Factory tracks of the Dröbel sugar factory

Siding sugar factory Dröbel (pink)
Narrow gauge steam locomotive 'Anna', one of three Henschel locomotives with tender , Fab.-Nr. 18033-1920, newly delivered to the light railroad at the Dröbel sugar factory near Bernburg, scrapped in 1954
Route length:	0.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Feldbahn Zuckerfabrik Dröbel (blue)
Route length:	25.0 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Top speed:	15 km / h
Legend from Koethen Bernburg Gbf to Aschersleben Hegestrasse 0.0 to the slaughterhouse (switch Z1) Fuhne Connection gas works (municipal works) Connection of tar and roofing felt plant Pond path Sugar factory factory track 0.7 Lst sugar factory Dröbel to the factory 0.9 Quarry unloading point 0.0 Bf sugar factory Baalberger Strasse 4.1 Latdorf 5.1 Pobzig (Barth's switch) 5.8 / (0.0) Grimschleben practice (Branch without locomotive operation) (2.7) Domain Grimschleben (3.5) Grimschleben sugar factory (0.0) / 8.1 Gerbitz junction (0.4) Gerbitz Former border Anhalt / Prussia (2.3) Zuchau 10.1 Lampe's switch (2.8) Wedlitz village 11.3 Wedlitz - Wispitz exercise 11.3 / (0.0) (Branch without locomotive operation) Wispitz loading track Former border Anhalt / Prussia 13.5 black L 63 14.3 Kolno 14.8 Magdeburg – Leipzig railway line 15.3 Connection to the state train station Patzetz former horse tram from Patzetz station (0.0) / 16.5 Patzetz domain (3.8) Lödderitz (8.1) Cooling approx. 18.5 Sidings (1.7 km) 20.3 Gross Rosenburg to Klein Rosenburg (from 1922 Benzolloks) 25.0 Breitenhagen

The factory railways of the Dröbel sugar factory consisted of an approximately one kilometer long standard-gauge siding to Bernburg station and a light rail network with a gauge of 600 millimeters from the factory in Dröbel via Sachsendorf to Breitenhagen on the Elbe. In addition to the 25-kilometer route to Breitenhagen, there were branches to surrounding villages. The total track length of the works railways was 44.6 kilometers. Both plants and the sugar factory have been shut down.

history

First, the standard gauge siding was opened in 1895. It branched off from the freight track to the slaughterhouse that had been in operation four years earlier and crossed the Fuhne on a bridge that still exists today. The route ran in an easterly direction. Shortly after the river bridge, the connecting tracks to the gas works and the tar paper factory, built in 1903 and 1908, branch off before the three-track terminus at the sugar factory was reached. The end of the line was formed by two unloading tracks.

After the end of the First World War , it was decided to build a narrow-gauge field railway to supply the sugar beet from the area around the sugar factory . The Anhalt state government approved the construction on August 5, 1919, approval by the Free State of Prussia was granted on October 31 of the same year. As early as July 1, 1919, the first two narrow-gauge steam locomotives from Orenstein & Koppel were in use in the construction of the line. The line went into operation in September 1920. Between Patzetz Domain and Breitenhagen, the sugar factory used the tracks of the Patzetz – Breitenhagen horse-drawn tram, which had been in service since 1884 , and which continued to operate for at least a few years after the light railway opened and which had passenger traffic. The branch lines to Grimschleben, Zuchau and Wedlitz were in operation from the start. The 8.1 km long branch line from Patzetz to Kühren was opened by the 1923 harvest season at the latest. The siding to the Patzetz state railway station was built in the early 1920s for coal loading, but the licensed transport of coal to the sugar factory did not take place via the field railway.

Plans made in the 1930s for branch lines from Dröbel to Gerlebogk (11.7 km) and Biendorf (7.2 km) and from Pobzig to Drosa (7.1 km) were not implemented. As early as the end of the 1930s, the branch line to Grimschleben was mainly used to park cars. In 1954, the Groß Rosenburg – Breitenhagen section and the Patzetz – Kühren and Gerbitz – Zuchau branches were closed. On May 25, 1957, the underpass under the main Magdeburg – Leipzig line was closed and the line from there to Groß Rosenburg was also closed. The underpass was removed in 1962. On March 23, 1959, the closure of the remaining narrow-gauge systems was finally approved and subsequently carried out. The tracks were sold to various factories in the GDR and reused for their works. The sugar factory ceased operations with the 1964/65 harvest season, but the site was used as a drying plant until 1990. Shortly thereafter, operations on the standard-gauge siding ended. This was still in place in 1995, but has now largely been dismantled.

business

The center of operations was the train station at the sugar factory, where there was a locomotive shed. The 1939 timetable provided for ten pairs of trains per day on the main line. The travel time for the entire route was around two to two and a half hours. Four of the trains went to Breitenhagen, two more to Groß Rosenburg, three to Patzetzdomain and one to Zuchau. A second train was used on the branch line to Zuchau, which began and ended in Gerbitz following a train on the main line. On the branches to Grimschleben and Wedlitz, the wagons were pushed manually, locomotive operation was not permitted here.

literature

• Rainer Dill: The factory railways of the Dröbel sugar factory. VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer GmbH, Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-933254-64-7