Heilbronn tram
The Heilbronn tram was the third oldest tram in Württemberg . It existed from 1897, was meter-gauge , later had a network with up to six lines and served the city of Heilbronn including the neighboring towns of Böckingen , Sontheim and Neckargartach , which were incorporated in the 1930s , with the means of transport popularly known as the Spatzenschaukel . After severe destruction in World War II, the tram was only partially repaired after 1945. The tram service ended in 1955 and was partially replaced by the Heilbronn trolleybus, which existed from 1951 to 1960 . The operating transport company was the Heilbronner Straßenbahn AG , which was merged in 1940 into the Heilbronn transport company that still exists today . They also operate the bus service in Heilbronn, which began in 1948 . Since 2001 there is a successor system tram Heilbronn, which in normal track running rail Heilbronn .
history
Planning and construction
The necessity of a tram in Heilbronn was due to the growth of the industrial city in the 19th century, when the expansion of the city meant long distances to work and shops, so that calls for cheap local transport were loud. In 1893, the Association for the Promotion of Tourism asked the city administration for help in the construction of a tram . Heilbronn commissions then visited several cities of comparable size and saw the change from horse-drawn trams to motorized vehicles. Since Heilbronn wanted a motorized tram, but no operating experience was available anywhere, a decision in favor of a certain drive was delayed after the first tenders. On April 24, 1896, Mayor Paul Hegelmaier announced to the local council that there were several offers for the construction of a tram. There was a choice of steam car, accumulator, gas engine operation or operation with electric railcars. On May 7, 1896, Hegelmaier announced that a preliminary contract had been concluded in which the municipality had agreed with the Heilbronn commercial bank and the Oberrheinische Bank in Mannheim on the financing, ownership and route of a Heilbronn tram. Ultimately, the type of drive for the vehicles still had to be clarified, whereby after a low-priced energy commitment from the Lauffen cement works , the decision was made to use an electric drive powered by overhead lines, as it had already been successfully in use in Stuttgart for several months. According to a draft contract dated September 1896, the construction of the tram was to be carried out by the Berliner Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft ( AEG ); the operation was to be carried out by a Heilbronner Straßenbahn AG (founded on May 10, 1897).
The bank consortium and the city of Heilbronn signed a contract on October 15, 1896, which provided for seven electric railcars and three trailers to run on a trunk line and a cross line. May 15, 1897 was requested as the completion date, because then the art and trade exhibition , which was important for the city, began at Harmonie , which was to be connected to Heilbronn Central Station via the main line. Further lines should possibly be added later.
Construction began on December 1, 1896 under engineer Löhr from AEG with the measurement of the planned routes. For the routing it was first necessary for the city to acquire and demolish several private houses. Due to the continuation of the main line from the train station via Kramstraße (today: Kaiserstraße) further east to the Füsilierkaserne, the Kramstraße, which previously ended as a dead-end street , had to be broken through to the avenue , creating a main intersection in Heilbronn (Kaiserstraße / Allee) that is still important today. After the demolition work was completed, the construction of the track system began on March 10th, but by mid-April it became apparent that the planned opening date could not be fully adhered to. After the power supply was started, engines from AEG and car bodies and sub-frames from Herbrand & Co. arrived and assembled in Cologne-Herfeld, testing of the main line began on May 22, 1897, followed by driver training. All preparatory work was completed on May 27th.
Invitation to the annual shareholders' meeting of Heilbronner Strassenbahn AG 1899/1900
Plant and Operation Regulations from 1899
Contract to cross the line to Sontheim
Opening in 1897
On May 29, 1897, the Heilbronn tram began operating with a trunk line from the main train station to the barracks. Stops were at Heilbronn Central Station , Neckar Bridge, Gerberstrasse, Gewerbebank, Harmonie , Gartenstrasse and the Fusilier Barracks. The fare was 10 pfennigs per person and trip. Initially, the carriages ran daily from around 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at 6-minute intervals between the train station and Harmonie, with every second car going on to Moltkestrasse. The initial response was immense, but tickets soon had to be issued to control the passengers and the vehicles at the terminal stops had to be completely emptied. In June 1897, the railcars received a second engine so that they could also carry their trailers.
The trunk line from the train station to harmony
The cemetery line, the trunk line, and the sideline
Main line in Kaiserstraße 1903
The 2,200-meter-long side line led from Paulinenstraße through Sülmertor into Sülmerstraße, drove over Kiliansplatz into Südstraße and ended at Südbahnhof . There were stops at Lohtorstrasse, at Gasthaus zum Löwen, on Dammstrasse, at the hospital, on Deutschhofstrasse, at Fleiner Tor, at Gasthof Traube and on Südstrasse. The sideline was opened on June 16, 1897. The original clock was 12 minutes.
Opening of the tram line through Sülmerstrasse on June 17, 1897
The sideline through Sülmerstrasse 1903
The sideline at Kiliansplatz in 1904
The cemetery line was inaugurated on December 5, 1897. From the avenue the route led to the end of Wollhausstraße to get to the New Cemetery . The line began at the corner of Allee and Kaiserstraße, branched off into Titotstraße and led over Herbststraße to Wollhausstraße.
On the three lines, which were completed by the beginning of December 1897, 1004 journeys were made daily with seven railcars according to the initial timetable. Eight larger railcars and additional trailers were ordered from AEG and Herbrand & Co. for the other lines that are currently being planned. After some of the vehicles had arrived, a 6-minute cycle was recorded on all lines on December 12, 1897. At the beginning of 1898, the vehicle fleet was expanded to include 15 railcars and eight sidecars for the next three decades.
The tram operation quickly became unprofitable after a successful start. Passenger numbers were already falling in the second year of operation, and the operators endeavored to accommodate this by halving fares. In the third year of operation, the frequency was reduced to seven and a half minutes.
Expansion of the line network
In 1900 a sideline was continued to Sontheim . The construction of the Sontheim route had been preceded by lengthy negotiations, which also included the plans for the Bottwartalbahn , which also runs on a section between Sontheim and Heilbronn . The tram line to Sontheim was finally opened on June 3, 1900, the Bottwartalbahn on December 1, 1900.
The connection to Neckargartach , which wanted a connection to the tram network from the start, failed for a long time for various reasons. Finally, in 1912, Neckargartach received its own tram, which met the Heilbronn tram at Sülmertor and was operated by steam trams from the Heilbronn salt works, but already experienced a decline during the First World War and then remained a subsidized operation until the line was closed in 1923.
Böckingen was initially connected to Heilbronn by the Gleislose Bahn Heilbronn – Böckingen , which ran between Böckingen and the Heilbronn Neckar Bridge from 1911 to 1916, and Heilbronner Straßenbahn AG was responsible for its commercial and operational management. This trackless tram was the first trolleybus operation in Heilbronn.
The Heilbronn tram also suffered from inflation during the First World War and after a brief period of prosperity that followed. In the course of 1923, operations were initially restricted and later stopped entirely, except for the line to Sontheim. Some of the staff had to be fired. From April 1924, the situation consolidated and operations could be resumed after most of the dismissed were reinstated. In November 1924, the city of Heilbronn acquired a majority stake in Straßenbahn AG and was thus able to better influence the organization of operations and the timetable in the future.
In 1926, another route to Böckingen was opened, which was designed as a continuation of the main line, also served every seven and a half minutes at peak times and every second vehicle on the main line (i.e. every 15 minutes) at non-peak times. To operate the Böckinger Line, five used railcars from Krefeld and seven used railcars from Würzburg were procured, which were converted into five railcars and seven trailer cars. While the main line from 1929 as Line 1 has been designated, the Böckinger line was designated line B .
The last connection was established in 1928 to Neckargartach, which since the end of the steam tram in 1923 was only connected to Heilbronn by a post bus. This line was inaugurated on June 21, 1928 and formally operated by its own company, which, however, outsourced the operation to Heilbronner Straßenbahn AG. For a long time there had been confusion about the route. The starting point was Neckargartacher Kernerstrasse, the line continued via Frankenbacher Strasse, Brückenstrasse and Neckarstrasse to Heilbronner Strasse, from there the line followed the Neckar to the Wilhelmskanalbrücke. At Bahnhofstrasse, the railway joined the Heilbronn line network and ran from there to the terminus at Kiliansplatz and Hauptbahnhof. Before the Neckar Canal was built, the N line running through the Neckar floodplains had the character of an overland railway for a few years. In 1932 the track system was relocated to the west due to the construction of the canal, increasing the length of the route from 3.8 to 4.3 km. With the incorporation of Neckargartach in 1938, the operation of line N was completely transferred to Heilbronner Straßenbahn AG.
In 1929 the following lines existed:
- Line 1: Hauptbahnhof - Kiliansplatz - Allee - Karlstraße - Karlstor
- Line 2: Sülmertor - Sülmer Straße - Kiliansplatz - Fleiner Straße - Wilhelmstraße - Südbahnhof
- Line 3: Kaiserstraße - Allee - Herbststraße - Wollhaus- / Oststraße
- Line B: Böckingen - Sun Fountain - Central Station - Kiliansplatz
- Line S: Sülmertor - Sülmer Straße - Kiliansplatz - Fleiner Straße - Wilhelmstraße - Sontheimer Straße - Sontheim
- Line N: Neckargartach - Wohlhotels - Kranenstrasse - Zollamt - Kiliansplatz
City lines 1, 2 and 3 run every seven and a half minutes, lines B and S every 15 minutes and line N of the Neckargartacher tram every 30 minutes.
