The Strausberg Railway (') is a

light railway A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to ...

serving the town of

Strausberg Strausberg () is a Town#Germany, town in Brandenburg, in eastern Germany, located east of Berlin. With a population of about 27,000 it is the largest town in the district of Märkisch-Oderland. History Strausberg was founded ''circa'' 1240, and ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It links central Strausberg with the Strausberg railway station, where it connects with trains on the

Berlin S-Bahn The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system that services the reigon in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under the name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff are ...

and the

Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn AG (NEB) is a private regional railway company in Berlin and Brandenburg, eastern Germany and as well as bordering areas in Poland. It manages railway infrastructure, and, via its subsidiary NEB Betriebsgesellschaft Gmb ...

. Although formally constituted and regulated as a railway, the line uses

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

way style

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

and is superficially indistinguishable from a tramway.

Overview

The railway is operated by the company '. This company also operates the

Straussee Ferry The Straussee Ferry (German: ''Strausseefähre'') is a passenger cable ferry that crosses the Straussee lake, near the town of Strausberg in Brandenburg, Germany. Overview The ferry service is operated by the Strausberg Railway, using the ferr ...

, an unusual electrically operated passenger

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the types chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

that crosses the

Straussee The Straussee is a German lake located in Strausberg, Brandenburg. It is situated about north-east of the city of Berlin. The town of Strausberg occupies the eastern shore of the lake, whilst the forest of the Strausberger Forest is on the western ...

lake from a landing close to the railway's Strausberg terminus.

History

The railway was originally opened in 1893, at which time it was operated by

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s and carried both freight and passenger traffic. In 1921 the line was electrified, and a new street based routing opened for the final length into Strausberg. The originally routing remained open for freight traffic and was also electrified. In 1926, the line was extended from Lustgarten to Jugendheim, but this section closed in 1970. Freight traffic ceased in 2005, and the original routing was closed, along with the rail connection to the main line network. The railway is of

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

, has a length of about , and is electrified on the overhead system at 750

volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...

s. From south to north, the line serves stops at Strausberg railway station, Landhausstraße, Schlagmühle, Stadtwald, Hegermühle, Wolfstal, Käthe-Kollwitz-Straße, Elisabethstraße and Lustgarten. The depot is situated on the original route, and is accessed by a curve just beyond the Lustgarten terminus. The line had been mainly operated by three

ČKD ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk) () was one of the largest engineering companies in the former Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic. It is famous for the Tatra T3, a tramcar that sold 13,991 units worldwide. History ČKD was formed i ...

Tatra KT8D5 Tatra KT8D5 is a bidirectional tram, light rail vehicle currently ( , and not expected to retire soon, except in Brno) operating in Europe and Asia. In several variations, it was designed and manufactured by Czechs, Czech engineering corporatio ...

tram cars, built in 1989/1990 and acquired from

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

in 1995. A prototype ČKD

Tatra T6C5 Tatra may refer to: * Tatra Mountains, a mountain range in Slovakia and Poland ** Tatra County, an administrative division of Poland in the region of the Tatra Mountains ** Tatra National Park, Poland, a national park in Poland ** Tatra National ...

car, built in 1998 as a demonstrator for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

market and operated on the New Orleans streetcar system for several months, had been acquired from

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

(the new owners of Tatra) in 2003 and had been used in off-peak service. Two older Reko-Triebwagen TZ 69 cars, built in 1969 and acquired in the 1980s, were still available for passenger service, and a third had been converted into a works car. The railway also owns an even older preserved passenger car, dating from 1925. The Strausberg Railway joined the delivery framework of the BVG Berlin Transport Company ordering 2 Flexity Berlin trams on 5. September 2011. The two short double-sided two-cab trams were delivered in February and March 2013 replacing its older trams in daily service.

Photogallery

File:Ste16depot011005.jpg, Historic tramcar 16, dating from 1925, standing on the depot fan in front of the depot. File:Ste22vorstadt140804.jpg, A Tatra KT8D5 at Hegermühle station File:The Strausberg Tram, 1993.jpg, Historic tramcar in 1993 File:StrausbergTram2.jpg, Inner view of the tram

Notes

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Germany

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...