Itz Valley Railway
Encyclopedia
The Itz Valley Railway was a former, 8 kilometre long branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
in Bavaria, Germany, running from Creidlitz, in the borough of Coburg
Coburg
Coburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...
, to Rossach in the municipality of Großheirath
Großheirath
Großheirath is a municipality in the district of Coburg in Bavaria in Germany....
).
The single-tracked line has a railway gauge of 1,435 mm (standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
) and was not electrified.
History
It took eight years of effort before the communities of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the ItzItz
The Itz is a river in Germany and a right tributary of the Main.The Itz begins in Sachsenbrunn , Thuringia and flows southward through Bachfeld and Schalkau. It crosses into Bavaria and feeds the Froschgrundsee reservoir. It continues through Dörfles-Esbach, Coburg, and Großheirath, then is...
valley were given their railway connexion, branching off the Werra Railway
Werra Railway
The Werra Railway is a single-tracked main line with a standard gauge of 1,435 mm in Thuringia and Bavaria in southern and central Germany, that runs mostly along the river Werra. It runs from Eisenach via Meiningen to Eisfeld and, formerly, continued to Coburg and Lichtenfels. It was opened...
near Creidlitz, on 4 December 1900. They had to make the land available for the railway at no cost.
The line initially belonged to the Prussian state railways
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
and was managed until 1945 by the Erfurt
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
Reichsbahn division. Attempts to extend the route to Kaltenbrunn
Itzgrund
Itzgrund is a municipality in the district of Coburg in Bavaria in Germany....
in the lower Itz valley as far as the Bavarian line from Breitengüßbach to Dietersdorf
Breitengüßbach–Dietersdorf railway
The Breitengüßbach–Dietersdorf railway was a single-tracked branch line in the province of Upper Franconia in Bavaria, southern Germany. It branched off from the main line from Bamberg to Hof, northeast of Breitengüßbach station, only a few hundred yards after the branch line to...
, which had been opened in 1913, were never realised although it was only 6.7 kilometres distant. To begin with, it was shelved because it would compete with the 15 kilometre longer main line from Lichtenfels to Bamberg. Later attempts foundered due to a lack of funding and, in the end, the fact that the Lichtenfels–Coburg line was electrified.
In the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft's 1934 railway timetable the line was listed as 165e and four pairs of passenger trains were scheduled daily each with a journey time of about 30 minutes for the 13 kilometres between Coburg and Rossach.
In the Deutsche Bundesbahn
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
's timetable in 1970 the line was listed as no. 419e; after 1992 it became no. 832. Until 1970 the DB used Class 86
DRG Class 86
The DRG Class 86 was a standard goods train tank locomotive with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. It was intended for duties on branch lines and was delivered by almost all the locomotive building firms working for the Reichsbahn...
steam engines and Class VT 70 railbuses, later they deployed diesel engines of Classes 280
DB Class V 80
The Class V 80 is a type of German diesel locomotive operated by theDeutsche Bundesbahn, that was redesignated as Class 280 from 1968.- History :...
and 211
DB Class V 100
These DB Class V 100 diesel locomotives were produced in the late 1950s by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for non-electrified branch lines as a replacement for steam locomotives...
, as well as Uerdingen railbus
Uerdingen railbus
The Uerdingen railbus is the common term for the multiple units which were developed by the German firm of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and private railways after the Second World War. These vehicles were diesel-powered, twin-axle railbuses of light construction...
es. Fromb 1982 weekend services were withdrawn and on 2 June 1984 passenger services ceased entirely.
Goods train predominate in Großheirath due to the loading of clay at the Gottfried brick factory (Klinkerwerk Gottfried) where a supported loading ramp and weighbridge was available. In addition, there were sidings in Niederfüllbach
Niederfüllbach
Niederfüllbach is a municipality in the district of Coburg in Bavaria in Germany....
for a haulage
Haulage
Haulage may refer to:* The business of being a haulier or hauler , also called haulage contractor, common carrier, contract carrier, or private carrier, in other words of transporting goods by road or rail for other companies or one's own company.* The horizontal transport of ore, coal, supplies,...
firm and a steel merchant. Even as late as 10 June 2001 around 15,000 tonnes of steel were delivered annually to the steel merchant. The two kilometre long section from Großheirath to Rossach was closed on 1 September 1995, In April 2001 authority was given for the closure and cessation of operations on the remaining section and on 31 Juli 2001 for the complete closure of the line. In 2005 the line was lifted; a cycle path has been established in places on the old line.
Route
The steepest incline on the route is 1:100 and the smallest curve radius is 300 metres. The stations in Siemau-Scherneck, Großheirath and Rossach were built to a standard brick design. Due to its proximity to Creidlitz station the halt at Niederfüllbach was shut again soon after the line opened.Sources
- Wolfgang Bleiweis, Stefan Goldschmidt und Bernd Schmitt: Eisenbahn im Coburger Land. Verlag Eisenbahnfreunde Steinachtalbahn-Coburg, Coburg 1996, ISBN 3-9802748-4-5
- Bernd Schmitt: Die Itzgrundbahn. Geschichte der Nebenbahn von Creidlitz nach Rossach. Eisenbahnfachbuch-Verlag Michael Resch, Neustadt 2001, ISBN 3-9807748-1-3