Neunkirchen tram
The Neunkirchen tram ran from 1907 to 1978 and was operated by Neunkircher Straßenbahn AG , which today operates as Neunkircher Verkehrs GmbH (NVG). One of the steepest tram routes in Europe on Hüttenberg , the main shopping street in Neunkirchen at the time, was part of their network of routes . Here a gradient of around 111 per thousand was driven in pure adhesion operation. From 1961 to 1978 four-axle, standard-gauge articulated railcars of type GT4 from the Esslingen machine factory were used, which had been specially modified to drive all axles for the Neunkirchen steep sections.
Tram Neunkirchen - Wiebelskirchen
On April 18, 1906, the Neunkirchen municipal council decided to build an electric, standard-gauge tram. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 19, 1906. On September 13, 1907, the total of 5.3 kilometers long route was opened; the construction costs amounted to 890,257 marks . Line 1 ran from Scheib via Oberen Markt , Hüttenberg, Stummplatz, Neunkirchen main station to Wiebelskirchen and the Hangarder Weg terminus. 1.6 million passengers were carried in the first year of operation.
Straßen- und Kleinbahn AG in Neunkirchen
After becoming a town in 1922, Neunkirchen founded the "Straßen- und Kleinbahn AG in Neunkirchen" with the Ottweiler district on August 12, 1925 and brought their Scheib-Wiebelskirchen tram line to the new company, of which the city of Neunkirchen 60 percent and the Ottweiler district 40 percent Percent of the share capital held.
The re-establishment was followed by a significant expansion of the route network into the Ottweiler district: Line 3 had been running from the Stumm Memorial via Dechen and Heinitz to Spiesen since April 9, 1927 ; From December 9, 1927, the starting point of line 3 was already at the slaughterhouse, a line on which the depot was also located.
On December 7, 1927, the trunk line was extended to the Steinwald. Traffic between the main train station and Steinwald was increased by line 2, which since 1965 began some of the journeys on the branch line to the slaughterhouse.
Line 4 was added on October 24, 1931 and ran from the Stumm Memorial via Landsweiler-Reden to Heiligenwald . The network had grown to a total of 19 kilometers - 2.6 kilometers of which were double-track. The Neunkircher Straßen- und Kleinbahn AG carried more than 3.5 million passengers in 1931.
The AG's fleet of cars reached its highest level in 1937. The fleet of cars included 22 railcars and five sidecars, almost twice as many as in 1914.
In Spiesen there was a connection to lines 8/9 of the company for trams in the Saartal AG to Saarbrücken from 1927 to November 5, 1958 . In 1939/40, the Dechen - Spiesen section of line 3 was assigned to the Saarbrücken tram for the transport of goods essential to the war and converted to meter gauge. Line 9 now also used it. However, this measure had been reversed from November 1, 1941.
The bus company, which opened on December 18, 1925, was sold by the Straßen- und Kleinbahn AG on October 11, 1936 to the Deutsche Reichspost . At that time it comprised 16 buses for 21 lines with a total length of 249 kilometers. It was not until 1950 that new bus routes were opened again.
Neunkircher Straßenbahn AG
On August 16, 1938, the AG changed its company name to "Neunkircher Straßenbahn AG". At the end of the Second World War , the tram suffered extensive damage, but was gradually able to resume operations in 1945/46. In 1946 more than 13 million passengers were carried. From this time on, however, the number of transports declined; In 1948 around 9.6 million passengers were carried. In the 1950s there was a reduction in the rail network due to numerous mountain damage and the partial switch to trolleybuses .
Line 4 was the first to be switched from August 1, 1953; From May 11, 1954, it was extended on the previous route of line 1 from the main station to Wiebelskirchen. Only tram line 2 went to Steinwald. The trolleybus service used 16 vehicles on an eleven kilometer route. The last trolleybuses on line 4 ran on March 31, 1964.
When tram line 3 was replaced by a bus line on January 29, 1965, after the Heinitz and Dechen collieries were closed, the trolleybus service was no longer available.
The tram network had now been reduced to city line 2 Steinwald - Hauptbahnhof with a branch to the slaughterhouse and a total length of 5.4 kilometers, which was used by eight (since 1965 seven) railcars. The then smallest tram company in the Federal Republic of Germany lasted until June 10, 1978 because it was feared that the bus would be too dangerous on the steep stretch. A new, powerful generation of buses helped to allay these concerns.
One of the last railcars (car no. 2, Maschinenfabrik Esslingen GT 4, year of construction: 1961) of the Neunkirchen tram is now in the Hanover tram museum . It has been renovated and has been operational again since summer 2003. Another GT 4 (car no. 4, same year of construction) is on the premises of the Neunkircher Verkehrs-AG, but it is in very poor condition and not ready to drive. It used to be on the grounds of the Neunkirchen Zoo .
The maximum gradient of the route according to the altitude profile was 110.7 per thousand. The vehicles of type GT 4 used at the end were calculated for a slope of 115 per thousand.
Since September 1st, 1978 the company name has been Neunkircher Verkehrs-AG. With over 50 own and around 30 rented vehicles, it operates an extensive bus network in the city and neighboring communities. The network, which consists of 14 different lines, extends over a total of 270 kilometers with 580 stops. Over eight million passengers are transported annually over a total distance of over three million kilometers. (Status: 2010.)
Accidents
Due to the steep incline, Hüttenbergstrasse was always a place of accidents and misfortunes. On September 18, 1907, shortly after the railway was completed, two people died in an accident. There were further accidents in 1917, 1922 and 1932.
On August 13, 1959, there was a serious accident. The braking device of a tram failed when driving up Hüttenbergstrasse when the tram had to brake because the vehicle was parked incorrectly. The car then rolled backwards without braking against a bus and threw it into the window of a furniture store. Two people died and there were several seriously injured.
literature
- D. Höltge: German trams and light rail vehicles. Volume 4: Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland. Verlag Zeunert, Gifhorn 1981, ISBN 3-921237-60-2 , pp. 226-240.
- Johannes Sebastian: The Neunkirchen tram - unique in Europe. In: Neunkircher Stadtbuch. published by Rainer Knauf and Christof Trepesch on behalf of the district town of Neunkirchen. Neunkirchen 2005, ISBN 3-00-015932-0 , pp. 197-208.
- M. Kochems, D. Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany. Volume 12: Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88255-393-2 , pp. 284-309.
- Neunkircher Verkehrs AG (Ed.): Between the crank and the steering wheel. 1907-2007. 100 years of local public transport in Neunkirchen. Neunkirchen 2007, ISBN 978-3-938381-17-5 .
- Werner Konter: Memories of the tram. The development of tram companies in Saarland. Logos-Verlag Saarbrücken, ISBN 3-928598-91-0 , pp. 15-101.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Structure of the NVG , viewed on November 1, 2010.
- ↑ Information on the NVG , accessed on November 1, 2010.
- ↑ a b Katrin Carl, Christian Reuther, Dennis Schuld: Kleine Chronik. A journey through time through the history of Neunkirchen. District town Neunkirchen 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-062867-2 , p. 91f.