The Dresden–Werdau railway is an electrified, double-track main line in the German state of Saxony. It runs from Dresden via Freiberg, Chemnitz and Zwickau to Werdau wye, where it joins the Leipzig-Hof railway.
The line was opened in several sections and its first section from Werdau to Zwickau was opened 1845, making it one of the oldest railways in Germany. The Dresden–Tharandt section was completed in 1855, the Chemnitz–Zwickau section followed in 1858, the line was extended from Tharandt to Freiberg in 1862 and the section from Chemnitz to Flöha was opened as part of the line to Annaberg in 1866. The entire line was not open until 1869, when the missing section from Freiberg-Flöha was opened. From then on the railway line developed into an important connection. It continues to be an important part of the so-called Saxon-Franconian trunk line () from Dresden to Nuremberg.
History
The modern Dresden–Werdau line developed from a series of originally independent sections that were built with the support of the Saxon government and eventually became part of the Royal Saxon State Railways. The first section opened on 6 September 1845, as a branch from the Saxon-Bavarian Railway at the modern Werdau wye (Werdau Bogendreieck) junction to Zwickau.
The start of planning for a long-distance railway from Dresden towards Bavaria was the request of mine owners in the Plauen Valley (Plauenscher Grund) of the Weißeritz river for a line to connect their coal mines with Dresden. The request was granted and, on 4 May 1853, the easternmost section of the line from Dresden to Tharandt was opened with branch lines to the mines. The line opened on 18 June 1855 as the Albertsbahn (Albert Railway), named after Prince Albert of Saxony.
On 15 November 1858, the Chemnitz–Zwickau section was opened as part of the Riesa–Chemnitz–Zwickau route of the Niedererzgebirgische Staatsbahn (Lower Ore Mountains State Railway).
However, the planned extension from Tharandt to Freiberg turned out to be problematic. At first, the steep slopes between Tharandt and Freiberg were insuperable. Ultimately, a route was selected along the Seerenbach Valley to Klingenberg with a maximum gradient of 1 in 40. Several large viaducts had to be built across the successive valleys of the Colmnitzbach, Bobritzsch and Freiberger Mulde rivers. By the time construction of this line started in 1859, rail engineers had acquired experience with steep haul operations on such inclines as the Schiefe Ebene and the Geislinger Steige. The line was opened to Freiberg on 11 August 1862.
The route of the missing section between Freiberg and Chemnitz was more controversial. A connection through Hainichen had long been favoured. Ultimately, it was decided to build the shorter but more expensive route through Oederan, which had a steep ramp section and required the construction of several large viaducts. Between Flöha and Chemnitz, the line used the route of the Chemnitz–Annaberg railway, which had opened in 1866, and only the installation of a second track was necessary. On 1 April 1869 the Freiberg–Chemnitz section was opened, so that for the first time a connection existed between the eastern and the Western Royal Saxon State Railways in Saxony. As a result, the now completed Dresden–Werdau railway became an important rail link between Silesia and Southern Germany.
On 19 September 1895, a military train and a passenger train collided at Oederan. Ten people died and six were also injured.
Reconstruction of the Chemnitz rail network
In the 1880s, the Chemnitz railway node was no longer able to cope with the increase in traffic, especially freight. In spite of major upgrades at various locations (including the expansion of the Altchemnitz station and the construction of the Kappel freight yard), the construction of a marshalling yard became unavoidable. Finally, various projects were selected, which included construction to the south of the existing workshops. At the same time, the Dresden–Werdau railway was moved north of the workshops. Construction began in 1896, and the marshalling yard was opened in 1902.
Around the turn of the century, road traffic in the city of Chemnitz was growing. As the rail traffic also increased, the numerous level crossings became more and more of a problem. A railway attendant with a warning flag and a bell had to walk in front of the train at Dresdner Platz. Therefore, from January 1903 the Chemnitz–Altchemnitz section was lowered and the section between Altchemnitz and Chemnitz coal yard was raised above street level. In addition, the line was rebuilt with four tracks in these sections. The reconstruction was completed at the end of 1909. Since the Chemnitz–Adorf railway was upgraded to two tracks as far as Einsiedel at the same time, six tracks were now located next to each other on the section between Chemnitz Hauptbahnhof and Chemnitz Süd.
Traffic continued to increase after the end of the First World War. Therefore, quadruplication of the Niederwiesa–Chemnitz–Hilbersdorf section was started in 1915 and finally completed in 1924. Since the Hilbersdorf marshalling yard was inadequate, possible solutions were sought. Proposals for another line south or north of the existing main Dresden–Werdau line were not pursued. Instead of a proposal that had gained favour that included a complicated southern detour with three tunnels that were each about 1 km-long, an upgrade of the existing marshalling yard was carried out. Despite this reconstruction, which was completed in 1930, Chemnitz station remained an intractable bottleneck.
