The Drei-Ähren Railway (German for Three Ears of Corn Railway, French Voie Ferrée Trois Épis) consisted of the track gauge Electric Tramway from Türkheim to Drei-Ähren and the track gauge Military Light Railway from Drei-Ähren to Uhlhorst at Drei-Ähren near Colmar in Alsace.

Electric Tramway from Türkheim to Drei-Ähren History From 5 June 1899, the Electric Tramway from Türkheim to Drei-Ähren connected the small town of Türkheim, located west of Colmar, with the pilgrimage church at Drei Ähren (French Trois Épis). The construction of the railway went back to an initiative of the electricity company Schuckert & Co. from Nuremberg, while the Alsace was an Imperial Territory of Germany.

At times there were plans to extend the route from Türkheim to Winzenheim and thereby connect it to Colmar's secondary railway and tram network.Erhard Born: Das elsässisch-mittelbadische Schmalspurnetz. In: Erhard Born (editor): Schmalspur zwischen Vogesen und Schwarzwald. Self-published, Schwäbisch Gemünd 1972, , p. 19. The plans were, however, not implemented. After an interruption of operations in the First World War since 1919 under the name Société d’Electricité de Turckheim et Tramways de Turckheim aux Trois Epis (TTE), the railway was shut down on 1 April 1937.

Route Drei-Ähren (now Trois Épis) lays good 400 meters higher than Türkheim, which gave the railway the character of a mountain railway - albeit without cogwheel operation. It had a total length of and the maximum gradient was 1 in 10.2 (9.8%).

The electrical plant for the power supply was of the terminus and had a siding which branched off into four tracks to coal bunker, a repair shop and the car shed with 2 stands for 3 cars each.

Operation In addition to a freight car and a baggage car, seven tram cars were available for operation. The average speed was on the ascent and on the descent. The lower sixth of the railway line could be driven uphill at .Civil engineer Walloth from Colmar: Zum Bau der Drei-Aehrenbahn, einer neuen Bergbahn in den Vogesen. In: Zeitschrift für das gesamte Lokal- und Straßenbahnwesen. Vol. XVIII, 1899.

Military Light Railway from Drei-Ähren to Uhlhorst

History During the First World War, the military construction division R 22 laid a long military light railway with a track gauge of to Uhlhorst station, around the front line at Lingekopf, Kleinkopf, Barrenkopf and Hartmannsweilerkopf west of Drei-Ähren. Its objective was to transport building materials for the bunkers, barbed wire, weapons, ammunition and supplied to the front line and on the way back bring wounded soldiers to the hospitals.Transport of a wounded soldier by the electric tramway. Thousands of French and German soldiers were killed in the battles along this railway line.M. Norbert Schickel et al: Historischer Rundweg 1914-18: Hohrodberg-Linge.

On 31 December 1917, the Bavarian FeBA 24 (Feldbahnamt, Light Railway Office) took over the line and operated it until May 1918. After that, FeBA 50 took over the line until the end of the war.Andreas Bärwald (Der Mansfelder): Die elektrische Bergbahn von Türckheim nach Drei Ähren und die 600mm Drei Ährenbahn. 11. Dezember 2015.Jürgen Ehret: Kriegsbahnen im Oberelsass : 1914 - 1918 Ed. Winterwork, 2014. S. 274-279.

Route

At the upper terminus of the electric tramway, the goods were reloaded onto the narrow-gauge waggons on the light railway line. These could be hauled upwards on a winch-operated single-track incline car to the military light railway station on the square in front of the pilgrimage church in Drei-Ähren.

At the Bärenstall (literally Bear Cage) station, a branch line turned north to the Lingekopf. The main line continued via Schratzmännle, Barrenkopf and Kleinkopf to the Uhlhorst terminus north of Hohrodberg.

There was a double-track incline between Barrenkopf and Kleinkopf, which overcame a height difference of on a long piece of the route.Rüdiger Fach and Günter Krall: Heeresfeldbahnen der Kaiserzeit. Kenning, Nordhorn, 2002. S. 110 The conveyor track has been decommissioned in the postwar period and lifted by French troops.

Operation The military light railway line was operated as a horse-drawn railway or with a benzene locomotive. The journey time was about 1½ hours.

References

External links Le tramway de Turckheim - Trois-Epis. Société d'histoire Wickram-Turckheim: Tramway Turckheim-Trois Épis : anecdotes, histoires et images. Société d'histoire et d'archéologie Wickram, Turckheim, Haut-Rhin, 1999.