Gera Süd–Weischlitz railway

History

The original starting point of the line was at Wolfsgefärth station on the existing Prussian Leipzig–Probstzella railway. The section from Wolfsgefärth to Greiz went into operation on 17 July 1875. The second section from Greiz to Plauen lower station (Plauen unterer Bahnhof) was opened on 8 September and the last section was opened to Weischlitz on 20 September of the same year, where it connected with the Plauen–Cheb railway. However, the construction of the many bridges and the eight tunnels put the Saxon-Thuringian Railway Company into financial difficulties in 1876, so the line had to be sold to the Royal Saxon State Railways (Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen).

The Royal Saxon State Railways opened a separate route from Gera (Reuß) Sächs Stsb station (now Gera Süd) via Gera Ost and Gera-Liebschwitz to Wünschendorf on 1 December 1892. The original connection to the Prussian Wolfsgefärth station was abandoned at the same time. The new line required an elaborate new bridge over the White Elster and its floodplains at Liebschwitz.

The so-called "lower railway" (untere Bahn) was designed for the implementation of two-track operation throughout (tunnels, bridge abutments). In fact, the second track was installed only on the Gera–Wünschendorf and Plauen (Vogtl) Chrieschwitz–Plauen lower station sections. After the end of the Second World War it was dismantled.

The Elster Viaduct (Elstertalbrücke) on the heavily used line from Gößnitz to Plauen was blown up by the German army on 16 April 1945. In the autumn of 1945, it was possible to resume continuous train operations after the removal of the rubble. After the Second World War the line was of great importance for freight transport, since the towns on the White Elster were important industrial locations. There were also some long-distance rail passenger services to Czechoslovakia, since until the 1970s, the more easterly "upper railway" via Werdau and Reichenbach was partly only single-track due to the dismantling in the post war period and was therefore overloaded. Analogous to this was the use of the parallel Werdau–Mehltheuer railway as a relief route, but for connections to southern Germany. After the Reichenbach–Plauen line was restored to two tracks throughout, the utilisation of the lower railway also decreased. At the beginning of the 1980s, the operation of the Ex 68 Karola once again provided a high-quality long-distance connection in the form of diesel multiple units. This was made possible by the conversion from 1979 of the locomotive-hauled Vindobona trains from class VT 18.16 diesel multiple units. From 1981/82 only freight and local passenger traffic was operated. Typically class 112 (later class 202) locomotives were used in passenger traffic and class 120 (later class 220) locomotives were used in freight traffic.

After German Reunification in 1990, the importance of the route decreased. In the 1992/93 timetable, only one pair of Eilzug (semi-fast) trains were scheduled on the Greiz–Erfurt(–Fulda) and on the Gera–Adorf (Vogtl) routes. The freight traffic shrank to a few trains on the Greiz–Dölau route and some through trains to the Czech Republic. The branching Greiz–Neumark line was closed and dismantled in 1999.

Passenger services have been operated jointly by Vogtlandbahn and Deutsche Bahn since 9 December 2012. Vogtlandbahn operates services between Weischlitz and Gera, while Deutsche Bahn operates on the Elsterberg–Gera section.

There is a two-hourly cycle along the entire route with trains crossing in Elsterberg on the hour, while between Greiz and Gera trains run hourly, with trains crossing in Berga just before the half hour. Special excursions with steam locomotives run between Gera and Cheb, usually on weekends and holidays in the autumn.

Freight transport is normally restricted to trains between Gera and Greiz-Dölau, as well as transfers between Weischlitz and Plauen-Chrieschwitz. The wagons are hauled between Gera and Greiz-Dölau by locomotives of classes 203, 261 or 294. The deliveries to the sidings in the Plauen municipal area (Zellwolle, Plauen lower station, Chrieschwitz) are hauled by class 261 locomotives (as of May 2013). These wagons are detached in Plauen ob Bf and transferred to the line to Cheb ("upper railway") and reverse in Weischlitz.

Construction of the new Plauen (Vogtl) Mitte halt began on 24 February 2014 as part of the ÖPNV/SPNV-Verknüpfungsstelle Reichenbacher Straße (Reichenbacher Straße link public transport project). This is intended to create a better connection with the Plauen tram network. During the construction the line between Plauen-Chrieschwitz and Weischlitz was blockaded until 2 November, so that buses replaced trains on this section. It was opened on 7 September 2015. Plauen (Vogtl) unt Bf and Plauen (Vogtl) Zellwolle halt are no longer served.

Due to the need to renovate the Liebschwitz Viaduct (speed limit of 10 km/h). DB examined various options for traffic towards Weischlitz. In 2016, DB Netz AG launched a project for the restoration of the link to the former Wolfsgefärth station (called Gera-Röppisch since 1953; not to be confused with the new halt of Wolfsgefährt, which has been located further south since 2000) that existed until 1892, but instead of restoring the former station, only a junction was built. With its commissioning, the Saxon State Railways route via Gera Ost, Gera-Liebschwitz and the viaduct over the Elster, which had existed since 1892, has now been closed. Since then, the trains have been running from Wolfsgefärth over the largely parallel line of the Leipzig–Probstzella railway to Gera. The parallel section of the Elster Valley Railway was taken out of service at the same time and the trains now run from Wolfsgefärth via the Leipzig–Probstzella railway to Gera.

