Berga-Kelbra – Stolberg (Harz) railway line

Berga-Kelbra – Stolberg (Harz)
Thyraliesel in Stolberg
Route number (DB) :	6722
Course book section (DB) :	592 (until 2011)
Route length:	14.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Top speed:	60 km / h
Legend from Halle (Saale) Hbf 0.0 Berga-Kelbra ( wedge station ) to Hann. Münden Federal motorway 38 5.8 Uftrungen 7.9 Rottleberode South Industrial connection 8.7 Infrastructure border DB Netz / Warnetalbahn 9.5 Rottleberode (formerly Bf.) 10.8 Stolberg Thyratal Thyra 14.9 Stolberg (Harz) (formerly Bf.)

The Berga-Kelbra – Stolberg (Harz) railway is an approximately 15-kilometer long, standard-gauge branch line between Berga-Kelbra and Stolberg (Harz) in Saxony-Anhalt . It is also called Thyraliesel after an ideas competition in the 1990s . Passenger traffic has been suspended since 2011; the route is served by buses.

history

The Eisleben – Nordhausen section of the Halle – Hann railway line. Münden was opened in 1866, but Berga has not yet received a station. This was only opened in 1877. Various industrial companies around Rottleberode were soon no longer satisfied with the distant train station, but wanted a direct rail connection. At first, the Count of Stolberg-Stolberg in particular resisted building a railway on his property, and it wasn't until 1887 that serious planning began for a branch line in the Thyratal . Various points - including Nordhausen , Roßla or Niedersachswerfen - were initially discussed as starting points before an agreement was reached on Berga. The project for a standard-gauge railway from Gernrode via Harzgerode to Berga, however, was rejected again.

The actual construction work for the approximately 10 km long project began on May 28, 1888. On the intervention of Count von Stolberg-Stolberg - who granted a building cost subsidy and claimed a lounge area only accessible to him in Rottleberode station - Rottleberode received this north of the town center, although a station further south would have been better for industry. Rottleberode was also furnished with a prince's room; the name Stolberg-Rottleberode followed. A loading point for goods traffic in the south was created later. After the first test train ran at the beginning of May 1890, the line was approved by the building authorities in mid-May. The grand opening of the railway line took place on June 1, 1890.

The neighboring Stolberg wanted a rail end very soon. Initially, however, a project based on the Selketalbahn was created : the Gernrode-Harzgeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (GHE) wanted to build a 22 km long connection to Rottleberode near Lindenberg . The first preparatory work for this began in 1893, after resistance emerged in several places, the GHE decided not to implement it. After 1900 the desire for a rail connection from the east arose. In the end, this route was only built as far as Wippra. Previously, it had already been decided to extend the branch line from Rottleberode to Stolberg. The construction work started in 1914 was interrupted by the First World War , similar to the Klostermansfeld – Wippra railway line . It was not until 1922 that construction work was resumed by the Deutsche Reichsbahn . On March 1, 1923, passenger traffic began on the extension, and goods traffic on August 1 of the same year. The initially planned connection between the two routes did not materialize.

After the Second World War, the route previously managed by Rbd Kassel first came to Rbd Halle and from autumn 1945 to Rbd Erfurt .

On November 26, 1995, the line had to be closed due to the poor state of construction of the vault bridges. At the same time, most of the rail connections were shut down. After Saxony-Anhalt guaranteed passenger services for another 15 years in 1996, the DB had the tracks renovated in 1998 for 15 million euros. Since the maximum speed could be increased to 60 km / h, the passenger trains now only needed 18 minutes for the entire connection.

Thyraliesel in Berga-Kelbra station

Until December 8, 2007 there was daily local rail passenger transport every two hours. Most connections have been canceled due to insufficient utilization; Since December 9, 2007, passenger trains have only run on weekends. On both days there were five pairs of trains. Some were long-running regional express trains from Magdeburg and Leipzig . The regional rail transport operator was the DB Regio subsidiary Burgenlandbahn on behalf of Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH (NASA). At the timetable change in December 2011, this public transport authority also canceled the remaining weekend excursion traffic due to insufficient utilization and switched to bus operation. At the moment there is still freight traffic to Rottleberode Süd - the freight and transshipment station of Rottleberode.

