followed later by the T 14 series and, at the end of the 1960s, the DR series 83.10 . The traction changeover was carried out in 1971 with the class 110 diesel locomotive .

Since the bridges over the Schwarza are only approved for small axle loads, the stronger six-axle class 119 with 16 tons axle load was later used as a mainline locomotive . In 1989 the travel time for the five pairs of trains was just under an hour. From the mid-1990s, only multiple units were used.

Since it was restarted in 2002, two class 641 railcars have been commuting between Rottenbach and Katzhütte with a travel time of 43 minutes . These run every hour with crossings to the usual symmetry minute : 59 (to: 58 and from: 00) in Sitzendorf-Unterweißbach. Another railcar serves as an operating reserve. Two DR class VT 2.09 railcars were used in special services until March 2019 .

In 2015, the Schwarzatalexpress ran every Saturday in summer from Jena Saalbahnhof to Katzhütte . Before that, the regional trains from Leipzig and Gera to Katzhütte were tied through. Trains of the BR 650 of the Erfurt Railway were used . In 2020, special trips from Jena to Katzhütte will be offered on the occasion of events.

Freight traffic was given up in 1966. Operational management takes place in train control with fallback switches .

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  Obstfelderschmiede stop, access point to the Oberweißbacher Bergbahn

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  Mellenbach-Glasbach station (2009)

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  Sitzendorf-Unterweißbach station (2014)

Web links

Commons : Schwarzatalbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Raanzer - the Schwarzatalbahn in the Thuringian Forest
• Website of the Oberweißbacher Berg- und Schwarzatalbahn
• Oberweißbacher Berg- und Schwarzatalbahn on the side of the DB AG
• Driver's cab ride - round trip in the LVT

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Small - but nice . In: railway magazine . No. 2 , 2018, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 52 .
2. ↑ For the last time a piglet between Rottenbach and Katzhütte in the plan service , LOK report from March 30, 2019, accessed on June 24, 2019.
3. ↑ Small - but nice . In: railway magazine . No. 2 , 2018, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 52 .