Wangerooger Inselbahn
| Wangerooger Inselbahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The island railway at the west jetty
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 Map of the island of Wangerooge with the island railway
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| Route number (DB) : | 1542 (Wangerooge – west pier) 1543 (Saline – west) 1545 ( Wangerooge – east pier ) |
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| Course book section (DB) : | 10007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 5.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 20 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Wangerooger Inselbahn is a single-track, meter-gauge , non-electrified railway line on Wangerooge . It is the only narrow-gauge railway operated by Deutsche Bahn and the most important means of transport on the car-free island.
history
1897-1920
The Wangerooger Inselbahn was opened in meter gauge by the Grand Ducal Oldenburg Railway (GOE) in 1897 . The operation was carried out from the beginning with steam locomotives , not as a horse-drawn tram as on some neighboring islands. The route led from the newly built pier in the southwest of the island to the center of the island village in the middle of the island. It took a train around 20 minutes to cover the 3.5-kilometer route at a top speed of 30 km / h. These times are still valid today, even if the route has changed several times. In 1901 the navy built a 1.9 kilometer branch line from the saltworks halfway to the west of the island in order to connect military bases there.
In 1905 the east pier was built as the second pier and connected to the train station in the island village by a 5.4 kilometer rail link. In order to cope with the growing traffic flows, a new, large-scale train station was built in 1906 on what was then the southern edge of the village. The two tracks were spanned by a station hall. This station essentially still exists today.
In 1912 a new west pier, a little east of the old west pier, went into operation. It was connected to the Saline junction with a new route running roughly parallel to the previous route . The other pier in the southwest went out of service and the associated railway line was subsequently dismantled. The purpose of this measure was to develop Wangerooges as a fortress with an efficient railway network. In the course of the First World War , numerous sidings were laid to military installations. There were up to four sections of the island railway on the small island with a maximum of 24 sidings.
1920-1945
In 1920 the island railway came as part of the merger of the state railways to form the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
There the steam locomotives previously designated as No. 3 to 5 were listed as the 99.02 series , a collective name for narrow-gauge steam locomotives. In the mid-1920s, a track triangle was set up at the salt works , which in turn had primarily military purposes, such as the faster transport of guns. This triangle was re-routed several times and finally dismantled in 1969. The first four-axle passenger cars were also purchased in the mid-1920s, and a coffee train ran twice a week from the village station to the west station and back.
The number of spa guests - and thus passengers - stagnated at a low level around 1930, but rose six-fold by 1939 to 65,500 passengers, two-thirds of whom traveled via the east pier.
From 1939 to 1952 a box steam locomotive 99 081 drove on Wangerooge, which was called the “greenhouse” by the staff because of the heat development in the driver's cab.
During the Second World War , Wangerooge was again of great strategic importance, as the island lies at the mouth of the Weser and near the town of Wilhelmshaven, which was then important for the war effort (see: Wangerooge's military history ). On April 25, 1945 there was a heavy air raid on Wangerooge with considerable bombing. The route between the saltworks and the village, the station hall and numerous passenger and freight cars were also destroyed.
From 1934 to 1947 the west tower had a connection through the short extension of the Saline section (Gleisdreieck) - west.
Since 1945
The destroyed line was rebuilt after the end of the war. In 1952, the now leading German Federal Railroad began introducing diesel locomotives . The first diesel locomotive was a Gmeinder locomotive. In 1957 the traction change was completed. In 1955, a minibus-like draisine was also procured.
The number of passengers who arrived at the east jetty and traveled the eastern island railway line was very high after the Second World War, as the popular excursion island of Helgoland was still under British occupation. After 1952, Helgoland became accessible to Germans again, so that traffic via the east pier fell sharply. In 1958 it was dismantled and with it the eastern section of the island railway. In the village, the tracks are still about 200 meters to the east and serve as pull-out and siding.
In 1959, as part of a conversion program, four-axle passenger cars were acquired for the Inselbahn, which resembled the standard gauge conversion cars that were common at the time . They were originally painted dark green, but were given advertising paintwork or two-tone paintwork from 1972, which were based heavily on the experimental pop paintwork of the Deutsche Bundesbahn.
