Bismuth factory track

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The Wismut-Werkbahn is a connecting line that connects the Erzbunker station with the Kayna station in Kraasa near the former Meuselwitz – Ronneburg railway line . The most important route Seelingstädt – Paitzdorf was built in stages from the end of the 1950s. The connecting railway was operated from 1961 initially by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) until 1963 the transport company of Wismut AG took over the operation. This was continued by Wismut GmbH until the sale in early 2014. Since then, the operation has been carried out by Starkenberger Baustoffwerke GmbH (SBW).

organization

With the connecting railway contract of October 1961, the DR was obliged to manage operations, while Wismut paid rents, leases and other payments. The only property owned by Wismut were the Schmirchau and ore bunker terminus and sidings, the Gauern – Culmitzsch connecting line and the connections to shaft 375 and later also to shaft 374. Wismut initially performed its own shunting service with rented locomotives from the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The connecting railway areas in Schmirchau were subordinate to the Wismut headquarters with the code name Object 90 in Gera . As a result of the separation of rail and transshipment operations, the independent connecting rail and unloading departments were created on January 1, 1963 . From 1966, the company procured its own vehicles, initially six V 60s and then two steam locomotives of the 58 series in 1967 . After the dissolution of object 90 on December 31, 1969, the connecting railway was assigned to the Schmirchau mining company. In 1974, the previously independent connection line of the processing plant (AB 102) in Seelingstädt was assigned directly to the connection line of the Schmirchau mining company. The parts north of Raitzhain that were built from 1975 onwards were owned by Wismut, with the exception of the Raitzhain – Großenstein Reichsbahn line. On January 1, 1985, the connecting railway was part of the Ronneburg transport company. At the end of 1990 the connecting railway operated under the logistics division, transport company Ronneburg, production area connecting railway and from January 1991 under the railway transport branch .

On March 1, 2014, the railway operations of Wismut GmbH, which were to be discontinued at the end of 2014, including staff and vehicles, were sold to Starkenberger Baustoffwerke GmbH (SBW), which continues to operate the connecting railway. Around 500,000 tons of sand are transported annually on the approximately 50-kilometer route network. Starting from the sand mine in Kayna, sand trains are driven to Schmirchau and Seelingstädt and increasingly to other large construction sites in Germany.

stretch

In the course of time, various routes were operated through the bismuth:

  • Bf Teichwolframsdorf – Sorge-Settendorf / Katzendorf-Trünzig open-cast mine: 1953 to 1965
  • Bf Gauern – Gauern open-cast mine: 1955 to 1956
  • Bf Gauern – Culmitzsch open-cast mine: 1957 to 1967
  • Seelingstädt – Schmirchau from 1957
  • Schmirchau – Paitzdorf from 1968 (only in operation after Raitzhain)
  • Raitzhain – Beerwalde 1975 to 1997
  • Raitzhain open-cast sand mine Kayna from 1976/77
  • Beerwalde – Löbichau 1979 to 1997
  • Beerwalde – Drosen 1981 to 1994

The former uranium mining area will still be rehabilitated by 2012 , and until then mainly sand trains will travel the ore bunker – Kayna route.

vehicles

the preserved V 300.04 in the traditional Staßfurt depot

For the heavy ore and sand transport, several own mainline diesel locomotives of the DR class V 200 were procured from the end of 1971 , of which the Wismut owned 14 pieces in 1987. The DR series V 60 was used in the shunting service at the works stations , for which the statistics also name 14 units in 1987. In 1983 the construction of the company's own electric towing vehicles (ESF) began, which had an electric motor with a towing cable and, thanks to their compact design, could also drive under flat ore loading ramps. Two of these vehicles were in service in AB 102, one in Schmirchau and one in Beerwalde, which was, however, replaced by a fifth ESF with a more powerful drive. In addition to its own vehicles, vehicles from the Deutsche Reichsbahn continued to be used in the connecting railway area. The last steam locomotive, the 50 2652 from the Werdau depot, ran on October 20, 1978.

In 1997, the Wismut-Werkbahn acquired two remotorized locomotives of the 232 series and classified them as V 300 001 and 002. In 1999 a third machine was added as the V 300 003. Two more units were purchased by 2001 and there were then a total of five V 300s, from 001 to 005.

literature

  • Hans-Jürgen Barteld: The bismuth railway around Ronneburg (=  secondary railway documentation . Volume 41 ). 1st edition. Kenning, Nordhorn 1998, ISBN 3-927587-92-3 .
  • Mathias Buchner / Bernd Neddermayer (eds.): The Wismut-Werkbahn. The history of the industrial railway of the Soviet-German stock corporation in the East Thuringian uranium ore mining area , EK series Regional Transport History , Volume 25, Freiburg 2000. ISBN 3-88255-439-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Hans-Jürgen Barteld: The bismuth railway around Ronneburg . 1998.
  2. ↑ Wismut connection line taken over by Starkenberger Baustoffwerke GmbH (press release). Wismut GmbH, March 28, 2014, accessed on May 18, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Wismut V300 diesel locomotives. (PDF; 399 kB) In: EEP online shop for Eisenbahn.exe professional - EEP series. Retrieved August 25, 2012 .