Spyck–Welle train ferry
Encyclopedia
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The Spyck–Welle train ferry was a train ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
on the Rhine between Spyck on the left (southern) bank and Welle on the right bank in the lower Rhine region
Lower Rhine region (Germany)
The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany between approximately Neuss and Düsseldorf in the South and the Dutch border around Emmerich in the North...
of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
. It was established in 1865 by the Rhenish Railway Company
Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th century built the first railways in the Ruhr and large parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia.-Foundation :The...
on the Lower Left Rhine line from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
to Neuss
Neuss
Neuss is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district and owes its prosperity to its location at the crossing of historic and modern trade routes. It is primarily known...
, Krefeld
Krefeld
Krefeld , also known as Crefeld until 1929, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its centre lying just a few kilometres to the west of the River Rhine; the borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine...
, Cleves, Elten
Elten
Elten is a small German town located in Northrhine-Westfalia. It has a population of around 4,500. Since 1975, it is part of the town Emmerich am Rhein. Between 1949 and 1963, Elten was part of the Netherlands . There is a substantial minority of Dutch citizens.- External links :*...
, Zevenaar
Zevenaar
Zevenaar is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, near the border with Germany.- Population centres :*Angerlo*Babberich*Giesbeek*Lathum*Ooy*Oud Zevenaar*Zevenaar...
and the Dutch North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
ports.
Railways
On 5 July 1862 the and the Dutch Rhine Railway Company signed an agreement in Cologne to connect the two railways within Germany. Although preliminary talks in Berlin on a route near the border had indicated that an agreement could be reached, the PrussiaPrussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n military was opposed to a fixed bridge over the Rhine and only agreed to a ferry.
In 1865, the RhE extended its line from Kleve to Griethausen, where it built a 100 meter-long truss bridge
Truss bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...
(the Griethausen railway bridge) over an old course of the Rhine, which still stands today. This was followed by a 314 m-long approach structure with 20 spans. The line then ran across the Rhine island of Salmorth to the Rhine in Spyck where a marshalling yard with four tracks was built for the breaking up and assembling of trains for the train ferry operation. The crossing to the right bank of Welle is one of the narrowest points of the lower Rhine where currents make it possible for a ferry to cross. A similar marshalling yard was built on the line to Elten, which crossed the small Wild river with a 130 m-long bridge with seven spans. It then connected with the Emmerich–Zevenaar line to run to the Dutch border. NRS had already completed its 5.10 km-long section of the line from there to Zevenaar on 9 March 1864.
The line from Cleves to the border, including bridges, was authorised for operation on 2 April 1864. The construction of the ferries under their original plans, however, had many problems, so that the opening of the entire route was delayed.
The train ferry
The ferry pontoons for carrying rail wagons were not able to navigate freely on the river, but instead were attached to two cables that were stretched across the river upstream of the ferry. Successful operation of the train ferry was only achieved when the original chains were replaced with stronger cables. The ferry was attached by a cable to another cable that ran over the river to resist the current and to serve as a guide rope. A thinner cable ran through the water on to two wheels on the ferry that were powered by a steam engine; the ferry hauled itself across the river by pulling on the cable.The wagons were pushed by a locomotive down a ramp with slope of one in 48 to the pontoons and were pulled up on the other side by another locomotive. The pontoons would carry either six freight wagons or five carriages. Passengers stayed in their carriages during the trip.
Two ferry paths were cleared for operations across the Rhine on 19 April 1865 and two days later on 21 April the first passenger train from Cologne crossed the ferry to Zevenaar. According to the timetable, the ferry crossing was scheduled to take 20 minutes. Four minutes were required for the movement of carriages on the ramps at each end and eight minutes for the actual crossing.
A disadvantage for the operation of the train ferry was that it was affected by floods, storms and icy conditions during the winter. This meant that for three weeks a year on average operations were disrupted. Nevertheless, annually 20,000-30,000 carriages and wagons crossed the Rhine. The RhE later built two other train ferries. On 23 August 1866, it opened the Rheinhausen–Hochfeld train ferry
Rheinhausen–Hochfeld train ferry
The Rheinhausen-Hochfeld train ferry was a German train ferry on the Rhine between Rheinhausen and Hochfeld, now districts of Duisburg. It was built by theRhenish Railway Company and commenced operations on 23 August 1866.-History :...
and on 11 July 1870, the Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry
Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry
The Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry was a German train ferry operated by the Rhenish Railway Company from 1870 to connect its right and left Rhine railways...
.
Closure of train ferry operations
Until the nationalisation of the RhE company in 1880, the ferry carried all freight and passengers from the Lower Left Rhine Railway to northern Holland. Then at the end of 1912 the train ferry service was closed and the ramps on both sides were dismantled. Passengers were instead transferred by steamboat. During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the line was reduced to two pairs of trains per day. After the war, the Dutch railways (later formally amalgamated as Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...
, NS) and the German State Railways
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
signed an agreement in relation to the operation of rail and ferry services up to 31 August 1926. Around 1930 the tracks between Welle and Elten on the right (northern) bank were dismantled. In contrast, on the left bank passenger services continued until 1960 and freight ran directly to a vegetable oil mill on the Rhine in Spyck until 1987. At that time, the line from Kleve was closed.
External links
NRW rail archives of André Joost:- [strecken/2516.htm Description of line 2516]: Kleve ↔ Spyck
- [strecken/2266.htm Description of line 2266]: Welle ↔ Elten
Other links: