Landshut–Rottenburg railway - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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The Landshut–Rottenburg railway was a German branch line in the southern state of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. It was a stub line, about 27.5 kilometres long, from Landshut

Landshut

Landshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the...

to Rottenburg an der Laaber

Rottenburg an der Laaber

Rottenburg an der Laaber is a town in the district of Landshut, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Große Laber, 21 km northwest of Landshut.-External links:*...

, and was known by the locals as the Rottenburger Bockerl (‘Rottenburg Goat’). Although the line is now closed, there is a plan to establish a museum railway on the remaining section from Landshut to Unterneuhausen.

Planning

As early as 1867 and 1878, options were explored for linking the towns of Landshut and Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

with of a railway, not least for military reasons. These investigations showed, however, that there was no widespread desire for through services. So in 1890 the Landshut town council awarded a contract for the assessing the construction of a railway from Landshut to Pfeffenhausen

Pfeffenhausen

Pfeffenhausen is a municipality in the district of Landshut in Bavaria in Germany....

and a second one from Pfeffenhausen to Eggmühl.

In September 1891 the Munich-based Lokalbahn AG

Lokalbahn AG

The Lokalbahn AG company , or 'LAG' for short, was a private company based in Munich, Bavaria, whose lines of business was the construction and operation of branch lines in Germany and Austria-Hungary...

gave its report. This envisaged a 20.09 kilometre-long route to Pfeffenhausen at a cost of 1,250,000 marks

German gold mark

The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...

. However it concluded that the construction of a route from Pfeffenhausen to Eggmühl would not have met the transportation interests of the upper Laaber

Laaber

Laaber is a municipality in the district of Regensburg in Bavaria in Germany....

Valley, which was aligned with the county capital of Landshut.

So the Royal Bavarian State Government decided, in the supplement to the draft of the Lokalbahn ('local line') law of 12 December 1895, that a Lokalbahn from Landshut to Pfeffenhausen with an extension to Rottenburg would be the most appropriate course. The option of extending it to Ingolstadt was left open. Land required for the construction of the line was transferred to the Bavarian state at no cost. On 17 June 1896 the "Landshut–Rottenburg Localbahn project" was approved under a Lokalbahn law. It was promised that this would deliver advantages, especially for local farmers, not just for the growing of cereals and farming of cattle but also for hop cultivation in the Hallertau

Hallertau

The Hallertau or Holledau is an area in Bavaria, Germany. At 178 km², it is listed as the largest continuous hop-planting area in the world...

Construction

At that time it was common for many Italian workers to be employed when a railway was being built. The greatest inclines were the ramp at Arth (20‰), the watershed between Pfettrach and Laber

Große Laber

The Große Laber is a river in Bavaria, Germany, right tributary of the Danube. Its source is near Volkenschwand. It is approx. 85 km long. It flows northeast through the small towns Rottenburg an der Laaber, Schierling and Rain. It flows into the Danube near Straubing....

(23‰) and the high ridge of Pfeffenhausen in the direction of Rottenburg (25‰). The terminal station in Rottenburg was 1.1 kilometres from the market, which was 20 metres above the level of the station.

The first cost estimate came to 1,444,000 marks

German gold mark

. Between Landshut and Pfeffenhausen a route was selected that was about one kilometre shorter than originally planned, which meant that only 170,000 m³ of earth needed to be moved. Thus the final cost amounted to 1,377,763 marks, of which the state contributed 1,210,499 marks. On 29 October 1900 the first trial run took place with a Bavarian D VII

Bavarian D VII

The locomotives of the Bavarian Class D VII were saturated steam locomotives of the Royal Bavarian State Railways ....

steam engine in charge and on 3 November the route was opened in festive style with four special trains being laid on.

Operations

The Rottenburger Bockerl was a typical Bavarian Lokalbahn, running past large fields of grain and hops as well as farmyards and mills. Its services included many GmP mixed trains, which had long journey times due to the need to shunt wagons at stations en route. Passenger numbers were boosted by visitors to the weekly and annual markets as well as the cattle markets. Pure goods trains were initially quite rare.

Until 1930, two Bavarian Class D XI

Bavarian D XI

The Bavarian Class D XI engines were branch line saturated steam locomotives built for service with the Royal Bavarian State Railways ....

(later DRG Class 98.4-5) steam locomotives handled the work, supplemented occasionally by a D VII

Bavarian D VII

The locomotives of the Bavarian Class D VII were saturated steam locomotives of the Royal Bavarian State Railways ....

(DRG Class 98.76). The nature of the route and the quality of the track only permitted a top speed of 30 km/h. In summer 1921 three trains ran in each direction daily. The evening train needed 99 minutes, which equated to an average speed of just 16.7 km/h. At track crossings the train could only proceed at 15 km/h and, in some cases, just 10 km/h, ringing its bell as a warning.

The Zornhof mountain was notorious: leaf fall in the autumn or snow in winter meant that, sometimes, the locomotive in charge of heavily loaded trains would get stuck with its wheels spinning. Then a fresh attempt had to be made with fewer coaches. Around 1930 the two D XI's were reinforced by a BB II

Bavarian BB II

The Bavarian Class BB II engines were Mallet saturated steam locomotives in the service of the Royal Bavarian State Railways ....

(DRG Class 98.7).

From 1935 to about 1940 the line was worked by a D XI, a BB II and a Pt 2/3

Bavarian Pt 2/3

The two-cylinder, superheated Bavarian Pt 2/3 engine was built by Krauss for the Royal Bavarian State Railways between 1909 and 1915...

