GEILENKIRCHEN KLEINBAHN

GEILENKIRCHEN KLEINBAHNTracing a small train track in agricultural area

Strategies & Places (7X600)dr.ir. A.H.J. BosmanEindhoven University of Technology

Eindhoven, 30 January 2011

Kjeld van den [email protected]

2Geilenkirchen

ContentsIntroduction 5

Tranchot 5Geilenkirchen 5Essay subject 5

Part 1 Analysis 6

1.0 First period 1811 61.1 Second period 1893 81.2 Third period 1953 101.3 Fourth period 2011 12

Part 2 Essay 14

Kleinbahn 15Geilenkirchener kleinbahn 17Tracing the GKB 18Studies 21

Sources 23

Logbook 25

Strategies and places 20113

4Geilenkirchen

IntroductionThe starting point for the topographic analysis and es-say, as a part of the course Strategies and Places are the Tranchot maps which were drawn between 1801 and 1814. By redrawing the Tranchot map, the Google 2010 map and two other maps form the period between 1811 and 2010 all in the same style, it becomes possible to see infrastructural changes over a period of 200 years. In addition an essay will provide insight into a specifi c development within the area of the chosen Tranchot map.

TranchotJean Joseph Tranchot (1752-1815) was a fi eld topographer who worked for Napoleon Bonaparte. In the fi rst year of the 19th century he was given the order to make a detailed map (scale 1:20.000) of the area between the rivers Rhine and Meuse, starting at Saarbrücken in the south all the way up to Kleve in the North. The map was drawn for strategic reasons. One year after the map is fi nished Tranchot dies as a result of to a cerebral haemorrhage. Due to their extraordi-nary precision and quality the maps are still useful today.

GeilenkirchenThis analysis is about Tranchot map number 66 which shows the area around the town of Geilenkirchen. The area around Geilenkirchen is characterized as a agricultural area where development of the built area is not signifi cant until the second half of the 20th century. The driving force behind the development is the intersection of three important infra-structural connections.

Essay subjectThe essay will focus on a fourth infrastructural route, a more local one namely the kleinbahn connecting Tüddern by Geilenkirchen to Alsdorf and hereby to one of the greatest tramway networks of the world.

5 Strategies and places 2011

Figure 1, 2 & 3Areal photographs showing the loca-

tion of Geilenkirchen Source: www.google.com

Geilenkirchen 6


Tranchot map (1811)

Geilenkirchen 8

1.0 First period 1811Map drawn from Tranchot map (1811)

At the beginning of the 19th century the area around Geilen-kirchen is rural, small farming villages with 20 to 100 farms connected to a small piece of farmland and a few manors are the only ‘built’ area. These are connected through a web of dirt roads and even smaller sand paths. What strikes is the stone road which enters the map at Immendorff and leads through Geilenkirchen and exits the map past Stahe. Named ‘Route de Sittard’ this stone road lead from Stokkem in Belgium by Sittart in the Netherland through Geilenkirch-en to Jülich where it is connected with what used to be the Via Belgica. It does not show at any of the maps from the roman time, the earliest source where it pops up is a map dating back to 1782 (Vercauteren, 1956) but it is not clear when it was built.

Built area

Small sand road

Main sand road

Stone road

River

Legend


GeoGREIF (2011) MTBL map (1893)

Geilenkirchen 10

1.1 Second period 1893Map drawn from MTBL (1893)

From 1811 until 1893 the built area remains more or less the same, there are however two important changes in the infra-structure. First there is the construction of a new road lead-ing from south to north which connected Aachen to Kleve. This was a route in roman already used in roman times but it was never paved (Jansen, 1999). Second is the railroad leading from Aachen to Düsseldorf, a station was built in Hunshoven which was a village connected to Geilenkirchen. This station, the ‘Route de Sittard’ and the north south road coming together distinguish Geilenkirchen from the other villages and will be the driving force behind it development in a later period.

Built area

Small sand road

Main road

Stone road

River

Train

Legend


watwaswaar (2011) Kadaster map 60G (1958)

Geilenkirchen 12

1.2 Third period 1958Map drawn from Kadaster 60G (1958)

By 1958 most of the area is recovered from the two world wars and most of the land is cultivated. Almost all the small roads are straightened, the main roads however remain winding. Unlike the other villages Geilenkirchen is begin-ning to grow due to its location at the crossing of three main routes, the ‘Route de Sittard’, the train from Aachen to Düsseldorf and the north south road from Aachen to Kleve. A second train track is introduced leading from east to west, the essay will give more information about this track.

Legend

Built area

Small road

Main road

River

Train


Google maps (2011)

13

14Geilenkirchen

1.3 Fourth period 2011Map drawn from Google maps (2010)

In the last period the urban growth is striking, the three villages of Bauchen, Geilenkirchen and Hunshoven are merged in to Geilenkirchen which becomes the local centre, 28.385 inhabitants in July 2011 (Geilenkirchen.de, 2012). A ring road is built to prevent the traffi c passing through the village. Most of the east west train track has disappeared only the section Birgden Gillrath remains. In the west, right below Stahe a is a blank area appears this is caused by the NATO Air Base.

Original paragraphs from the Act on small railways and private railway lines (http://home.arcor.de/mhdoerfl er/preussen)

I. Kleinbahnen

§ 1

(1) Kleinbahnen sind die dem öffentlichen Verkehre dienenden Eisenbahnen, welche wegen ihrer geringen Bedeutung für den allgemeinen Verkehr dem Gesetze über die Eisenbahnunternehmungen vom 3. November 1838 (Gesetz-Samml. S. 505) nicht unterliegen.

(2) Insbesondere sind Kleinbahnen der Regel nach solche Bahnen, welche hauptsächlich den örtlichen Verkehr inner-halb eines Gemeindebezirks oder benachbarter Gemeinde-bezirke vermitteln, sowie Bahnen, welche nicht mit Lokomo-tiven betrieben werden.

(3) Ob die Voraussetzung für die Anwendbarkeit des Gesetzes vom 3. November 1838 vorliegt, entscheidet auf Anrufen der Beteiligten das Staatsministerium.

§ 2

Zur Herstellung und zum Betriebe einer Kleinbahn bedarf es der Genehmigung der zuständigen Behörde. Dasselbe gilt für wesentliche Erweiterungen oder sonstige wesentli-che Änderungen des Unternehmens, der Anlage oder des Betriebes. Diese Genehmigung ist zu versagen, wenn die Erweiterung oder Änderung die Unterordnung des Unterneh-mens unter das Gesetz vom 3. November 1838 bedingt.

§ 4

Die Genehmigung wird auf Grund vorgängiger polizeilicher Prüfung erteilt. Diese Prüfung beschränkt sich auf:

die betriebssichere Beschaffenheit der Bahn und der Be-triebsmittel,den Schutz gegen schädliche Einwirkungen der Anlage und des Betriebes,die technische Befähigung und Zuverlässigkeit der in dem äußeren Betriebsdienste anzustellenden Bediensteten,die Wahrung der Interessen des öffentlichen Verkehrs.

Figure 4Cutout from a map of Europe’s railroad network in 1896, Geilenk-richen is in the middle of the jag but together with the map on the next page it shows the impact of kleinbahn in the area. Source: de.wikipedia.org

Legend

Built area

Small road

Main road

Highway

River

Train

GeilenkirchenGeilenkirchen


GEILENKIRCHEN KLEINBAHNTracing a small train track in the agricultural area around Geilen-kirchenThis essay will discuss the traces of a kleinbahn which leads through the area we have studied in the fi rst part of this report. The main question is about what kind of traces the track has left in the area around Geilenkir-chen but we will get to that after looking closely to the history of the rise, heyday and the decline in a brought view.

KleinbahnThe history of the ‘kleinbahn’ begins on July 28, 1892 when the ‘Act on small railways and private railway lines’ was adopted.

By the end of the 19th century the population in agricul-tural areas throughout the north and east of the Prussian kingdom desired a development to improve the connection with the already well developed train network. The fi nance minister at that time, Johannes von Miquel, was not pre-pared to pay 26 million Mark to built railroads to provide this connection but was eager to meet the wishes of the people so he came up with an alternative solution. By proposing the ‘Act on the railways of the lowest order’ on March 6, 1892 he tried to offer a alternative for building railroads which did not have to meet the high requirement of the railway act of 3 November 1838. The term ‘Kleinbahn’ was chosen over Bahn untergeordneter Bedeutung, Localbahn or Bahn unterster Ordnung, because it was a native word and had no negative overtone. Despite the fact that the name Kleinbahn seems to imply a narrow gauge a Kleinbahn can be built as bough a standard or narrow gauge.

Because of the fact that the Kleinbahn did not have to meet the high requirements of the railway act it could be built faster and cheaper than the conventional railway. The track was lighter, it was able to make tighter turns and the slope on which it was laid out could be steeper. The low building costs combined with the fact that transportation of goods and people was done with the same train set made it pos-sible to make a profi t even though the intensity at which it was used was low.

The adoption of the law on July 28 triggered a wave of railway building which resulted in over 300 small railroads with a total length of over 10.000 km at the beginning of the First World War (the map on the right is the situation just after the Second World War). The new form of railroad construction was not only used to provide better access to the agricultural area’s but was also applied to densifi cation of the public transport in the growing industrialization areas around the big cities.

Most of the Kleinbahn tracks were initiated by the local gov-

Figure 5Map of the situation in 1945, the thin lines represent kleinbahn tracks. Source: pkjs.de

16Geilenkirchen

Figure 6Photograph of station at Geilen-kirchen. Source: www.tbr-server.de

Figure 7Photograph of the service station at Geilenkirchen, in the right you see the buses. Source: www.opencaching.de

Figure 8Aerial photograph of Geilenkirchen. Source: Life (12 18, 1944 pp.17)


Figure 9Map of the total track. Source: www.opencaching.de

Figure 10Timetable 1945/1946. Source: pkjs.de

ernment who gave the order to build and operate the track to a private company. (Wall, Selfkantbahn, 2011).

CommutingAlthough the primary reason for the construction of Klein-bahn’s was to serve the local communities by connecting them to the big train network and the big city a side effect is the migration of the growing lower middle class from the cramped an polluted inner cities to the countryside where new villages where build (Rutgers, 2011). We do not see any of these developments in our area, probably because the lacking of a big industrial city.

Geilenkirchener kleinbahnOn March 4, 1895 the district council takes the decision to build a kleinbahn leading form Alsdorf by Geilenkirchen to Tüddern. The contract for construction and operation goes to Lenz & Co. The company planned on connecting the track with the Dutch train network through crossing the border at present day Sittart unfortunately for the company this plan would never be realized. Only fi ve years after the decision to build the track the almost 38 km long track (called the ‘Geilenkirchener Kreisbahnen’ or GKB) was opened on April 7, 1900 and business went well right away (Wall, Selfkant-bahn, 2011).

HeydayThe train transported coal from a mine near Alsdorf to the brick factories west of Geilenkirchen for stirring up the ovens. The other way around the train took the bricks and agricultural products to Alsdorf. Except goods, persons were also transported by the train, mainly those how had found a job in one of the coal mines near Alsdorf. In 1904 only four years after the opening of the tack a special carriage was bought especially for passenger transport. Although the carriage looked a lot like the normal carriages which transported both goods and people they were equipped with wooden benches, boarding platforms and oil lanterns (Wall, Selfkantbahn, 2011).

WarThe track continued to be successful until the last months of the Second World War (December 1944 -January 1945) when the area became the stage of severe battles. The Allied forces wanted to break down the military power of Germany before it could grow stronger by last-minute mobilizations. While on the other side the aim of the German defence was to hold off but especially to exhaust the Allied forces so they would be unable to start another offensive before spring. In this battle Geilenkirchen was bombed for three days before the Allied troops were able to take the city which was completely ruined by then (Life, 1944). The aerial photograph shows the situation near the Kleinbahn station. In the upper left corner you recognize the carriages and the building which is, although seen form the other side, the same as on the small photograph.

ReconstructionDuring the bombings parts of the track and the bridge cross-ing the Wurm is destroyed and it took until 1946 before the fi rst part of the track Tüddern – Bauchem (nowadays part of Geilenkirchen) resumed operations. Later that same year the bridge is restored and the track is in full service again.

18Geilenkirchen

Figure 11Overvieuw of the trackSource: google.com (2011)


The time table (1945) shows the track is divided in two parts Geilenkirchen-Tüddern and Geilenkirchen-Alsdorf. The fi rst took one hour and went back and forth four times a day. The second took 50 minutes and went back and forth six times a day. As an average (including stops) the train must have drove at about 20 km/h, not so fast at all, especially not compared to modern-day transport.

DeclineIn 1950 the GKB starts a regular bus service partly parallel to the Kleinbahn, this is the beginning of the downfall. Be-sides from the decline in passenger transport the transporta-tion of goods in on a decline as well. The agriculture in the area turns to sugar beet which is a seasonal product so the demand for transport is limited to the autumn. In 1960 the passenger transport is closed and eleven years later on July 1, 1971 the entire service is stopped (Wall, Selfkantbahn, 2011)

Geilenkirchen SelfkantbahnIn the last years with the train sill in operation a association was founded to preserve the kleinbahn, the ‘Vereinigung Westdeutscher Schmalspurfreunde’ now known as Selfkant-bahn. The association has preserved a 5.5 km long part of the track, opened a museum and offer train rides during the summer months.

Traces of the Geilenkirchen KleinbahnIn this part of the essay we will look at three different traces the kleinbahn has left in the area of Tranchot map number 66.

The aerial photograph on the left page gives a fi rst impres-sion of the track and its impact on the area. The red dots represent the beginning and end of the part which is still operational today. Besides the fact that the processing of the image gives extra emphasis on the track it is clearly distinguishable as a cord that winds its way through the landscape.

The white rectangles mark the positions of the enlargements to the right, each of which has its own reason to be interest-ing. From top to bottom:

Track as boundary In the fi rst case the track functions as a boundary for the backyards of the houses along the road. We must keep in mind that this part of the track is still used today.

Track in trees The second case shows the original track by trees which are easily recognizable on a aerial photo graph.

Colour shift in the land The third case can only be seen from up in the air, the colour shift in the grass reveals the original track of the Kleinbahn.

The fi nal part of this essay gives a analyse of these three cases by using two maps and the aerial photograph.

Figure 12Track as boundary Source: google.com (2011)

Figure 13Track in trees Source: google.com (2011)

Figure 14Colour shift in the landSource: google.com (2011)

20Geilenkirchen


Track as boundaryThis is a beautiful, but certainly not the only, example of the track forming a boundary for the build area. The fi rs maps shows the situation in 1895, the same year the decision was taken to build the track and is probably drawn as a result of forward thinking, drawing a track which is to be build makes the map useful for a longer period. On the other maps form the same set (MTBL) of the area dating back to the same year the track is not visible probably as a result of the fact that drawing these maps took some time. The fi rst map (MTBL, 1895) shows that when the tack was build there where only a few houses along the road and the pattern formed by the backyards is irregular. The second map (Kadaster, 1958) shows some new buildings but the pattern still is irregular. The aerial photograph (Google, 2011) shows that nowadays that the road is completely built up with the backyards on one side lined out to the track while on the opposite side the backyards still form an irregular pattern.

Track in treesThe part of the track just south of Geilenkichen is very easy to recognize by the lines of trees that were planted on both sides of the track. You would have to know there used to be a track but if you do it is a very clear trace of its former presents.

The fi rst map (MLTB, 1934) shows the situation. The station had to connect to the already existing train station (for the transfer of goods form the kleinbahn to trains) and a bridge over the train track had to be perpendicular to the train track which resulted in the beautiful form of the kleinbahn. The diameter of this turn is only 280 meters: this is only possible because of the low speed at which the kleinbahn operates.

Colour shift in the landOf the three examples this is the only trace which you would not be able to see unless you are up in the air. It is nice to see that even when the track has completely disappeared a trace of it still remains.

What makes this example even more interesting is the ques-tion why the bend is made, it would have been shorter to follow the same path the road follows nowadays and there is no obvious reason (like a factory) to make a bend. The answer can be found in the fi rst map, if you look closely fo-cusing on the elevation contours you notice the track is build straight down the slope. This actually makes sense; to build the shorter route the land would have to be straightened to prevent the train from tilting, this would probably be more expensive than a few extra meters track.

