Tram Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
The tram in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe ran from 1899 to 1971. It was put into operation on July 26, 1899 as an electric, standard-gauge tram . It opened up the city of Homburg vor der Höhe , and since 1912 Bad Homburg vor der Höhe . Its operating company was Elektrizitätswerk Homburg vdH AG (EAG), a subsidiary of Elektrizitäts-AG formerly W. Lahmeyer & Co. in Frankfurt am Main .
founding
The Prussian Ministry of Public Works issued a decree of February 22, 1897, approving the planning of a rail link between Frankfurt-Homburg-Dornholzhausen. Then the Elektrizitätswerk Homburg vdH AG (EAG) applied for the construction of a meter-gauge electric train from the Homburg train station to Dornholzhausen with a possible extension to the Saalburg. In addition, there were other plans on different routes , for example by the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , with different drive technologies, such as accumulators or steam engines . The contract between the Homburg magistrate and the EAG was finally concluded at the end of February 1898. Between May 1st and October 15th of each year, only electrical operation should take place. In the rest of the time, it was also allowed to operate as a horse-drawn tram , which was allowed to run restrictedly between the former Homburg train station and Dornholzhausen. The construction of the line proceeded rapidly in 1898. There were delays, among other things, due to delivery problems of the vehicle manufacturers. First test drives with horse power took place , from July 6th 1899 also with electric drive. The operating license was granted on May 25, 1899 for 50 years. The acceptance of the first line took place on July 22, 1899 and the opening four days later. The route was laid out in standard gauge to enable a connection to the route network of the Frankfurt am Main tram . The current was drawn from the overhead line with roller pantographs .
Construction of a line network
The first route led from the roundabout (today: Europakreisel) at the city limits over Louisenstraße past the Homburg Neu train station (Usinger train station) to the old train station (now town hall) through the long inner city to the Kurhaus and the market square. Then it led through Haingasse and through the narrow streets of the old town via Höhestrasse, Obergasse, Neue and Alte Mauergasse to the Untertor. There, the center of the neighboring municipality of Dornholzhausen was reached on Dornholzhäuser Chaussee (today: Saalburgstrasse) . There the route led over the Landwehrweg and turned off to the Gotisches Haus excursion point . There it ended on Bad Homburg territory. The first timetable initially provided for a half-hourly cycle , but due to the great demand, it was compressed to a 15-minute cycle after just a few days. Only three of the seven railcars of the first series were available to start operations. These vehicles had two electric motors with 20 hp each. In the summer of 1899 the vehicles were still parked in a barn of a former brewery in the lower Louisenstrasse. By mid-August 1899, it was already possible to drive every ten minutes. As early as August 30, 1899, a branch line was added from the old town (Höhestraße) to Kirdorf , which was incorporated a few years later, and was served by a railcar every half hour. The depot with three hall tracks, which was built by the end of 1899, was also located in Höhestrasse . The short section between the station and the roundabout was served with a single morning journey from September 1, 1899, followed by an 80-minute journey from October 15, 1899.
A special feature in the early years of the Bad Homburg tram were the crossed-out destination signs , whereby a diagonal bar was used as a color code for the end points outside the city:
- green: Saalburg
- blue: Kirdorf
- red: Gothic house
- yellow: Dornholzhausen.
On the other hand, there was no color marking in the direction of the city, after a few years the horizontal line was generally dropped.
