Legnica tram

Legnica tram
Former Liegnitz tram car
Basic information
Country	Poland
city	Legnica
opening	January 21, 1898
Shutdown	March 9, 1969
Infrastructure
Formerly the largest route	15 km (1937)
Gauge	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Stops	16
Depots	1
business
Lines	3
statistics
Reference year	1938
Passengers	2,220,054 per year
Employee	87
Former track plan

The Legnica tram was a meter-gauge tram system in the Lower Silesian city of Legnica ( Liegnitz ) in Poland .

The tram was opened in the Prussian administrative city at the end of the 19th century and was continued to be used by the Polish residents after the Second World War. Three tram lines ran through the city, each starting at the main train station . The lines led to Huta, Groß Beckern and Neuhof. Tram operations were discontinued in 1969 and local public transport switched to buses.

history

prehistory

The capital of the administrative district of Liegnitz was one of the last larger cities in the Prussian province of Silesia , which at the end of the 19th century did not yet have a tram. A horse-drawn tram has operated in Görlitz since 1882 and a steam train in the Upper Silesian industrial area since 1894 .

In 1878, Liegnitz received the first offer for the construction of a horse-drawn tram from a Berlin company. Three years later, it was recommended to build a steam train and shortly afterwards a gas train based on the model of the Dessau tram . A company from Wrocław finally offered to build an electric railway. The district town of the Liegnitz administrative district, however, always refused the offers for financial reasons.

On April 27, 1896, the city received an attractive offer from the Berlin electricity company Felix Singer & Co. The company offered free preparatory work for the electric tram by an engineer. On June 10 of the same year, a commission composed of representatives of the city council of the city council approved the contract with the Felix Singer electricity company. On June 22nd, the congregation finally accepted the contract.

The representatives of the electricity company signed the contract on June 23 in Berlin and the Lord Mayor Ottomar Oertel and Mayor Gayl as city representatives on June 24. According to the contract, the city gave the company permission to operate the tram and left it to build roads, squares and bridges over which the railway tracks were to run. The city also promised to support society in the event that private land was used. According to the contract, the company undertook to pay for the construction of the tram network at its own expense and to ensure the operation of the following four tram lines for the duration of the contract:

Ring line : Bahnhof - Lindenstrasse - Breslauer Platz - Gartenstrasse - Friedrichsplatz - Ring - Goldberger Strasse - Wilhelmsplatz - Neue Goldberger Strasse - Grenadier Strasse - Neue Haynauer Strasse - Haynauer Strasse - Burgstrasse - Schlossstrasse - Bahnhofstrasse - train station,
Friedrichsplatz - Luisenstraße - Schützenstraße - Jauerstraße - Dornbusch,
Breslauer Platz - Breslauer Straße - Cemetery and
Ring - Johannisstrasse - Kohlmarkt - Ritterstrasse - Hedwigstrasse - Lübener Strasse.

Opening and operation until the First World War

On January 12, 1898, the construction engineer was able to announce the completion of the tram. The state police inspection followed on the morning of January 18 and was accompanied by celebrations. The official representatives had gathered in the town hall and then drove with three decorated trams that waited in front of the Peter-Paul-Passage to see the route network. The acceptance report was then signed in the town hall. On January 21, 1898, the tram began its traffic and carried visitors to the large winter garden construction exhibition. The tram company employed 72 people in its first year of operation.

Advertisement for the electricity company Felix Singer & Co. AG from Berlin from 1898. The tram in Liegnitz with motor vehicle 15 is shown with one engraving.

Initially, the overhead line was implemented according to the Dickinson system , and the overhead line could also be suspended independently of the center of the track. In this way, the number of suspensions could be reduced in curves. The roller pantographs on the railways were also movable to the side. In 1911, however, the Dickinson pantographs were exchanged for Lyrabügel .