In 1969 the Gleisdreieck, which had previously enabled direct journeys between the port and the west , was no longer available .
Between 1952 and 1971, a total of four DB class 329 diesel locomotives were purchased. In 1977 the draisine was replaced by a newer model. In 1981, a class 699 multiple unit was added, as well as some cars that had previously been in use on the neighboring island of Spiekeroog until the island railway there was shut down .
In 1990 two more diesel locomotives were procured, this time from East Germany from the former Mansfeld Combine . In the following years, 14 new passenger cars were added from the Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk (Raw) Wittenberge , which were painted in distant blue / light gray, analogous to the so-called product colors of the Interregio trains, and completely replaced the previous passenger cars.
On January 1, 1992, two years before Deutsche Bahn (DB) was founded, the class 329 locomotives were renamed class 399.1. In 1995/96 the tracks were renewed.
From 1997 onwards there was a museum steam locomotive operation on Wangerooge every summer for a few years. For this purpose, the DEV “ Franzburg ” locomotive was brought from the mainland to the island.
In 1999 the DB AG purchased two new diesel locomotives from the manufacturer Schöma ( 399 107 and 399 108 ), which have since been used mainly in passenger train service. As a result, the four oldest diesel locomotives (399 101-104) were parked and the number of Romanian locomotives prone to damage (399 105 and 106) was reduced.
Current operation
The Wangerooger Inselbahn is operated by Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangerooge (SIW). This has belonged to the DB AutoZug division since 2002 and , since its dissolution at the end of September 2013, to DB Fernverkehr , where local transport offers are not valid ( free travel with a severely handicapped ID is still given on the ferry and island train). With the two ferries Wangerooge and Harlingerland chartered by the shipping company Warrings , SIW also operates the ferry service from Harlesiel to Wangerooge.
The fare is usually charged for a journey by ferry and train, but tickets are only available for the train or only for the ferry. However, there is hardly any significant domestic traffic on the island in regular passenger traffic. Larger luggage must be checked in. In total, the train is used by around 200,000 passengers annually, on peak days there are up to 1,500 travelers in each direction.
The tracks have been running on a ballast bed since a renovation carried out on the main line between 1995 and 2005, while sand and gravel bedding can still be found on the side tracks. The maximum speed is 20 km / h. A large part of the route between the western pier and the saltworks now leads on a stone dam through the salt marshes , which are flooded when the water levels rise. It is also a breeding area for numerous seabirds that have got used to the migratory traffic. There are no plans to get on or off the road despite the relatively low speed.
Since the ferries, which are also part of the DB, have to drive from Harlesiel through flat tidal areas, the timetable depends on the tide . However, it is calculated in advance for the entire timetable period.
From the west tower , the youth hostel , there is a good view of the entire route. In the high season it is very busy. Two trains are often on the move at the same time. Crossing takes place directly in front of the pier in the port station.
If necessary, trips are made via the saltworks to the west station , which have also been released for public transport since June 2010 and mostly serve to connect the local school camps. Since the direct track from the port to the west was dismantled in 1969, it can only be used after changing the direction of travel. This makes the rail link on Wangerooge the only German island railway with a branch line. Most trains have four-axle flat wagons for transporting luggage in addition to the railroad cars for passenger transport; But there are also pure freight trains (including to the building yard of the Waterways and Shipping Office at the west station). The checked baggage such as suitcases and bags are taken in roll containers that are transferred to or from the ferries. Bicycles are also carried on the flat car. To supply the island, groceries and almost all other goods as well as removal goods are also transported with flat cars, mostly in smaller containers. These are loaded onto road trailers by forklift at the village station and brought to the recipient by electric vehicles. Otherwise there are only a few four-axle open freight cars of different types and one (blue) tank car for liquids.
The Wangerooger Inselbahn is today one of the last narrow-gauge railways in Germany with freight traffic .
