Cologne-Sülz – Berrenrath railway line

Cologne-Sülz-Berrenrath
The Black Railway today. Track sections that no longer exist are dashed
Route length:	12.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	1:42  ‰
Top speed:	40 km / h
Legend 0.0 Cologne-Sülz 1.03 Cologne-Gottesweg Cologne-Eifeltor transfer station Connection to the Eifeltor freight yard Left Rhine route Branch to the transfer station Cologne-Eifeltor Crossing Luxemburger Straße / Militärringstraße Vorgebirgsbahn from Cologne-Barbarossaplatz 3.0 Cologne-Klettenberg A4 4.43 Efferen (formerly Bf) 6.53 Hürth-Hermülheim (until 1963 Hermülheim) former branch of the black railway Kendenich Gbf former connecting curve - Gleisdreieck Today's start of the black track Fischenich Threading of today's black track Vorgebirgsbahn to Brühl Connecting railway United Ville 7.73 Huertherberg 8.43 Huerth 9.15 Hürther Talmühle (block point) Chemical park Knapsack connecting railway today's infrastructure border HGK-RWE today's route (connecting railway) 10.35 Knapsack 11.30 Golden mine Connecting railway United Ville 12.30 Berrenrath 12.95 Handover United Ville

The Cologne-Sülz – Berrenrath (Black Railway) line is a single-track, temporarily electrified and now partially disused branch line in North Rhine-Westphalia , which originally ran from Cologne-Sülz to Berrenrath and was part of the main network of the Cologne-Bonn Railways (KBE). Today the section between Hürth-Kendenich and Hürth-Knapsack is still in operation, on which freight traffic still takes place.

Infrastructure operators of the route are today the ports and goods traffic Cologne (HGK) and in the area Knapsack the Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerke (RWE).

history

Restoration of the Hürther Talmühle (1897) on the upper reaches of the Duffesbach

Shortly before 1900, the Hürther brewery owner Theodor Firmenich had plans to build a branch line through the Hürther Tälchen via the Talmühle stop / restaurant up to the villa height to the Kranzmaar excursion restaurant on Luxemburger Strasse, in order to keep the Cologne people out of sightseeing on the Vorgebirgsbahn to get something. He also received the concession in 1901. Only the opening of the United Ville lignite field and the construction of the calcium cyanamide factory, which used this lignite energy, brought these plans forward again in 1906. A corresponding application by the towns of Hürth, Knapsack, Berrenrath and the United Ville from 1910 was supported by the Cologne district due to the high volume of traffic with Cologne. The Cöln-Bonner Kreisbahnen, the predecessor of the KBE, took up the plans for the construction of an electrified line in a memorandum in May 1911, which was only intended for passenger and general cargo traffic, as the companies were accessed via the Villebahn . But the Goldenberg power plant was only added due to the "war-important importance" of Knapsack industrial companies 1912–1914 , the line was approved in 1915, built from mid-1917 and completed on July 27, 1918, in the war year, and scheduled traffic started on December 19, 1918 become. Since the Louise mine had applied for a connection to the Berrenrath terminus, the concession was extended to freight traffic and the meter gauge initially intended was dropped. Initially, the route only ran from Hermülheim-Süd to Berrenrath . Freight traffic was handled via the Kendenich / Vochem station and the cross line to the Wesseling Rheinwerft port . Seven years later, in 1925, the Black Railway was extended to Cologne-Sülz after the standard gauge had been changed there as well . The steep gradient of the line on the way to Berrenrath sometimes even required the trains to be pushed.

KBE locomotive DE 82 in Cologne-Gereon. The Talbot passenger car behind the locomotive is a former Black Railway 101 passenger car from the 1950s

The commissioning of the Hürth part of the Knapsack Chemical Park made it necessary to relocate the route in 1960. In order to be able to create a siding, the route from the Hürth station was raised. Before the new flyover over Bergstrasse, a siding about one kilometer in length branched off to the chemical park.

The passenger traffic carried out from 1918 to 1968 with dark green passenger cars, pulled by steam and later diesel locomotives, was primarily used to transport industrial workers to Knapsack and Berrenrath. The Knapsack stop even had a train station restaurant, for this reason and because of the significant number of passengers at the change of shifts, the stop was popularly known as Knapsack train station . The restaurant was given up after the cessation of passenger traffic after 1975.