In the first year of operation, few Liegnitzers drove with the new means of transport. In 1898, 859,000 citizens used the tram. By 1902 the number had even dropped to 766,000 passengers. The city did not grow as fast as was first expected in the years that followed. Income sank from an initial 83,000 marks to 73,840 marks in 1902. The northern line to Lübener Strasse was the least used and therefore closed on January 31, 1900. The rest of the lines did not turn out to be favorable either. The operating company tried to make the means of transport more attractive by making changes to the timetable. She was also able to get the city through a reduction in taxes from the income. In 1903 the number of users stabilized and in 1909 it exceeded one million users per year. In 1912, 1.2 million passengers used the tram. The total income rose to 118,309 marks.

Initially, the trains ran every 7½ minutes on the Ringbahn and every 10 minutes on the other routes. The route length was 8.5 kilometers and the company had 18 railcars and five trailer cars. The depot was located near the cemetery on the corner of Breslauer Strasse and Insterburger Strasse. Between 1912 and 1913, the tram's electrical systems were rebuilt. Among other things, a 600-kilowatt single -armature converter from SSW with a corresponding switching device was installed in the substation .

Ever since the tram was built, the surrounding villages had hoped to be connected to the tram network. In May 1906, shareholders also suggested connecting some localities with the city. The community of Groß Beckern promised subsidies for tram operations if the cemetery line was extended into the village. The road to Groß Beckern crossed the railway line to Königszelt and would therefore represent an obstacle to the realization. The extension of the Dornbusch line to Neuhof-Prinkendorf was more promising. The decisive impetus for the eastern expansion of the network was ultimately the incorporation of the western part of Groß-Beckern. At the general assembly of 1909, the owner of the Neuhof sugar factory and the state elder Scherzer also promised their support. In 1911 the city approved the building capital. In January of the following year, the contract was signed to extend the route from the cemetery to Groß Beckern. The route should lead to the inn on the east side of the village, while the route had to cross the railway line and the Granschkebach.

Construction work began in the summer of 1913, as the permits were only available from the beginning of the year. On August 29, 1913, the line was approved by the building authorities and officially opened. The operating company offered the guests of honor and officials a breakfast in the inn at the new terminus. The inn was popularly known as the Temple of the Muses . The expansion of the southern line began on December 15, 1912, after the contractual basis was created in May. The route ran between Kunststraße and floodplains. On May 9, 1913, the route was removed by the construction police and celebrated with a celebratory breakfast in Tivoli. The opening took place on the day of Pentecost. Two new railcars were procured for the extensive route network and several cars were equipped with a second engine under the extended platform. In 1914 four more two-axle, closed sidecars were purchased.

Between the world wars

The ring line - the prestige of the city administration - was discontinued at the end of the 1920s and the cross connection through Grenadierstrasse was shut down. The northern branch was extended further along Neue Haynauer Strasse to Hardenbergstrasse at the level crossing. The southern branch was extended to the loga space. In 1937 the expansion of the network was completed.

The length of the mostly single-track network was a maximum of 15 kilometers. In 1927 the length of the single-track lines was 13.16 kilometers. In the depot there were 20 railcars and ten side cars and two special cars. At the same time, the company had 61 employees. 1,439,000 passengers were carried and 224,000 marks were earned. In 1938 the length of the route was only 11.9 kilometers. By evading the track length was 13.9 kilometers.

At that time there were three tram lines. However, the line numbers were not introduced until August 1, 1940. Previously, the trains ran without a line number.

line	Line course	Travel time in min.
1	Train station - Friedrichsplatz - Goldberger Straße - Logauer Platz	11
2	Groß Beckern - Friedhof - Breslauer Platz - Train station - Burgstrasse - Haynauer Strasse	31
3	Train station - Friedrichsplatz - Dornbusch - Tivoli	21st

Lines 1 and 2 ran every 15 minutes, whereas the trains on line 3 only ran every half hour. Line 3 was only used in the afternoon every 15 minutes. The fleet consisted of 18 powered vehicles and 10 sidecars. Another five special vehicles were used for track and overhead line maintenance and repair. The number of passengers had passed the two million mark. In 1938 it was 2,220,054 passengers. 87 employees found wages and salaries on the tram. The income amounted to 267,967 marks.