Curiosities
The Inselbahnhof is called “Wangerooge” and is signposted in white on blue in the DB design. The station building is marked on the side facing the place with the label "Kehre wieder". At the unmarked port station there is a sign saying “God created time. He didn't say anything about hurry. "
outlook
The Wangerooger Inselbahn is the main means of transport on the island and will probably remain so for a long time to come. Unlike on neighboring islands, the ferry port cannot be relocated close to the island village. The rolling stock is in good condition, the route, train station and western jetty are freshly renovated and the runway is very well frequented, also due to the lack of alternatives, and air traffic only takes a small part of the passengers. And the freight is always very large (and profitable).
Locomotives and wagons
In order to start operations, the GOE procured a two-axle steam locomotive in 1897, which had been manufactured by the Märkische Lokomotivfabrik . In 1900 a second locomotive from the Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft Heilbronn was bought, which was probably already in use as a construction locomotive on Wangerooge. The increased traffic made a third locomotive necessary in 1904, which was the first directly procured locomotive and delivered by Freudenstein & Co. As a replacement for the first locomotives that were no longer able to cope with the increased traffic, locomotives 4 and 5 were manufactured by Hanomag in 1910 and 1913 . The 99 211 was the first three-axle locomotive to enter service in 1929 . In 1939 there was reinforcement by a three-axle Palatine L 1 , which had become superfluous in Ludwigshafen. It stood out because of its design as a tram locomotive . During the Second World War, three more locomotives from French and Dutch railways were used on Wangerooge for increased military traffic ( 99 271 (former ZVTM 21), 99 281, 99 291); however, it is not clear whether they were all used.
In 1952 the first diesel locomotive came to Wangerooge, the three-axle V 11 901 (from 1992: 399 101). Five years later, two more powerful locomotives V 11 902 and V 11 903 followed (from 1992: 399 102-103). This made the steam locomotives superfluous. In 1971 another second-hand locomotive, this time with two axles, was bought by Inselbahn Juist and classified as 329 504 (from 1992: 399 104). In 1990 the locomotive fleet was renewed, the 399 105 and 399 106 were almost new. However, they were not convincing, so that in 1999 two new locomotives 399 107 and 399 108 were purchased from Schöma . Since then, locomotives 399 105 and 399 106 have mostly been reserve locomotives . Today, all locomotives have the traffic red paintwork of Deutsche Bahn AG .
In 1981 the railcar of the Spiekerooger Inselbahn was taken over and designated as the only narrow-gauge railcar of the Deutsche Bundesbahn as 699 001 (from 1992: 699 101). After years of neglect, it was retired in 1993 and sold to the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Verein Bruchhausen-Vilsen .
There were also two draisines in stock. In addition, there were the vehicles of the Navy, which had its own fleet of vehicles on Wangerooge until 1945, as well as a locomotive and a trolley from the Waterways and Shipping Office, both of which are no longer available today. There were also two- and four-axle tank wagons , open and covered goods wagons (some with four axles) and two- and four-axle flat cars.
The steam locomotive 99 211 is a monument in the island village.
photos
A Freight Train at the West Pier (1983)
Drive through the salt marshes to the ferry terminal (August 2017)
The railway line to the island village
The train station in the island village after the major renovation in 2003
The train station in the island village with the locomotive shed (1984)
Locomotive shed Bf Wangerooge (2010)
Reception building Bf Wangerooge (2010)
See also
literature
- Egbert Nolte: The Wangerooger Inselbahn. Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1999, ISBN 3-933613-07-8 .
- Malte Werning: Wangerooge: The island railway and its history. Lokrundschau Verlag, Gülzow 1999, ISBN 3-931647-09-9 .
- Hans Wolfgang Rogl: Archives of German small and private railways: Lower Saxony. transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71022-2 .
- Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The North Sea Island Railways. 6th edition, alba, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-87094-230-4
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 9: Lower Saxony 1. Between the Weser and Ems. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2005, pp. 73-93, ISBN 3-88255-668-4 .
Web links
- Website of DB Fernverkehr to the Wangerooger Inselbahn and ferry line to Harlesiel
- Wangerooger Inselbahn at inselbahn.de