Saalburgbahn
Most important route in the network was the hall funicular of Dornholzhausen to Saalburg Roman fort on the crest of the Taunus , whose construction began in the summer 1899th For the up to 7 m deep cuttings in the upper part and the embankments in the lower part, 70,000 m³ of earth had to be moved. This line was put into operation with new, more powerful vehicles on June 3, 1900 and ran mainly on its own track . The route had a greatest gradient of 1:18 (55.5 per thousand) over a distance of about 2 km, the average gradient over the entire route was about 1:25 (40 per thousand). The smallest radius of curvature in the mountain stretch was 50 m in the lower part of the line 25 m. The difference in altitude between the former Homburg train station (169 m above sea level ) and the mountain train station in Saalburg (374 m above sea level) was 206 m. The substructure was made in a strong pack layer with a high ballast filling. The rails used were 115 mm high Vignole rails , which were attached to wooden sleepers . The overhead line was suspended from lattice masts. The alternative points were dimensioned so that a cycle of 10 minutes could be driven. The journey from Dornholzhausen to Saalburg took 17 minutes and from the former Homburg train station it took 39 minutes. The police acceptance of the new route took place on June 1, 1900; an opening trip for invited guests took place on June 2, 1900. Scheduled operations began the following day, Pentecost Sunday.
For the Saalburgbahn, 8 more slightly longer two-axle railcars with two engines with 27 hp each were ordered. These had an electrical short-circuit brake, a magnetic brake and a mechanical brake on the axles. Presumably, vehicles from the Hirschberger Talbahn had to be used first, as the company's own vehicles were only available late. From 1900 the first four sidecars were also used. Some open summer carriages were particularly popular with passengers . Open seats were also installed on the roof of individual sidecars.
The station building at the terminus below the Saalburg was designed in the “ Roman provincial ” style. This was based on a design by the Bad Homburg architect Louis Jacobi , who also reconstructed the Saalburg for Kaiser Wilhelm II . The building is a single-storey solid construction with a gable roof . On the eaves sides there are vestibules in an open half-timbered construction . The base, the square at the corners and the robe of the arched windows are Haustein from rustic rubble masonry discontinued. The station was at the apex of the turning loop there with a radius of 20 m. In addition, there was an additional siding . The mountain station hall castle was in 2005. The monument preservation restored, is one of today beekeepers used -Verein and the "open day and day of beekeeping for beekeepers and non-beekeepers" to the public.
The Saalburgbahn stopped operating on July 31, 1935.
Accident on May 18, 1930
On May 18, 1930, the most serious accident of the Homburg tram occurred on the Saalburgbahn. A train consisting of a railcar and a sidecar that came from the Saalburg was overloaded with passengers on this Whitsun Sunday due to a storm . The train ran on the downhill slide into and slide through the passing place in which he would have to return will have to wait. The side car of the train going down the valley could be braked by the conductor and after the collision of the two trains broke loose from the rail car going down the valley. This and the two vehicles of the uphill train wedged with it rolled about 100 m downhill. One passenger was killed and two other passengers as well as the driver and conductor of the train going down the valley suffered serious injuries. In the following period, separate brakes were used in the sidecar .
Climax
In 1902, additional passing points were built on the single-track line in Louisenstrasse, so that it could be driven on this line at five-minute intervals. Another step was the double-track expansion for the operation of the Frankfurt local railway to Frankfurt am Main . The old town bridge was built in 1905, but the tram was only allowed to use it from May 18, 1908. The previous old town route was then only used for diversions. The connection to the new train station on October 26, 1907 also brought minor expansions . The route network was ultimately around 10 kilometers long. It was used by up to 15 railcars and 12 sidecars . A total of two series of railcars and sidecars were put into service. The opening of the Frankfurter Lokalbahn route via Heddernheim to the Frankfurter Schauspielhaus in 1910 led to an upturn in traffic. The lines to the Saalburg and the Gothic House now run every 10 minutes, so that there was a five-minute cycle between the train station and Dornholzhausen. The constant increase in traffic came to an end with the beginning of the First World War in the summer of 1914 and its consequences.