Elevation of the line between Dresden and Freital
In 1900, the situation on the Dresden–Freital section was similar to that in Chemnitz; the growing road and rail traffic caused more and more problems. Therefore, from 1901 to 1905, the railway was also raised higher, in order to eliminate the level crossings. Around 1910, the tracks on the Dresden Hbf–Dresden-Plauen section and from 1909 to 1912 on the Freital Ost junction–Tharandt section were quadrupled. At the same time, the station facilities were rebuilt. From then on the freight traffic could be separated from the passenger traffic. Because of the First World War, work on a 3 km-long section in between was not carried out beyond preparatory work. The elevation of the tracks took place between 1923 and 1926 on the section between the Dresden-Altstadt exit and Weißeritzbrücke in the vicinity of old Dresden-Plauen station. The old Dresden-Plauen station was closed and replaced by a new building at its current site.
Upgrade of the Zwickau railway lines
In Zwickau, the railway network was also not longer able to cope with traffic by around 1910 as traffic had risen sharply since the 1880s, but the rail infrastructure had hardly changed. At that time, the largest railway freight yard in Saxony had to be fundamentally rebuilt. At the same time, the tracks were to be elevated, as in Chemnitz and Dresden, so as not to obstruct road traffic. This work was delayed by the First World War and actual construction only began after the end of the war. However, this work went very slowly, so the elevation of the lines between Zwickau Pölbitz and Zwickau Hauptbahnhof took place between 1921 and 1925. 11 level crossings were replaced completely. For the most part, the reconstruction works, during which the Hauptbahnhof received a new entrance building, were not completed until the end of the 1930s. Further construction began during the Second World War, but it could not be finished due to personnel and material shortages.
After the Second World War
While large sections of the railway largely survived World War II, numerous railway installations were severely damaged or completely destroyed, especially in the Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau areas. In contrast to other lines, however, no major bridges were blown up by the Wehrmacht. However, in 1946, the line was completely dismantled down to one track and numerous platform tracks were dismantled as war reparations. As the ability of the important line to handle traffic was considerably reduced, the second track was restored on some sections in Dresden and Chemnitz by the early 1950s. The second track was restored on the bulk of the route in the 1960s and 1970s, but it was not until the middle of the 1970s that the second track had been completely re-built. Nevertheless, the line did not achieve the same importance as it did before the Second World War, since the division of Germany after 1945 meant that most traffic now ran in the north–south direction.
Electrification
After the re-electrification of the network in Central Germany, the electrification of the so-called Sächsisches Dreieck (Saxon triangle: the Dresden–Werdau, Leipzig–Dresden and Leipzig–Zwickau lines) was one of the most important investment projects of Deutsche Reichsbahn. In addition to significant cost savings in railway operations, this also promised a significant reduction in travel times, particularly as the use of bank engines on the steep slopes on the Tharandt-Klingenberg–Colmnitz and Flöha–Oederan sections would no longer be necessary with electric traction.
Construction work for the electric catenary started in the early 1960s. The construction of the facilities between Freiberg and Werdau was relatively unproblematic. However, the electrification between Dresden and Freiberg, especially around Edle Krone, was more difficult because restricted clearances hindered the construction of the catenary. The most important building project in this section was the widening of the Edle Krone tunnel, since the lowering of the tracks was impossible because of bridges connecting directly to the tunnel. Many catenary masts had to be constructed as special constructions with catenary supports over both tracks. The overhead was opened between 1963 and 1966 in sections starting from Werdau:
Opening Section km 1 October 1963 (Altenburg–) Werdau–Zwickau 44.7 30 May 1965 Zwickau–Karl-Marx-Stadt Hilbersdorf 52.3 26 September 1965 Karl-Marx-Stadt Hilbersdorf–Freiberg 36.2 25 September 1966 Freiberg–Dresden Hbf 42.6
The possible travel time reductions were put into full effect in the winter 1966/67 timetable. Steam-driven express trains needed a total of 55 minutes between Karl-Marx-Stadt Hbf and Freiberg. After the electrification, the running time was reduced to only 35 minutes. Even more significant reductions in travel time for freight trains resulted from the discontinuation of bank engine operations between Flöha and Oederan. The 1300 tonne Dg 7301 locomotives took 61 minutes on the same section compared with 122 minutes before electrification.
Reconstruction between Oederan and Flöha
In the mid-1980s, the Hetzdorf Viaduct over the Flöha valley in the distinct of Mittelsachsen, which dated from the opening of that section of the line, had reached the end of its service life. In the final years, crossing the viaduct was only possible at a top speed of 20 km/h, which greatly restricted the section's capacity. Deutsche Reichsbahn eventually designed a straightened route bypassing the old viaduct. The new bridge consists of two prestressed concrete bridges, each 344 metres long, that cross the Hetzbach and Flöha valleys. The construction company VEB Autobahnbaukombinat ("Publicly Owned Operation for motorway construction combine") built the bridges from 1987 onwards using the incremental launch method, for the first time during the construction of a railway bridge in East Germany. The new line was completed and put into operation on 12 May 1992, shortening the connection between Dresden and Chemnitz by about one kilometre.
The new section is 2,033.9 metres long, 966.1 m shorter than the old route. It has grades of up to 1.68%.
August 2002 floods