Rack railway sugar factory Schulau
The cog railway sugar factory Schulau was with DC powered by 500 volts and used as a work train cog train a sugar factory in 1909 by Wedel eingemeindeten place Schulau . It was one of the first electric rack railways in Germany and went into operation in 1901. In 1933, after the sugar factory closed, the two-gauge rack railway was shut down.
history
In Schleswig-Holstein Schulau was in 1891 by Henry Alfred Michahelles a sugar factory established and operated until the 1,932th Since the raw materials were delivered to the banks of the Elbe by ship , but the sugar factory was located on the Geestrücken about 20 meters above the river (at today's Graf-Luckner-Haus at Hans-Böckler-Platz 15), there was a need for a means of transport that was able to overcome a steep incline over a short distance. For this purpose, a double-track funicular was initially used. After a serious accident at work, the funicular was replaced in 1901 by an electric cogwheel train with a mixed cogwheel and adhesion drive. At that time it was one of the first electrically operated rack railways in the world after the Chemin de fer du Salève (1893), the Gornergratbahn (1897) and the Jungfrau Railway (1898) and the second of its kind in Germany after the Barmer Bergbahn of 1894.
The sugar factory was shut down during the Great Depression in 1932 and the railway was dismantled the following year.
Railway line with two gauges
The total length of the route was 750 meters. The tracks for the adhesion operation were laid out as narrow-gauge tracks with an 800-millimeter gauge , as the funicular and all the tracks within the factory on which the goods trolleys were distributed on the factory premises had already been laid in this gauge. The approximately 500 m long double-track cogwheel route was designed as a multi -rail track with a second, slightly higher pair of tracks in the unusual track width of 1300 millimeters with a centrally arranged rack according to the Abt system . This second pair of rails had already been created for the funicular railway and was used there for the use of a caliper brake . In addition to the two toothed racks, there were a total of eight rails next to each other on the double-track line . The maximum gradient of the cogwheel route was 15%.
The 1300 mm track for cogwheel operation was raised slightly compared to the 800 mm track, so that the wheels turned by the engine for the friction drive of the locomotive ran idle on the cogwheel section. During the cogwheel operation, the wheels running on the 1300 mm track were only used for load bearing and guidance. This made it possible to bypass the time- consuming synchronization or switchover between gear and adhesion drive, since both types of drive have different effective diameters. Without the auxiliary track, there would have been considerable slippage , combined with wear and tear and high energy consumption.
Locomotives and energy supply
All electrical equipment, including the locomotives, was supplied by Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft in Berlin . The power supply was provided by a single-pole overhead line , which as with trams was attached to the cross wires.
The UEG supplied a total of three electric locomotives for operation on the cogwheel route . The very simply built locomotives were only equipped with a small central driver's cab in which the driver could stand. The only operating elements were a hand-spindle brake and a tram-standard travel switch , with which the parallel connection and the resistance brake were operated.
Depending on the source, different information is available on the further details and data of these locomotives, all of which are identical in construction:
- Axis sequence : B 0 or B / 1a1, with the latter obviously referring to the gear configuration after the slash.
- Motor type: two cradle bearing motors
- Output: 15 hp or 25 kilowatts (34 hp) per engine
- Length: 3.10 m
- Axle base : 1050 mm.
- Weight: 5.1 tons or 8.0 tons
After the factory was closed, one of the locomotives was to be given to the Deutsches Museum in Munich . In the end, however, all three locomotives were scrapped in Hamburg.
literature
- G. Kästner: A two-track rack railway , in: Lok-Magazin 52, February 1972, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, pp. 67-69
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k G. Kästner: A two-lane rack railway , in: Lok-Magazin 52, February 1972, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, pp. 67-69
- ↑ a b c d e f www.werkbahn.de, accessed on July 28, 2011
- ↑ A picture taken during operation clearly shows how the outer wheels of the locomotive roll on the outer rails on the rack and pinion track, while the carts behind them run on the inner, narrower track
