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The Pressig-Rothenkirchen–Tettau railway was an Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia

Upper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...

n 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...

 that branched off at Pressig

Pressig

Pressig is a municipality in the district of Kronach, administrative region Upper Franconia, in Bavaria in Germany....

 from the Franconian Forest Railway

Franconian Forest Railway

The Franconian Forest Railway , route no. KBS 840, is an 88 kilometre long, electrified, double-tracked main line from Lichtenfels via Kronach to Saalfeld. It is part of the Munich–Nuremberg–Bam­berg–Jena–Halle/Leipzig–Berlin trunk route...

 and ran to Tettau. The line was closed in 1993.
After the completion of the Franconian Forest Railway in 1885 the first request for a spur to Tettau was submitted to the government in Munich in 1890. A railway connexion was of particular interest to the local glass and porcelain industry resident in the so-called "Tettau Corner" (Tettauer Winkel). It was decided that the route for the line should follow a course alongside the River Tettau. That however meant that a state treaty between the Kingdom of Bavaria

Kingdom of Bavaria

The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...

 and the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen was necessary, because 8.1 km of the line lay within the territory of Saxe-Meiningen and crossed the state border 14 times. On 10 March 1900 the Bavarian Landtag

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

gave its approval for the planning and construction of this Lokalbahn and, on 9 July 1901, the state treaty between the two countries was signed. The largest part of the cost (1.2 million mark

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...

s for construction and operation of the branch line was borne by Bavaria. Construction began in March 1902 and the line was ceremoniously opened on 23 June 1903.

Three pairs of passenger trains ran daily until 1939; the number was then increased to four. But goods traffic flourished too as the line also proved to be an important link for local industry, both for delivering raw materials (about 15 to 20 wagon loads daily) and dispatching the finished goods (about 10 to 12 wagon loads daily).

In spring 1945 rail traffic was interrupted as a result of one of the bridges over the Tettau being blown up. When Soviet troops occupied Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

 on 3 July 1945 the old state border became the new Inner German Border and, because the line crossed it several times it remained closed. This had a serious impact on industrial production in the Tettauer Winkel. Not until 16 October 1946 after the Tettau bridge had been repaired could goods traffic resume again. Three goods trains worked the line each week. On 14 April 1947 passenger services started up again with two pairs of trains daily. The passengers in the so-called corridor trains had to keep the doors and windows closed when travelling through the Soviet Zone. In Heinersdorf Soviet soldiers carried out passenger checks.
In spring 1952 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 '...

 laid new sleepers and tracks, but on 28 May 1952 train services ended abruptly when the line was shut by the East Germany. By October the tracks on East German soil had been dismantled.

To support industry in the Tettauer Winkel on 1 June 1952 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 '...

 introduced a Culemeyer

Johann Culemeyer

Johann Culemeyer was a German engineer.Culemeyer was born in Hanover in 1883 and, in 1936, he became a director of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and in that capacity was responsible for the construction, procurement and running of road vehicles, railway wagons and heavy transporters.As early as 1931 he...

 heavy trailer service. The goods wagons were transported on heavy trailers over the new road built in 1951 from Steinbach am Wald

Steinbach am Wald

Steinbach is a municipality in the district of Kronach in Bavaria in Germany.-History:The village was first mentioned in 1190. Until 1388 it was part of 'Eygen Teuschnitz', a large estate of Langheim monastery.-Economy:...

 to Alexanderhütte. There they were transferred to the rails and hauled by a Köf

Köf

Köf may refer to one of a series of small German locomotives or Kleinlokomotiven including:*DRG Kleinlokomotive Class I - strictly speaking these were Kö, not Köf locomotives as they did not have hydraulic transmission....

 shunter to the sidings at Tettau and Alexanderhütte. Until 1989 about 3,400 trips were carried out annually. The 'island operation' between Tettau and Alexanderhütte was closed in 1983, and the Köf

Köf

Köf may refer to one of a series of small German locomotives or Kleinlokomotiven including:*DRG Kleinlokomotive Class I - strictly speaking these were Kö, not Köf locomotives as they did not have hydraulic transmission....

shunted wagons in Alexanderhütte until the end of 1992. In 1987 a private haulier took over the heavy trailer service which finally ended on 31 May 1996.

After the provisional closure of the line, the Pressig-Rothenkirchen–Tettau railway was officially closed on 13 December 1993.

Sources

• Ulrich Rockelmann, Thomas Naumann: The Franconian Forest Railway. The Geschichte of the Steilrampe über the Frankenwald. EK-Verlag Freiburg, 1997. ISBN 3-88255-581-5
• Wolfgang Beyer: Eisenbahn im Sonneberger Land. Eisenbahn-Fachbuch-Verlag Neustadt/Coburg, 2004. ISBN 3-9807748-5-6