Figures 15, 16, 17 & 18From left to right

- Map drawn from Kadaster 60G, 1958

- Cutout from the MTBL map of Heinsberg, 1895Source: GeoGrief (2011)

- Cutout from Kadaster 60G, 1958Source: Watwaswaar.nl (2011)

- Aerial photograph Source: google.com (2011)











22Geilenkirchen


SourcesDörfl ers. (n.d.). Retrieved 1 14, 2012, from http://home.arcor.de/mhdoerfl er/preussen/klbg.htm#top

Euroatlas. (n.d.). Retrieved 1 4, 2012, from http://www.euroatlas.net

Geilenkirchen.de. (2012). Retrieved 1 3, 2012, from http://www.geilenkirchen.de/

GeoGRIEF. (n.d.). Retrieved 10 21, 2011, from http://greif.uni-greifswald.de/geogreif/

Jansen, W. (1999). Toolbox. Retrieved 1 16, 2012, from http://www.web-toolbox.net/gk-en/index.php

Life. (1944, 12 18). The Battlefi eld of Germany. Life , pp. 15-20.

Rutgers, R. (2011). urban theory and design of public space. 19th century .

Vercauteren, F. (1956). De aanleg van de straatweg ‘s-herthogenbosch-Best als deel van de verbinding met luik. Nijmegen: N.V. Centrale drukkerij.

Wall, H. (2004, 4). Bezeichnungsweise der Lokomotiven bei Lenz-Bahnen. Die Museums-Eisenbahn , pp. 18-21.

Wall, H. (2011). Selfkantbahn. Retrieved 1 2, 2012, from http://www.tbr-server.de/selfkantbahn/index.php

24Geilenkirchen


Logbook Date

11-10

12-1013-1018-10

21-10

26-1027-10

28-1029-10

31-10 1-11

14-11

15-11

15-1122-12

2-1

3-1

4-1

5-1

13-1

14-1

16-118-1

22-124-125-126-1

Activity

- Picked up Tranchot map, composed Google maps, put them on top of each other and started drawing the 2011 map- Drawing 2011 map- Drawing 2011 map- Finished 2011 map- Composed maps from around 1950- Downloaded maps from around 1900 greif.uni-greifswald.de/geogreif/ and fi tted them to the Ai fi le- Started drawing the Tranchot map- Finished Tranchot map, Some questions remain.- Drawing 1893 map- Started drawing 1958 map

- Drawing 1958 map- Finishing up all the drawings, most of the work is done, a few questions remain- Inventory of what needs to be investigated for fi nishing the maps

- Looked up some information about the area- Found the answer to the quistion about the route the sittard, it was a paved road but not form the roman times.

- Improved the maps - Orientation essay subject, the train track seems to be interesting.- Started the research, found some interes-ting stuff.- Composed a aerial Photograph of the track- Examined the aerial view of track, and chose three fragments for analysis as part of the essay- Started writing accompanying text for the maps. - Received the CS4 Layout and started on the First part- Collected some more information for the essay, www.tbr-server.de holds a lot of inte-resting info but lacks a real structure - Re re-layout the fi rst part - Orientated further on the train, started on a proposal for the essay.- Writing essay- Looking for reliable sources - Sending a E-mail to the museum with te question where the got there information, turns out to be a book.- Writing essay- Writing essay- Writing essay- Finishing essay and fi nal layout- Printing

Remarks

Rotated the google maps map bij 2.75 degrees to the west

There is a NAVO airbase in the area what to do with it?

Not much has chanced since 1811Main road are now very clear, all of the small roads are straitened

- what is route de Sittard- what is Aix la Chapelle- which roads were paved?www.geilenkirchen.de/www.thermenmuseum.nlpeople.zeelandnet.nl/pauho/interest.htmwww.wikipedia.nl/ www.wikipedia.de/www.willemwillems.com/articles.html (1987 roman roads)

Track has left a clear trace

www.euratlas.net

Geilenkirchener Kreisbahn. Die westlichste Kleinbahn von Lenz und Co, Henning wall

Time spent

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GEILENKIRCHEN KLEINBAHN

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