St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn
| St. Andreasberg West – St. Andreasberg city | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 1.636 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 122 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rack system : | Abt, 2 slats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 8 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn GmbH operated a rack railway in standard gauge in the Upper Harz , which was closed in 1959 . Initially the partners were the state of Prussia, the province of Hanover and the city of Sankt Andreasberg . Since 1924 the operation has been led by the Landeskleinbahnamt (LKA) .
Prehistory and route construction
The construction of the rack railway was preceded by the opening of the Odertalbahn in 1884, which connected Sankt Andreasberg via Bad Lauterberg with the main line of the southern Harz line ( Northeim - Nordhausen ) in Scharzfeld . The end point of the Odertalbahn was the state train station St. Andreasberg West at the foot of the Glockenberg .
The unfavorable location of the station in what is now the Silberhütte district made further planning necessary, which the municipal authorities of Sankt Andreasberg informed the Cassel Railway Directorate on June 23, 1903 . Plans to continue the normal gauge Odertalbahn were discarded for reasons of cost, as the height difference to be overcome was too great and a detour of 6 km and the construction of engineering structures would have been necessary.
Instead, a 1.6 km long rack railway was built according to the Abt system. Three routes were considered for the extension of the route:
- along the country road through the Sperrluttertal; Slope max. 1:12
- along the washing ground; similar slope
- from the Sperrluttertal through the Green Deer; Slope max. 1: 6
After further negotiations, the third variant with a slightly modified route (max. Gradient 1: 8.2) was decided in 1906, and construction began on April 1, 1911. The winter of 1912/13 interrupted the work for several months, so that the laying of the tracks and racks could not begin until April 1913 . On the 1,636.15 m long route, 1,543.61 m of two-lamellar racks were installed. The city station should cost 5,000 marks, but then cost 54,000 marks. Overall, the construction cost more than 763,000 marks. Estimated were 670,000 marks. The operating license was granted on June 5, 1911 by the Hanover government president for a hundred-year-old steam operation.
- District St. Andreasberg, Kleinbahn in St. Andreasberg sheet 1 & 2
page 1
page 2
Opening and operation
On the evening of July 19, 1913, rail operations began with the inauguration of the city station on the Glockenberg. Freight operations had already started three days beforehand in order to familiarize the staff with the process. Initially, five pairs of trains were used daily, which took around 15 minutes for the route (maximum speed 8 km / h). During the First World War, the volume of traffic fell sharply and there was a supply bottleneck with coal, so that only three pairs of trains left. In the 1920s, the services were thinned to just two pairs of trains a day, and from 1932 buses and trucks were even used. In addition, the Landeskleinbahnamt took over the management and the St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn was no longer independent.
The Second World War and the DB's consideration of the Bad Lauterberg – St. Andreasberg West to shut down. Due to a large protest storm, the Odertalbahn continued to operate, and considerations for modernizing the cog railway were initiated. A modern cogwheel diesel locomotive, which could run continuously from Scharzfeld to St. Andreasberg, as well as the electrification of the line could not be realized for cost reasons.
The last rescue was supposed to be brought by DB rail buses of the VT 98 series : Paul Schöning, head of the Braunschweig machinery office, drove the steep stretch on September 18, 1957, and realized that the rail bus only had to be equipped with additional brakes for the descent. However, it was never used.
Shutdown
In 1955, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics and Transport warned that the St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn was very unprofitable and called for it to be closed. The continued strong growth in traffic on the road and the lack of modernization of the railway line made the end of the cog railway more and more likely.
A serious accident on September 14, 1958 with 18 dead and 100 injured on the Drachenfelsbahn was used as an opportunity (shareholders' meeting on November 28, 1958) to announce the end of the railway in Sankt Andreasberg. As a result, rail traffic was discontinued on December 21, 1958 after 46 years for ostensible safety reasons, although the cause of the accident on the Drachenfels Railway was not directly transferable. The last train is said to have traveled the route on April 23, 1959.
On August 17, 1959, the rack railway was officially shut down and the dismantling of the railway began immediately. The St. Andrew Berger Eisenbahn GmbH operating until May 30, 1965 on the bus and coach transport, was until this taken over by the DB.
vehicles
Locomotives
During its existence, the Kleinbahn only had two Jung- L cogwheel steam locomotives as traction vehicles . They too were scrapped after the end of operations.
| No. | NLEA no. | Manufacturer | Fab no. | Construction year | design type | power | track | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 391 | Young | 1,780 | 1912 | C-n4vzt | 320 hp | 1,435 mm | 37 t |
| 2 | 392 | Young | 1,781 | 1912 | C-n4vzt | 320 hp | 1,435 mm | 37 t |
dare
The two two-axle passenger cars (manufactured in 1913 by the Hannoversche Waggonfabrik , 70 seats or post and luggage compartment with few seats) were scrapped after the end of operations.
Presence and relics of the railway systems
The still-preserved station building of the city station served as a spa administration and then, until 2005, as a studio. It has been empty since then and is offered for sale. The large canopy now serves as the roof of the bus station. The former locomotive shed at the old city station has also been preserved and is used by a local bus operator as a bus depot. The former route has been partially paved and leads to shortly before Silberhütte. In winter it can be used as a toboggan run.
On the upper floor of the museum of the Samson pit (visitor mine ) in St. Andreasberg there is a small exhibition on the St. Andreasberg small train with historical photos, tickets, station signs and a model of the St. Andreasberg Stadt train station. A larger exhibition is temporarily in the Kurhaus.
literature
- Josef Högemann: With a gear in the Harz. The St. Andreasberger Kleinbahn. In: Railway courier . December 2013, ISSN 0170-5288 , p. 54-57 .
- Josef Högemann: Railways in the Harz Mountains . The private and works railways. tape 2 . Kenning, Nordhorn 1996, ISBN 3-927587-44-3 , pp. 123-128 .
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways . tape 11 . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2009, ISBN 978-3-88255-670-4 (Lower Saxony - Part 3. South of the Mittelland Canal).
- Klaus Lier, Klaus Schubert: Small railways in the western Harz . Verlag Kenning, Nordhorn 2001, ISBN 3-933613-20-5 (history of the Gittelde-Bad Grund small railway and the St. Andreasberger rack railway).
- Klaus Schubert: The St. Andreasberg rack railway . In: branch line documentation . tape 8 . Kenning, Nordhorn 1994, ISBN 3-927587-20-6 .
- Rudolf Heym: The steep slopes in the Harz Mountains. in: Lok-Magazin , issue 2/2018, ISSN 0458-1822, pp. 56–61.
