Kateřina works railway
| Kateřina works railway / Kateřina – Soos museum railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Soos Railway Museum
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 Lasselsberger, Vonšov depot
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| Route length: | about 15 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Kateřina industrial railway is a narrow-gauge industrial railway in the Czech Eger Basin , where brown coal as well as ceramic clays and sands are extracted. The factory railway has existed since around 1900, the first locomotives were used in 1909.
Mining in the Skalná region
The north-eastern part of the Eger basin in the south, east and north of the city of Skalná is extremely rich in natural resources. Besides lignite, which was mined from the first half of the 19th century until 1929, it is mainly high-quality ceramic clays and sands. These have been used since the 14th century to make the famous Eger stoneware.
After 1900, when the Tršnice – Luby u Chebu line was opened, this line created new opportunities. Due to the good sales opportunities and the increase in the amount of mining due to modern machines, economical transport was shifted to the railroad.
An extensive network of narrow-gauge railways was built as a connection to the individual quarries for the transport of large quantities of materials such as to the spoil heaps as well as the conveyed material for further processing and for sale. The network changed over the years according to current needs.
Development of the light rail lines
As a rule, the track width of 600 mm was used. There were also some other short routes that were normally used without locomotives and built with a gauge of 500 mm. There were also a few gauges of 700 and 900 mm.
Steam locomotives have been used since 1909 . These came from Maffei , later a diesel locomotive was delivered by Deutz . Further steam locomotives were procured new or used from Krauss-Maffei and Orenstein & Koppel . During the First World War several army field railway locomotives of the Austro-Hungarian type RIIIc were used.
Diesel locomotives took over the service during the 1930s. They were mainly supplied by Orenstein & Koppel, Deutz and later Demag and belonged to types H2, LR2, MD 2, OMZ 117 and OMZ 122 . Before the Great Depression in 1929, 26 mines in the region were engaged in the extraction of clay and sand; they had around 1,300 employees.
During the Second World War , more steam and diesel locomotives were delivered. During this time, the main traffic was carried out with steam locomotives. Due to a lack of fuel, some Deutz diesel locomotives had to be converted to run on wood gas .
The last steam locomotive was built by Skalensko in 1953 in the new factory in Havlíčkův Brod . At that time it was already clear that the future lies in diesel traction. Procurements were concentrated on small diesel locomotives of the types BN 30 and BN 30R, which were mainly used in mining and for shunting in factories. Trains that pulled up to 18 cars were driven between Kateřina and Hájkem and Vonšov by powerful Deutz locomotives.
After the Second World War, the mines were expropriated and nationalized. They have been renamed several times and in 1989 were given the name KEMA (keramické materiály) as a state-owned company . In 1996 the company was privatized and named KEMAT . In 2005 the plant became part of Lasselsberger . Today it belongs to the LB Minerals division .
In 1997 the number of locomotives was eight BN 30, seven BN 30 R, two DH 30 S, one DNH-I-7-35 and one Deutz OMZ 122.
In 2017 the operation was stopped, the clay for processing is brought to the plant from a new pit by truck.
Pictures of the factory track
Kateřina depot
Locomotive 10 at Lasselsberger, Vonšov plant
Locomotive 17 at Lasselsberger, Vonšov plant
Access to Lasselsberger, Vonšov plant
Freight wagons in the Kateřina depot
Museum Railway Kateřina – Soos
The specialist section of the Iron Monument Clubu Plzeň, or CS IMC for short, has been in existence since April 14, 2006. It was established in accordance with the status of the Union for the Protection of Monuments of the Czech Republic and cares about the past and present of transport, mainly railways. A primary goal is to document the various railway operating systems around the world.
Another goal of the CS IMC was to build a narrow-gauge tourist train as part of the Soos – Kateřina Railway Museum. This small train complements the nature trail through the Soos nature reserve.
On April 14, 2012 the first train of the museum railway ran between Kateřina and Soos. On that day, 1,200 people were carried by the passenger train. Since then, driving has taken place on certain weekends. Additional freight trains run to demonstrate everyday operations on the route to museum visitors. These meet in Rampa. There is also a vehicle show with various locomotives in Soos on the driving days.
Pictures of the museum train
Soos Railway Museum
Soos stop and Nový Drahov train station
Rampa stop
Kateřina stop
Monument in Skalná
Kateřina works railway at the Soos nature reserve (2016)
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literature
- 600 mm kaolin railway in West Bohemia, light railway in the Soos . In: MIBA, The Railway in Model . No. 3 , 1999, p. 38 ( docer.pl ).
Web links
- Timetable 2019 (German)
- O nás. Iron Monument Clubu Plzeň ,, accessed on May 22, 2019 (Czech).
- Description of the Iron Monument Club Plzeň. (PDF; 43 kB) Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
- Muzejní úzkorozchodná dráha Kateřina. Iron Monument Club Plzeň, accessed May 22, 2019 (Czech).
- Take a ride on the mine train on the reservation Soos. Carlsbad Events Calendar, archived from the original on October 12, 2013 ; accessed on May 22, 2019 (English).
- Pictures from the Vonšov – Kateřina light railway. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013 ; accessed on May 22, 2019 .
- End of planned operation at the Skalna light railroad (CZ). In: eisenbahnforumvogtland.de. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
- KEMAT Skalna light railway. Photos and track plans. In: franks-welten.de. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
- Krušnohorským Semmeringem do Saska. In: ceskatelevize.cz. Retrieved on May 23, 2019 (Czech, report on the railway line from around 15 minutes (5th film section)).
Individual evidence
- ^ Matthias Brauer: Skalna tile factory (Czech Republic). In: seppelbahn.de. Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 44.1 ″ N , 12 ° 24 ′ 9.6 ″ E