End of passenger traffic

In 1952 the KBE set up bus line D from Berrenrath to Barbarossaplatz, from then on the number of people on the railway line declined, except during shift change times. As a result of increasing prosperity, factory employees increasingly bought their own vehicles, and the numbers continued to decline sharply from 1956, so that of the 23 passenger trains to date from the 1958 summer timetable, seven were canceled in the low-traffic times and entirely on Sundays and public holidays. In 1960 the transport from Hermülheim to Cologne-Sülz was first given up and there were still six trains left. Saturday traffic was discontinued in 1964/65. A traffic count in September 1968 only counted an average of 240 passengers (there and back). This sealed the fate for passenger traffic. The last train arrived at Hürth-Hermülheim station on Friday, December 13, 1968 at 4:52 p.m. After the abandonment of passenger traffic, the stations and stops were closed and - since general cargo traffic was also abandoned - the loading tracks were dismantled. Only one loading track at the Hürth station was served until 1986.

Freight transport

Nevertheless, freight traffic on the Black Railway still plays an important role today. In particular, the Hürth part of the chemical park with its "chlorine factory" is served by salt transports from the Wesselingen harbor. Chemical products are brought in and out with tank cars. The route to Knapsack is less used. The UPM Hürth paper mill, in particular , has waste paper brought in and newsprint rolls sent off.

For a long time, a section of the Villebahn ( Rheinbraun works railway ) ran parallel to the line . When this had to be abandoned in December 1972 in order to be able to expand the Theresia opencast mine , the traffic was shifted to the Black Railway. But the Black Railway also had to be relocated again. The route was raised and moved in the upper part to the edge of the former pits. In addition to the expansion of the line for heavier loads (axle load up to 25 t), partial line electrification followed in 1972. This meant that the Rheinbraun freight trains could now also run on the Black Railway. There were also track connections to the north-south coal railway of the Rheinbraun and to some plants in the Hürth-Knapsack chemical park, which were then supplemented in 1985 by a direct connection between the two parts of the chemical park.

The catenary was switched off in January 1987 and later dismantled.

Today, the Black Railway is only connected to the Vorgebirgsbahn via Kendenich Gbf and thus to the cross railway to the port of Godorf. The branch lines Hürth-Hermülheim - Cologne-Sülz and from K-Klettenberg to the (transfer) station Cologne Eifeltor were shut down and dismantled for EBO vehicles.

With the commissioning of a container terminal for combined cargo traffic in the Knapsack Chemical Park in 2002, container block trains now also run on the Black Railway.

outlook

There are plans to set up a rail passenger service branching off the route over the Hürther Bogen to the central bus station at the Hürth Park shopping center . Corresponding routes were kept free.

Origin of name

The exact origin of the name is not clear. On the one hand, the railway drove the passenger trains with steam locomotives, while the foothill railway, the "White Railway", was operated with white electric multiple units. The Black Railway also transported coal and briquettes on its route . It is more likely, however, that the strong soot development was decisive for the name, which the electrically operated White Railway did not have.

Operating points

kilometre	Train station - stopping point
0.00	Cologne-Sülz station
1.03	Hp God's way
4.43	Bf Efferen
6.53	Bf (Hürth-) Hermülheim
7.73	Hp Huertherberg
8.43	Bf Huerth
9.15	Hp Hürther Talmühle (block station)
10.35	Hp Knapsack
11.30	Hp Golden Mine
12.30	Bf Berrenrath
12.95	Handover Louise & Concordia; & Handover request United Ville

Individual evidence

1. ^ Numbers and data according to Arenz
2. ↑ Annual figures according to the Knapsack Chemical Park, History ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at infraserv-knapsack.de, accessed on September 6, 2008. 
3. ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger: With the black train through Sülz on ksta.de

literature

• Hans-Peter Arenz: From Hermülheim up to Berrenrath: The passenger traffic of the "Black Railway" . In: Köln-Bonner Verkehrsmagazin, Vol. 2, 2008, pp. 15-25 and slightly abbreviated and annotated in: Hürther Contributions to History, Culture and Regional Studies, Vol. 88 (2009), pp. 29-44
• Helmut Neßeler (in collaboration with Manfred Coenen, RWE-Power archive): The Villebahn. The story of a mine connection railway in the Rhenish lignite mining area. 1902-2009. dbh-Verlag, Frechen 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028578-3 ( documenta berchemensis historica. Vol. 11) (The Villebahn merged with the Schwarzbahn in 1972)

Web links

• Cologne-Bonn railroad friends on kbef-ev.de
• KBE with many historical articles at wisoveg.de