The line network was changed in many details, also with regard to a planned but never realized round line. Significant changes included the relocation of the tram route from Fleiner Straße to Hohe Straße and the reconstruction of Kiliansplatz in 1931. By changing the routing of lines 3 and N, line 2 became redundant in August 1933 and was discontinued. In 1936, the tram line ending in Karlstrasse was extended to Trappensee and served by line B in future.
Tram as part of the transport company
On June 1, 1940, the city became the sole owner of the shares in Straßenbahn AG, which was then dissolved and incorporated into the municipal utilities as a transport operations department. The total track length in 1940 was 17,660 meters with a total track length of 22,425 meters.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, part of the staff was drafted into the Wehrmacht. After trying to compensate for the shortage of staff with overtime and retraining, women and pensioners, from 1942 also young women who were compulsory and later also high school students in the conductors' service, were soon employed. At the same time, the number of passengers reached peak values due to the increased production of armaments and the requisition of private vehicles. The number of passengers transported rose from 17,000 people a day in 1938 to 43,000 in 1943; that year the tram carried a total of around 16 million passengers.
The tram network was badly damaged in the air raids on Heilbronn , around half of the vehicles were completely destroyed in the air raid on December 4, 1944. The only temporarily resumed traffic came to a complete standstill at the end of the Second World War in April 1945. The blowing up of the Neckar bridges in the last days of the war also tore the already heavily damaged route network into three parts.
In July 1945, two lines temporarily resumed operations. Line 2 ran from the main station to the Neckar Canal (instead of the blown bridge there was initially a ferry, from December 1945 until the inauguration of the new canal bridge in 1950 there was a pontoon bridge) and on the other side of the Neckar on another section to Neckargartach. Line 5 ran from Wilhelmstrasse to Sontheim. By the end of 1947, these lines were expanded to include restored sections, and line 1 from Böckingen to Trappensee also ran again. Repaired pre-war railcars were used as vehicles, a new trailer could be procured in 1948, but there was no money for the acquisition of new railcars. In 1949 it was possible to acquire six used railcars and six sidecars from the Rastatt wagon factory from 1927 in Rastatt .
Decline and closure of the tram
In the spring of 1948, the transport company started a supplementary regular service with three buses, which was gradually expanded with additional vehicles. The omnibus operation proved its worth and soon led to the decision not to restore the cemetery line and instead only operate it with omnibuses in the future. The restored lines were also partially in a desolate condition because the track material was worn out or the track substructure was inadequate. In addition, the continuation of the Neckar canal from 1949 would have meant the construction of a bridge to Böckingen and thus the change in the route of the Böckinger Line. After calculations of economic efficiency, the decision was made to operate the Böckinger Line with trolleybuses in the future , because this would mean that no new track would have to be built over the Neckar Bridge.
On September 20, 1951, the trolleybus to Böckingen went into operation. The tram meanwhile served four lines:
Line 1: from Trappensee – Sontheimer Straße Line 2: Karlstor – Hauptbahnhof Line 4: Sülmertor – Neckargartach Line 5: Sülmertor – Sontheim
From December 1951, the operation of line 5 to Gildenstrasse was shortened and the last section to Sontheim also switched to trolleybuses. At the end of 1951, the tram still served a network of almost twelve kilometers.
The tripartite operation of trams, buses and trolleybuses turned out to be costly, with the tram tracks in need of renovation, which often led to breakdowns, and the old tram railcars causing the greatest maintenance costs. According to an expert opinion from the summer of 1954, which suggested the suspension of tram traffic for economic reasons, the tram lines were served by buses from March 1955. The last tram ride in Heilbronn took place on April 1, 1955.
The tram vehicles were all scrapped after the shutdown. Some vehicles were still used temporarily as play equipment in playgrounds.
It was not until four decades later, in 2001, that a successor system to the tram went into operation with the Heilbronn urban railway .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Contract between the royal Württemberg State Railway Administration, represented by the General Directorate of the k. Württemberg State Railways, and the Kgl. Hüttenamt Wasseralfingen regarding the delivery of an intersection between the Heilbronn – Sontheim electric tram and the Beilstein – Heilbronn state railway. from 1899, printed in: Gottfried Bauer: One time harmony please !, page 36, Druchhaus Münster-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1986. Archived in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- ↑ 50 years Heilbronn-Neckargartach , 1988, page 19
- ↑ Christhard Schrenk: The year 1944 . In: Heilbronn 1944/45. Life and death of a city . Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1995, ISBN 3-928990-53-5 (Sources and research on the history of the city of Heilbronn, 6) ( online as PDF; 22 MB )
literature
- Gottfried Bauer: Harmony please! Local traffic in Heilbronn the day before yesterday - yesterday - today . Druckhaus Münster, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-85649-055-8