Wesselbahn
| Wesselbahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Remains of rails at the Dickobskreuz
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| Route length: | 2.38 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Wesselbahn was a small railway opened in Bonn in 1890 . It initially served as a link between the Ludwig Wessel porcelain and earthenware factory in Poppelsdorf and the Bonn freight yard .
history
In the freight yard there was a direct track connection to the Voreifelbahn , via which the Witterschlicker clay pits were reached. The clay could be delivered directly to the factory by rail, while the finished products were shipped via the freight yard. Further connections were made later, including for the Boehringer and Knauber companies as well as stops for small businesses along the route. The railway was later converted into a connecting railway.
After the Wesselwerk was closed, the section to Poppelsdorf was decommissioned at the turn of the year 1969/1970 and dismantled in the years that followed. The remnants of the Wesselbahn continued to serve as the siding for the Boehringer and Knauber companies. Until 1989, Knauber was supplied with gas tank wagons on the route every day. In 1990, Knauber ceased operations and the remaining section of the route was shut down.
Except for a few remains, these tracks have also been dismantled today.
Poppelsdorf cafeteria, facing south
Poppelsdorf cafeteria, looking north
particularities
From 1907 to 1955, the Wesselbahn crossed the tram tracks at the Endeicher Allee at the same level as the tramway to Endeich, and since 1903 the horse-drawn tram.
When, shortly after the Second World War, the Bonn train station (now the main train station ) was inaccessible from the north due to the ruins of the Viktoriabrücke , passenger trains were briefly brought from Cologne to the Wesselbahn via a rail link in the freight station. The city center could be reached by changing to the tram.
In the plans for the so-called Hardtbergbahn (light rail line to the Hardtberg district of Bonn), a variant of a route on a controversial cover of the 565 federal motorway was considered to use a section of the former Wesselbahn route for rail traffic again. Today the Wesselbahnweg exists on this section .
literature
- Volkhard Stern: The Wesselbahn in Bonn . In: Silberpfeil , magazine of the Cologne-Bonner Eisenbahn-Freunde eV , issue no. 105, August 2006, pages 43–48