End of independent operation
The absence of the imperial court and the almost complete decline in visits by well-to-do spa guests drastically reduced the number of passengers after the end of the war. During the period of inflation around 1923, inner-city traffic was only offered to a limited extent . During this time, operations between Dornholzhausen and Gothic House ended and, from June 21, 1933, also between the depot and Kirdorf. But the main line, which usually only ran between the market square and the Saalburg, was replaced by a bus line from August 1, 1935 . All lines no longer needed were dismantled in 1935/36. The Bad Homburg tram was licensed until December 31, 1954, but in the end it was only an infrastructure company , the remaining track and overhead line systems of which were used by the Frankfurt Local Railway for a distance of 2 km. The four open summer cars were sold to the Frankfurt am Main tram, which they used for excursions to Bergen or Schwanheim . Three railcars (including No. 9 and 10) of the Saalburgbahn were used as work cars for the Frankfurter Lokalbahn (FLAG) and the Frankfurt am Main tram until 1959 . Car 9 was given number 21 on the FLAG and number 2027 III on the Frankfurt tram . Car 10 was converted to a tower car and was given number 22 on the FLAG and number 2024 II on the Frankfurt tram . All other vehicles were used as garden huts , stables for small animals or the Hitler Youth home. The structure of car 2 of the Homburg tram was rediscovered in 1986 in Neu-Anspach and is now part of the inventory of the Frankfurt Transport Museum . It is stored in the Neu-Isenburg depot.
Subsequent use
Nevertheless, electric trains ran through the city in Bad Homburg for many years. Since May 4, 1910, the Frankfurter Lokalbahn AG (FLAG), which also belonged to the Lahmeyer Group, was using the tracks in the city center with its line 25 (Frankfurt – Bad Homburg) coming from Frankfurt . The FLAG vehicles were stationed in the Höhestrasse depot. The FLAG drove to the market square until July 4, 1962, then only in the section Rondell-Alter Bahnhof (now town hall).
On December 19, 1971, the operation of line 25 was stopped, the rails in the city of Bad Homburg largely dismantled in the following period. This meant that the entire city center was free of rails. The previous tram line 25 was converted to underground operation and initially received the line number A2 (today: U2). The terminus from Bad Homburg's old train station (now the town hall) was moved back to the Gonzenheim district , as it was not possible to guide the U2 light rail vehicles due to the width of 2.65 m in the street. For the Homburg city center, the new solution brought more disadvantages than advantages because of the compulsory transfer.
Planning
Residents and nature conservationists successfully resisted planned routes for their own railway body. At times, the Frankfurter Verkehrsverbund prevented further construction because it was allegedly a parallel service to the S5 S-Bahn line. The current planning provides for a continuation of the U2 to the train station , whereby a section from the current end point is to be tunnelled and then the route of the Homburg Railway is to be used.
literature
- Dieter Höltge, Günter H. Köhler: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany . 2nd Edition. 1: Hessen. EK-Verlag , Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-335-9 .
- Walter Söhnlein, Jürgen Leindecker: The Frankfurter Lokalbahn and its electric Taunus-Bahnen . GeraMond Verlag , Munich 2000, ISBN 3-932785-04-5 .
- Walter Söhnlein: Saalburg terminus . Ed .: City Archives Bad Homburg v. d. Height. Bad Homburg City Archives, Bad Homburg v. d. Height 1999, p. 7-31 .
- Walter Söhnlein, Gerta Walsh: Clear the way! - Railways in the Taunus 1860–1910–2010 . Societäts Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-7973-1223-5 .
- A Roman train station . In: State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Ed.): Preservation of monuments and cultural history . No. 1 . State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse, Bad Homburg v. d. Height 2006, p. 2 .
Web links
- Rails in Bad Homburg - Heinz-Peter Curdts: History of inner-city rail transport in Bad Homburg
- Image of car 2 of the Homburg tram in the Neu-Isenburg depot
- Pictures of a model of the final stop in Saalburg in nominal size H0 on the website of the Eisenbahn Bad Homburg e. V.
- Station building of the Saalburgbahn on cultural monuments in Hesse
Individual evidence
- ^ Extension of the U2 tram line , website of the city of Bad Homburg.
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