Works railway

LKM steam storage locomotive in the former Spee factory in Genthin

A working path or working path is on a user's premises (e.g., factory - or mining site ) located railway optionally also for the performance of an internal rail transport and as a feeder line is used.

Works railways are mostly short standard-gauge connecting railways that are mainly used by freight trains . They can also be found where roadways are not or were not easy to implement, such as in peat extraction areas . In exceptional cases, special non-public passenger transport for company employees takes place, in this case we speak of service passenger transport .

At mining companies such as MIBRAG , Rheinbraun or Ruhrkohle AG you will find extensive industrial railway networks (coal railways / colliery railways). Some of these are also narrow-gauge and / or underground. They are mostly operated electrically or with battery locomotives.

Explosion-proof diesel locomotive from the Emsland refinery

In many cases, normal locomotives cannot be operated on these industrial railways due to the risk of explosion , for example when tank farms or chemical factories are served. Special locomotives are used there, such as B. Steam storage locomotives , which get their drive energy from superheated water.

Well-known factory railways

In Europe

• Baden-Württemberg
  • Works railway of the Portland-Zement Blaubeuren Gebrüder Spohn AG
• Bremen
  • Bremen Harbor Railway
  • Bremerhaven Harbor Railway
• Hesse
  • Messel mine railways
  • Hanau industrial railway
  • Nieder-Ramstadt industrial railway
  • Roßdorf industrial railway
  • Seckbach industrial railway
• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
  • Zinnowitz – Peenemünde railway line (remnants of the former works railway of the Peenemünde Army Research Institute )
  • Ticino narrow-gauge railway
• Lower Saxony
  • Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter , works railway of Salzgitter AG
• North Rhine-Westphalia
  • Narrow-gauge industrial railway of the Westfalenhütte , formerly the industrial railway of the iron and steel works of Hoesch AG , Dortmund
  • Works railways of the railway and ports of Duisburg
  • Werkbahnen of RBH Logistics GmbH , formerly the Werkbahnen of Ruhrkohle AG
  • RWE Power (Rheinbraun) AG factory railways in the Rhenish lignite district
• Rhineland-Palatinate
  • The company railways BASF to Ludwigshafen am Rhein
  • Dyckerhoff AG factory railway
• Saxony
  • Vattenfall Europe AG factory railways in the Lausitz lignite district
  • the Muskau Forest Railway
• Saxony / Saxony-Anhalt
  • MIBRAG factory railways in the central German lignite district
• Saxony-Anhalt
  • InfraLeuna Werkbahnen of the Leunawerke
  • Factory tracks of the Dröbel sugar factory
  • Mansfeld Bergwerksbahn (oldest German narrow-gauge factory railway, today a museum railway )
• Thuringia
  • Bad Salzungen – Unterbreizbach railway line , potash works railway
  • Steinbacher Bergwerksbahn
• Austria
  • Hans Hatschek AG's works railway
  • Schwertberger kaolin train
• Switzerland
  • Birsfelden harbor railway
  • Kleinhüningen port railway
• Czech Republic
  • Kateřina works railway

Outside of Europe

• Japan
  • Works railway of the Tateyama-Sabō erosion control systems
• USA (Texas)
  • Luminant factory tracks

In a broader sense, they can be viewed as work tracks

Jung factory locomotive on a brick factory

• Light railways for the transport and dismantling of agricultural goods
• Light railways for the transport of extracted sea salt (e.g. in the Mediterranean area)
• Mining trains to break down rocks and ores, including by Kaolinbahnen, sound paths and brick paths
• Peat tracks
• Forest railways to transport the felled wood
• Quarry tracks for the removal of the broken rock

These are usually designed with narrow gauges.

Web links

Commons : Industrial railways  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files