Völklingen tram
The tram Völklingen was a two- line comprehensive tram system in the Saarland . It was initially operated by the municipality of Völklingen itself - since 1937 the city of Völklingen , later the Stadtwerke Völklingen took over this task. After its shutdown , the tram was replaced by the Völklingen trolleybus .
history
The operation was opened on September 3, 1909 on a 9.17 kilometer route network. From the Völklingen train station a line ran in a south-westerly direction via Wehrden and Geislautern to Ludweiler , it was 5.6 kilometers long. A second line, which also began at the train station, branched off at Rotweg in Geislautern to Großrosseln , it was 7.6 kilometers long. At the end there was a connection to the Forbach tram in Lorraine , which, however, was across the Saarland border in France from 1919 .
From May 23, 1928, the meter-gauge and predominantly single-track network was extended by 3.5 kilometers to Luisenthal , where it was connected to the Saarbrücken tram operated by the trams in Saartal AG . Community line 1 was able to operate from November 18, 1928 from Neumarkt in Saarbrücken to Großrosseln . Soon afterwards it began in Brebach in the east of Saarbrücken and ended in Ludweiler.
After the Second World War , line 1 ran the Schafbrücke – Saarbrücken – Völklingen – Großrosseln route and line 2 ran from Luisenthal via Völklingen to Ludweiler.
On November 12, 1950, with the closure of the Völklingen – Püttlingen section, the gradual conversion to trolleybuses or omnibuses began . In 1954 the line to Ludweiler was discontinued, and on February 1, 1958, the Luisenthal – Bahnhof section was closed. The last line to be closed on April 18, 1959, was Line 1 to Großrosseln.
vehicles
The tram fleet initially consisted of seven railcars and eight trailer cars ; in 1939 there were twelve railcars and six trailer cars.
As of January 1, 1955, the city's own operation, known as the "Stadtwerke Völklingen - Saar - Department of Transport", had 9 railcars and 4 trailer cars. The route length was given as 10.95 km, of which 1.63 km were double-track. For comparison: for the trolleybus operation that had existed since November 12, 1950, there were 10 "motor vehicles" and 1 trailer, and there were also 12 buses in the inventory.
literature
- D. Höltge: German trams and light rail vehicles. Volume 4: Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland. Verlag Zeunert, Gifhorn 1981, ISBN 3-921237-60-2 , pp. 304-309.
- UP Ipsen: The tram in Völklingen. In: Tram magazine. Issue 76, May 1990.
- 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. 390-399.
Individual evidence
- ^ Association of public transport companies (ed.): Handbook of public transport companies. Edition 1955/56. Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1955, p. 142.