Tram Hohenstein-Ernstthal-Oelsnitz
| Hohenstein-Ernstthal-Oelsnitz (Erzg.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route length: | 11,350 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power system : | 1000 volts = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 47.6 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 25 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Hohenstein-Ernstthal-Oelsnitz tram was a meter-gauge tram in southwest Saxony . Between 1913 and 1960 it led from Hohenstein-Ernstthal station via Gersdorf to Oelsnitz . Until the end of the Second World War, the tram was operated by the Sächsische Überlandbahn GmbH , based in Frankfurt am Main .
history
prehistory
After Hohenstein-Ernstthal , Lugau and Oelsnitz already had a railway connection, Gersdorf and Oberlungwitz also wanted a connection to the rail network from the 1890s. On November 10, 1897, a railway construction committee was formed in Hohenstein, which Oskar Ludwig Kummer commissioned on November 16, 1897 with the first preparatory work.
On March 19, 1901, Kummer received the concession to build a meter-gauge tram, but after his company went bankrupt on June 14, 1901, the previous intentions were invalid. Since the money for the railway construction was not available in the neighboring communities, other means were initially used. Gersdorf, for example, set up a horse-drawn bus connection to Hohenstein on November 11th , which was well received by the population. In 1904 a Mr. Ballhorn expressed an interest in building a rail link, but apart from demands for funds and interest guarantees, the company he ran made no progress with a rail link, although Kummer's documents and plans were available to him. After the project failed in 1907 or 1908, investors were again sought.
business
The Hohenstein-Ernstthal-Oelsnitz tram was ultimately built by the Sächsische Überlandbahn GmbH based in Frankfurt am Main in Saxony. After the inauguration run took place on February 13, 1913, the line was opened for passenger traffic on February 17, 1913 and for - always insignificant - freight traffic on April 1, 1913. The railway connected the Hohenstein-Ernstthal station on the main line Chemnitz – Glauchau , where the administration and depot were located, with the Oelsnitz town hall on the Stollberg – St. Egidien . It brought the long-awaited connection to the rail network for the city of Oberlungwitz and the community of Gersdorf , but also for large parts of Lugau. The 11.35-kilometer-long, continuous single-track route ran mainly on public roads, with only 2.7 kilometers on its own track. The journey time was around 50 minutes.
Vehicles were used that were supplied with direct current of 1000 volts from the overhead contact line . At first the trains mostly ran every half hour; in later years was the day a 40-minute intervals because of initially six only two Dodge were present; there was no break in operation even at night. Mainly due to the heavy rush hour traffic in the numerous mines and textile factories, the number of people transported quickly grew to two million a year. In 1940 ten railcars and twelve sidecars were available for this purpose; An electric railcar was available for freight transport . Since 1928 there was also a smaller wagon hall in Oelsnitz .
The management was taken over from the beginning by the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEAG), which also owned shares in the tram company. This came with DEAG to the Lenz Group , the AG for Transport , which, however, lost its railways in 1945 in the area of the Soviet zone, later the GDR. The railway became a state-owned company, which was last called "VEB (K) Verkehrsbetrieb Straßenbahn Hohenstein-Ernstthal - Oelsnitz".
After the number of miners had decreased more and more in the 1950s and costly renovation work was pending, all operations were stopped on March 26, 1960.
route
The route began at Hohenstein-Ernstthal station in front of the now demolished station building . From there, the line ran in a westerly direction alongside the Dresden – Zwickau state railway until it crossed under the bridge at the end of the Hohenstein-Ernstthal station along with the road. Now the junction to the Hohenstein freight yard and the depot on Goldbachstrasse was passed before the journey continued next to Goldbachstrasse in the direction of Hermsdorf .
There the route first crossed today's federal highway 180 before crossing the Lungwitzbach on a bridge. The journey continued in a narrow track curve around the Uhlig mill, a larger mill complex with its own siding , until the town of Gersdorf was crossed by the railway on the local road, until a separate route was used again from the “Kesselschmiede” stop at the end of Gersdorf .
The tram continued down the valley of the Hegebach to Oelsnitz , past the second depot near the Herrenmühle. After a few kilometers through Oelsnitz, where the tram used the road again, the terminus was reached directly in front of the Oelsnitz town hall. At some distance there was still a connection to the Stollberg – St. Egidien at the Mitteloelsnitz stop.
vehicles
.jpg)
.jpg)
passenger traffic
When operations opened in 1913, there were nine two-axle railcars , which were designated with the numbers 1-9, and also nine associated sidecars with the numbers 21-29. All vehicles were built by MAN . Sidecar 22 arrived in Reutlingen in 1921 ; for this, a sidecar with the number 22 came in 1925 from the Pfälzer Oberlandbahn . In 1927/28 the fleet was expanded again with another railcar and three trailer cars from WUMAG in Görlitz. Three four-axle sidecars were brought to Saxony from the Mansfeld Electric Small Railroad in 1925 . However, these vehicles with the numbers 30–32 did not prove themselves and were withdrawn from the stock in 1938. In the same year a railcar was handed over to the Palatinate Oberlandbahn this time. In 1952, eight years before the end of operations, two new trailer cars with the repeatedly assigned numbers 31 and 32 were procured from VEB Waggonbau LOWA in Gotha. This means that when operations were closed, there were still nine railcars and 14 sidecars.
| Empty weight in t | Maximum weight in t | Engine power in hp | Standing room | |
| Railcar 1–9 | 11.35 | 14.05 | 2 × 45 | 34 |
| Railcar 10 | 13.40 | 17.30 | 2 × 63 | 52 |
| Sidecar 21–29 | 6.15 | 9.00 | - | 38 |
| Sidecar 33–35 | 7.40 | 11.30 | - | 52 |
At first all vehicles were painted yellow, later a green stripe was added at the lower end. The vehicles were braked by compressed air and a handbrake was available as a second brake. The passenger compartment could be reached via the covered platforms on the front sides.
Freight transport
For freight transport, the railway had a special freight railcar with the number 11, called the "Red Fox". There were also seven open and six closed freight cars .
- Data for the "Rotfuchs" freight railcar:
- Weight: 10.89 t
- Motor: 2 × 45 HP
literature
- Rolf Löttgers: The Saxon Overland Railway Company (SÜG) . In: Eisenbahn-Magazin 1990, issue 10.
- Helmut K. Missbach: Saxon overland trams since 1898 . Transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-613712-43-1 .
- Schatz, Scholze, Karkuschke: The Hohenstein-Ernstthal - Oelsnitz / E tram. Kenning Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-933613-59-0 .
- Heinz Schönherr, Lothar Schilde: The electric overland tram Hohenstein-Ernstthal - Gersdorf - Lugau - Oelsnitz (Erzgeb.) . Druckhaus Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt 1988.
- Germut Stoltenkohl: The Saxon overland railway Hohenstein-Ernstthal - Oelsnitz i. E. In: Tram magazine 1983, issue 47.