Route description

Route

Trains leave Gera Süd station on a two-track railway and passed under the southeast tangent road to a junction, where the line to Saalfeld runs to the south and the line to Gößnitz branches off to the east. The now closed section of the Elster Valley Railway branched off to the southeast and passed to the east of the district of Zwötzen and crossed the White Elster to the west of Liebschwitz and came within a few metres of the Saalfeld line in the area of today's Wolfsgefärth junction, where the current Elster Valley Railway starts. The decommissioned Weida–Wünschendorf–Werdau railway crosses the Elster Valley Railway near the Wünschendorf dolomite works and the two lines converge at Wünschendorf station. Both lines leave the town and the Wünschendorf basin in parallel and reach the narrow and densely wooded valley of the Elster, with the Elster Valley Railway changing to the western river bank. After passing the quartzite quarry, the Werdau–Mehltheuer railway curves eastwards into the Fuchsbach valley, while the Elster Valley Railway runs through a tunnel for the first time and crosses the river again. In Berga, it crosses federal highway 175 and south of the town it first crosses alluvial farmland, until the river is crosses again and the 264 metre-long Rüßdorf Tunnel shortens the route. From Lehnamühle the route runs through the Greiz-Werdauer Wald landscape as far as Neumühle station and to a double crossing of the river to Neumühle Tunnel. On the way to Greiz, the river is crossed twice, and this section has one of the most noteworthy works of civil engineering—as shown by its popularity with photographers—the Schlossberg Tunnel under the Oberes Schloss (Upper Palace) in Greiz.

On the second half of the route, the White Elster is crossed a total of fourteen times and it parallels Bundesstraße 92 closely as far as Elsterberg. At the exit from Greiz station, the disused line to Neumark branched off to the east and at the same time the line passes under old steel bridge of the Tannendorfstraße. After the confluence of the Göltzsch with the White Elster, the line crosses the Elster twice and runs through the Dölau (or Rothenthal) tunnel, before reaching Greiz-Dölau station. Between Greiz-Dölau and Elsterberg, the line remains on the eastern bank of the Elster and crosses the state border into Saxony, before crossing the river a total of six times and through two tunnel on the subsequent section to Barthmühle. Among the most striking points on the line is the following section under the Elster Viaduct, which carried the Leipzig–Hof railway. Immediately afterwards the line runs to the confluence of the Trieb and passes the Pöhl dam, which lies 800 metre to the east. The Barthmühle tunnel as well as four other Elster bridges follow until it reaches the industrial city of Plauen with its stations of Chrieschwitz, Mitte, Unterer Bahnhof and Zellwolle, although only the new Mitte station is now served. After leaving the city, the line is approached from the north by the Plauen–Cheb railway, which finally meets the Elster Valley Railway in Kürbitz and the lines run parallel for the remaining two kilometres to Weischlitz.

Operating points

Gera Süd (50°52′16″N 12°04′35″E)

Gera Süd (south) station was opened on 1 June 1886 as Gera-Pforten freight yard at the junction of the Leipzig–Probstzella and Gößnitz–Gera railways. On 1 December 1892, Royal Saxon State Railways (Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen) opened the Gera Süd–Wünschendorf section as an independent route for the Gera Süd–Weischlitz railway.

The station in the Gera district of Pforten thus became the first station of the Royal Saxon State Railways in Gera. With the dedication to the station in 1893, the station received an entrance building made of red brick. The station had the following names:

until 1896: Gera–Pforten (in 1901 this name was given to the newly opened station of the narrow gauge Gera-Pforten–Wuitz-Mumsdorf railway)

until 1911: Gera (Reuß) S. St. E.

until 1920: Gera (Reuß) Sächs Stb

until 1923: Gera (Reuß) Süd

since 1923: Gera Süd

Since the numerous level crossings were a hindrance to road traffic, the tracks were raised between 1906 and 1911. The current station building was built on Sachsenplatz in Gera in 1911. In 1922, the station was transferred from the Eisenbahndirektion (railway division) of Dresden to the Eisenbahndirektion Erfurt. The signal boxes were gradually abandoned and demolished from 2005. Today, the station has only the functions of a halt (Haltepunkt). Since 24 October 2016, trains run towards Weischlitz via Wolfsgefärth over the Leipzig–Probstzella railway from Gera.

Gera Süd Gbf (freight yard, 50°52′11″N 12°04′42″E)

Directly south of the station is the closed Gera Süd Gbf freight yard. It was opened on 1 July 1897. Its tracks were raised between 1906 and 1911. Gera Süd Gbf went out of operations on 1 June 1992. It was subsequently dismantled.

Rolling stock

In the 1990s, in addition to class 202 there were also locomotives of classes 219 and 232, which mostly hauled UIC-Z coaches, but sometimes also the UIC-X express coaches of the former Bundesbahn. Siemens Desiro Classic sets first appeared on the line in 2000. Meanwhile, the Regio-Shuttle RS 1 sets have been removed. Class 612 were introduced into operation at the 2012 timetables change.