Spyck wave route
| Spyck wave route | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 2516 (Kleve – Spyck) 2266 (Welle – Elten) |
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| Route length: | 18.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trajectory length: | 600 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Trajectory operation: | 1865-1912 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Spyck-Welle trajectory was a railway ferry across the Rhine between Spyck on the left bank of the Rhine and Welle on the right bank of the Rhine . It was put into operation in 1865 by the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (RhE) with the construction of the left Lower Rhine route from Cologne via Neuss , Krefeld , Kleve , Elten and Zevenaar to the Dutch North Sea ports.
Track construction
On July 5, 1862, the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (RhE) and the Nederlandse Rhijnspoorweg (NRS) agreed in Cologne to link their two railways on German soil. Since preliminary talks in Berlin had given approval for a route near the border, but the Prussian military refused a permanent bridge over the Rhine there, only one ferry connection ( Trajekt ) remained.
The RhE then continued its route from Kleve in 1865 via Griethausen and there bridged the Old Rhine on a 100 meter long lattice girder bridge ( Griethausen railway bridge ), which is still standing today. This was followed by the 314 meter long receiving water with 20 openings. The line then ran across the Salmorth Rhine peninsula to the banks of the Rhine in Spyck, where a station with 4 siding tracks was built for the dismantling of the arriving trains and the rearrangement of the hauled wagons. From here to the wave on the right bank of the Rhine , one of the narrowest parts of the Lower Rhine has been one of the narrowest parts of the Lower Rhine since the current was regulated . A similar train station was built there, from which the line continued to lead to the Eltenberg, crossing the small river Wild with a 130 m long bridge with seven openings. Before reaching the Emmerich - Zevenaar railway line , it turned north and ran alongside this line to the Dutch border. From there to Zevenaar, the NRS had already completed its 5.10-kilometer section on March 9, 1864.
The route from Kleve to the border with the bridges was inspected by the police on April 2, 1864 and opened to traffic. The construction of the trajectory brought many problems because of its initial construction, so that the opening of the entire line was delayed considerably.
The train station
The ferry pontoons with the railway carriages should not drive freely across the river, but should cross the river between two chains stretched across the river. Only when the chains were replaced by strong ropes did the trajectory succeed. The stronger wire rope running in the upstream water ran over pulleys on the Ponte and served as a guide rope. The thinner rope in the underwater ran on the Ponte over two wheels that were driven by a steam engine and carried the Ponte across the river.
The wagons were pushed over an incline (slope 1:48) by a locomotive onto the pontoons and pulled off by another locomotive on the other bank. In order not to burden the pontoons with the weight of the locomotive, two lightweight intermediate cars were coupled to the locomotives. The Ponten could carry either six freight cars or five passenger cars on the deck mounted track. The passengers stayed in the car during the crossing.
The approval for freight traffic with two ferry routes across the Rhine took place on April 19, 1865 and a few days later, on April 21, the first passenger train ran from Cologne over the trajectory to Zevenaar. The timetable had planned 20 minutes for the crossing with the train. Of this, four minutes were spent on moving the wagons on the inclined levels and eight minutes on the actual navigation.
Floods , storms and above all the ice drift of the Rhine, which at that time occurred every winter, had a negative effect on the operation of the ferry . This meant that operations were interrupted for an average of three weeks a year. Nevertheless, between 20,000 and 30,000 wagons were driven across the Rhine every year. The RhE was able to use the trajectory system developed here for two further railway trajectories. On August 23, 1866, she opened the Rheinhausen – Hochfeld trajectory and on July 11, 1870 the Bonn – Oberkassel trajectory .
End of the train station
Until the nationalization of the RhE, the company's entire freight and passenger traffic ran on the left-hand Lower Rhine route to North Holland . As a result, at the end of 1912, the ferry traffic was stopped and the track ramps dismantled on both banks. The passengers were transferred by steamboat. During the First World War , train operations were reduced to two pairs of trains. After the end of the war, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) terminated the contract and the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG) operated the train and ferry service until August 31, 1926. Around 1930, the tracks on the Welle - Elten line were dismantled on the right bank of the Rhine. On the other hand, passenger traffic on the left bank of the Rhine continued until May 29, 1960 and goods traffic to an oil mill located directly on the Rhine continued until 1987. Then this section of the route was also closed.
literature
- Emil Hartwich: Extension of the Rhenish Railway. 2. Department: Ferry companies for rail traffic. With 7 panels. 2nd Edition. Ernst & Korn, Berlin 1870 (reprint. Braun, Duisburg 1979, ISBN 3-87096-156-2 ).
- Hans-Paul Höpfner: Railways - their history on the Lower Rhine. Mercator-Verlag, Duisburg 1986, ISBN 3-87463-132-X .
- JH Jonckers Nieboer: Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Spoorwegen. 1832-1938. 2. geheel heart. dr. Nijgh & van Ditmar, Rotterdam 1938.
- Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft: Report on the results of the administration, construction and operation of the Rheinische Eisenbahn. 1862-1874, ZDB ID 611463-5
- Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft: Business reports. 1875-1882, ZDB -ID 611464-7 and ZDB -ID 611465-9
- Dieter Roos: The Zevenaar - Elten - Welle - Spyck - Griethausen - Kleve ferry line. Bundesbahn-Fahrbeamtenverein, Emmerich 1983.
- C. Switching brand : Trajectanstalten. In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers. 14, 1870, ISSN 0341-7255 , col. 13-24, 565-574, 629-636, 695-706.
- Hans Schlieper: Railway trajectories across the Rhine and Lake Constance. Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-87094-369-1 .
- JHSM Veen: De spoorverbinding Zevenaar - Kleve. In: Op de rails. No. 5, 1966, ISSN 0030-3321 , pp. 71-75.
Web links
NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost:
- Description of route 2516 : Kleve ↔ Spyck
- Description of route 2266 : Welle ↔ Elten
Further evidence:
- "Express Spyck - Wave - Berlin"
- Searching for traces along the Kleve − Elten route (with pictures) (Dutch)
- Babberich - Elten - Griethausen - Kleve (Die Trajektlinie) (Dutch)
- Aerial view of the trajectory (with Dutch explanations)
Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 14.9 " N , 6 ° 10 ′ 17.7" E