The first bus line was set up on September 17, 1937. It ran from Posener Strasse in the Gartenvorstadt in the north to the suburban settlement in the south and was 5.4 kilometers long. Four buses were bought for the line. During the Second World War , the railways only ran every half hour on all lines, but now always with sidecars. The bus line between the train station and Gartenvorstadt was also discontinued. In addition to these energy and personnel-saving measures, a motor coach and two trailer cars were also handed over to Łódź . In 1943 five million passengers were counted.

The trolleybus route decided in 1940 was opened on November 10 of the same year . It ran between the train station and Siegeshöhe and was served by two MAN / AEG trolleybuses. The line ran over Marienplatz, Frauenstrasse, Goldberger Strasse, Breslauer Platz, Friedrichsplatz and Peter-Paul-Platz in a loop through the city center. Despite the largely parallel route to tram line 1, the initial cycle of 40 minutes had to be reduced to 20 minutes due to the high demand. In addition, the capacity was increased by two used trailers.

After the Second World War until it was closed

The city was captured by the Red Army in February 1945 . The outskirts of the city had been destroyed to a considerable extent, while the inner city was largely spared at first. Some houses in the city center fell victim to the war as a result of arson or other destruction after the city was taken. The city came under Polish administration after the war and was renamed Legnica.

After the war, the tram resumed, but the northern route from Burgstrasse ( Ulica Grodzka ) - Haynauer Strasse ( Ulica Chojnowska ) was closed. The trolleybus line was also shut down and the systems dismantled. After the war, tram operations suffered from the generally poor condition of the tracks and the outdated rolling stock. The tram depot and workshops on Breslauer Strasse were so badly damaged that they were never rebuilt. At the station, an open-air workshop with work pits, lifting jacks and barracks was built on a stump of the former northern old town route. In some cases, disused buses also served as workshops. The provisional depot was separated on both sides by wooden fences. The open-air depot remained in place until the tram was shut down.

In the 1950s, the entire old fleet of cars was shut down and replaced by 16 German and Polish war tram cars (KSW) and eight KSW sidecars. In 1952, a track loop was created through the city center from the train station via Marienplatz to Breslauer Platz. Shortly thereafter, line 1 was extended over the Siegeshöhe and the so-called half mile to the suburb of Huta. Tram line 3 had to be shortened by a few 100 meters due to damage to the bridge over the Katzbach.

Memorial plaque in the pavement

Before the tram was closed, there were three bus routes in Legnica, most of which served the tram lines that had been closed before and after the war. Until the shutdown of trams on March 9, 1969, three tram lines ran every 10 minutes with three courses each on the following lines:

line	Line course
1	Train station - Plac Wilsona ( Breslauer Platz ) - Plac Słowiański ( Friedrichsplatz ) - Ulica Złotoryjska ( Goldberger Straße ) - Plac Łużyckiego ( Logauer Platz ) - Siegeshöhe - Huta (Kupferhütte)
2	Piekary Wielkie ( Groß Beckern ) - cemetery - Plac Wilsona ( Breslauer Platz ) - train station
3	Train station - Plac Wilsona ( Breslauer Platz ) - Plac Słowiański ( Friedrichsplatz ) - Dornbusch - Nowe Dwory-Przybków ( Neuhof-Prinkendorf )

literature

Siegfried Bufe: Trams in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 130 .
^ ^A ^b ^c Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 132 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 134 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 137 .

[Schlesien130-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 130 .

[Schlesien132-2] A ^b ^c Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 132 .

[Schlesien134-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 134 .

[Schlesien137-4] Siegfried Bufe: Tramways in Silesia . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1992, ISBN 978-3-922138-43-3 , p. 137 .