Due to the lack of profitability and the upcoming investments, DB Netz put the route out to tender in February 2010 for takeover by another railway infrastructure company (EIU). A year later, DB Netz put the route out to tender again, only affecting the seven-kilometer section behind Rottleberode Süd, which was not used for freight traffic to the Knauf works . After none of the three interested RIU took over the route, the Federal Railway Authority approved the permanent closure between Rottleberode Süd and Stolberg on March 31, 2012. The facilities of this section were converted from km 8.320 to km 15.044 into a station track of the Rottleberode Süd station.

The tourism and Warne Talbahn GmbH from United Flöthe has leased the end of 2019 the disused stretch of DB Netz and the country's Plenipotentiary for train supervision applied for approval. From 2020 onwards, timber will mainly be transported to southern Germany . Loading points are to be set up at two points along the route, u. a. one near the Stolberg district of Thyratal. On special occasions such as city festivals or in the run-up to Christmas, transports to Stolberg are also planned with the company's historic passenger trains. However, since the Thyra Bridge in Rottleberode is not passable, the start of rail traffic is postponed.

Route description

The route is located in the district of Mansfeld-Südharz . The route along the Thyra River starts at the Berga-Kelbra wedge station . This is on the Halle – Hann railway line. Münden , which was opened by the Magdeburg-Leipzig railway in 1866.

From the vicinity of the Kyffhäuser Mountains , the route leads past the Heimkehle , a cave accessible to tourists near the Uftrungen to the half-timbered town of Stolberg (Harz) at the foot of the southern Harz.

literature

• Paul Lauerwald: The Berga-Kelbra – Stolberg branch line (Harz). Herdam Wesseling / Rh. 1997, ISBN 3-9804798-7-0 .
• Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 3-88255-722-2 .
• Model railroaders, edition 5/2012.
• Paul Lauerwald: Berga-Kelbra - Stolberg (Harz). In: Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany then & now. 101. Supplementary delivery 2013, GeraMond Munich, ISSN  0949-2143 .

Web links

Commons : Berga-Kelbra – Stolberg (Harz) railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thyraliesel: The end of a railway tradition
2. ↑ ^{a b} Josef Högemann: Harz Railway Chronicle - The History of the Railways in the Harz , p. 132
3. ^ Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz , p. 139
4. ↑ Magdeburg - Loburg and Berga-Kelbra - Stolberg are switched to buses. (No longer available online.) NASA GmbH, September 19, 2011, archived from the original on October 9, 2011 ; Retrieved September 20, 2011 . 
5. ↑ Delivery of railway infrastructure, route: Berga-Kelbra (exclusively) - Stolberg (Harz) (including). (PDF) (No longer available online.) February 22, 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 24, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
6. ↑ Delivery of railway infrastructure, section: Rottleberode Süd (exclusively) - Stolberg (Harz) (including). (PDF) (No longer available online.) February 8, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 10, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
7. ↑ Approval in accordance with Section 11, Paragraph 2 of the General Railway Act (AEG). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Railway Office, February 14, 2012, archived from the original on April 13, 2014 ; Retrieved August 19, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Business releases of DB AG edition 15/2012 from April 11, 2012 (DB Netz AG Leipzig from April 2, 2012 - I.NVR-SO-P - internal 927-7765)
9. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung from Wednesday December 18, 2019, Sangerhäuser Zeitung, p. 7
10. ↑ Thyratalbahn route rolling trains to Stolberg again soon? Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, December 18, 2019, accessed on December 19, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Frank Schedwill, Helga Koch: Broken bridge stops the Warnetalbahn Special train from Erfurt to Stolberg is canceled. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , March 2, 2020, accessed on March 6, 2020 .