(DRG Class 70). In 1940 the Pt 2/3 was replaced by a GtL 4/4

Bavarian GtL 4/4

The Bavarian Class GtL 4/4 engines were superheated steam locomotives in service with the Royal Bavarian State Railways for duties on branch lines .- History :...

(DRG Class 98.8-9). From 1943 onwards only Class Pt 2/3 engines were used. In 1951 the GtL 4/5

DRG Class 98.10

The locomotives of DRG Class 98.10 were superheated steam locomotives with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft....

(DRG Class 98.10) took their place. After the summer timetable of 1952 the journey still took a good hour.

After the timetable change in 1955 the majority of the steam engines disappeared from the line, just one remained for hauling school trains, usually the GtL 4/5, no. 98 1006. 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 now appeared in service and were used in a VT 98 + VB 98 + VS 98 combination. Sometimes a VB 140 was also used, initially with a goods van for part-load goods. Passenger and goods trains were hauled by Class 64

DRG Class 64

The Deutsche Reichsbahn had a standard passenger train tank engine with a wheel arrangement of 1'C1' or 2-6-2 and a low axle load, which was designated in their classification system as the DRG Class 64 . The Class 64 was developed from 1926 onwards and it was built between 1928 and 1940...

steam engines and, later, by V 100

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...

diesels.

The end

In spite of all efforts to the contrary, traffic increasingly transferred from rail to roads. With the timetable change on 25 May 1974 passenger services ceased and were switched to railway-owned buses. Railbus no. 798 669-8 was the last passenger service, running that day from Landshut to Rottenburg with members of the Landshut model railway club The Rottenburg town band played Ich hatt' einen Kameraden ("I had a comrade") and, at 8.45 pm, the railbus set off on its return journey.

Railway facilities no longer needed for goods traffic disappeared. The station building at Weihmichl was demolished in September 1974 and the linesman's hut (Wartehäuschen) at Arth in February 1975. On 31 January 1982 the ticket and parcels offices at Rottenburg station were closed.

The small amount of goods traffic was handled by DB Class V 60

DB Class V 60

The DB Class V 60 is a German diesel locomotive operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn and later, the Deutsche Bahn AG , which is used particularly for shunting duties, but also for hauling light goods trains. Seventeen locomotives were bought used by the Norwegian State Railways and designated NSB...

(later renamed Class 260) diesel locos. Occasionally engines of classes 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...

, 212 and 218

DB Class 218

The DB Class 218 are a class of 4 axle, diesel hydraulic locomotives acquired by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for use on main and secondary lines for both passenger and freight trains....

were used.

In 1990 the Rottenburg Bockerl Society (Interessengemeinschaft Rottenburger Bockerl) was founded; in 1994 it was renamed to the Landshut-Rottenburg Steam Train Society (Dampfzugfreunde Landshut-Rottenburg). Since the early 1990s locomotives of classes 365

DB Class V 60

and 335

DB Class Köf III

The DB railways Köf III class are light two axle shunting locomotives of Deutsche Bahn AG.-History:...

have run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (request only) to Rottenburg for shunting duties. Despite the track being refurbished in the 1980s, the top speed is in most places still only 30 km/h as it was when the line was first opened. The society regularly organises specials. O 12 June 1994 no. V 200 002 hauled a special to Rottenburg. Other specials were hauled by locomotive no. 23 105

DB Class 23

The steam locomotives of Class 23 were German passenger train locomotives developed in the 1950s for the Deutsche Bundesbahn. They had a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement and were equipped with Class 2'2' T 31 tenders...

on 27 June 1993 and no. 41 1150

DRG Class 41

The German Class 41 steam locomotives were standard goods train engines operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn and built from 1937 - 1941.- History :...

on 14 August 1994.

On 27 September 1998 the steam locomotive no. 41 1150 made a farewell journey, the last train to run on the entire route. From Unterneuhausen (km 14.2) to Rottenburg the track and sleepers were removed from the ballast bed in 2002/03.

Since 15 September 2000 the remaining section of the line has been rented from its owner, DB Netz

DB Netz

DB Netz AG is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn is a railway infrastructure provider, which owns and operates a majority of the German railway system . The company was established in the course of the second stage of the German rail reform as a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn...

, to the Landshut-Rottenburg Steam Train Society (infrastructure company: BayernBahn), which hopes to run a museum railway on it. The necessary concession was granted in 2005, however its operation has been repeatedly delayed. In the area of the level crossing over the B 299

Bundesstraße 299

The Bundesstraße 299 or B 299 is a major route in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria. It runs through Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Amberg and Weiden....

at Oberndorf near Weihmichl the track and trackbed had been fully replaced by the end of 2007 over a length of 50 m, after a large quantity of diesel fuel had leaked into the soil following an accident with a lorry tanker on 14 September 2006. The county of Landshut and the village of Altdorf are sceptical about the museum project: The council and mayor have repeated several times "that it is their aim to get rid of the railway and built a footpath and cycle way on the trackbed".

Sources

Walther Zeitler, Eisenbahnen in Niederbayern and in der Oberpfalz, Buch- and Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Weiden, 1985, ISBN 3-924350-01-9
Günter Begert sen., Heinrich Stangl, Landshut (Bay)–Rottenburg (Laaber), Neben- and Schmalspurbahnen in Deutschland (Sammelwerk als Loseblattausgabe), Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg, 1994, ISSN 0949-2143

External links

There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany