Welschbruch Forest Railway

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Welschbruch Forest Railway
Four lorries loaded with wood at the Welschbruch forest house
Four lorries loaded with wood at the Welschbruch forest house
Route of the forest railway Welschbruch
Route of the forest railway Welschbruch.
Route length: 6.3 km
Gauge : 700 (?) Mm
Region (F): Alsace
Legend
End station - start of the route
 0.0 Forsthaus Welschbruch
Stop, stop
 Fontaine Laquiante
End station - end of the line
 6.3 Lumber yard

The Forest Railway Welschbruch ( French Le chemin de fer forestier de la Forêt de Barr ) was a narrow gauge - forest railway near the Alsace Barr .

Location and use

The 6.3 km long route led with an average gradient of 7% in serpentines and along the river Kirneck from the forest house Welschbruch via Fontaine Laquiante to the wood yard 445 meters below. From there the wood was transported to Barr train station in ox-drawn carts.

Initially there were six wooden carts that could be used to transport tree trunks up to 30 m long. They could each transport up to four cubic meters. In 1887 the number of lorries increased to sixteen.

The lorries were pulled empty by horses from the lumber yard to the forester's house. When loaded, they drove, driven only by gravity, on a 30-minute drive into the valley controlled by a brakeman.

history

As the transport of wood by sledge on the steep toboggan run along the river Kirneck was dangerous and seasonal, the municipalities of Barr, Bourgheim , Gertwiller , Goxwiller and Heiligenstein decided , on the recommendation of the chief forester Rebmann, who was president of the Vosges Association, to close a railway to build.

The construction of the route from the wood yard to Pfostenhiesel began in 1887. In 1888 the line was extended to Welschbruch. It was connected there with a section of 'le Eisenbahnweg', which has existed since 1860, and which leads over the Rothlach. The line was officially opened on July 16, 1889. "A festival like never before" was celebrated, as the Barrer Kantonsblatt headlined.

The construction of the railway line, estimated at 63,000 marks, cost more than 100,000 marks, so that the profitability was often called into question. After only 20 years of use, the line was closed in 1906.

literature

  • A. Stehlé, La Fontaine Laquiante près de Barr, Les Vosges, 1936
  • A. Stehlé, L'ancien chemin de fer forestier de Barr, Les Vosges, 1966

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Le chemin de fer forestier de la forêt de Barr .

Coordinates: 48 ° 24 ′ 54.1 ″  N , 7 ° 21 ′ 0.3 ″  E