}
The Thalbahn Habsheim (German for ''Habsheim Valley Railway'') was a long
narrow-gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
railway with a gauge of at
Habsheim
Habsheim is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It forms part of the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, the inter-communal local government body for the Mulhouse conurbation.
History
The Thalbahn Habshe ...
in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it ha ...
History
The Thalbahn was built during the First World War by German soldiers and Romanian prisoners of war as a military light railway with a gauge of 600 mm. For the construction of the route, steel rails were permanently laid onto wooden sleepers.
Route
The route ran initially from Habsheim railway station to the southwest to Tagsdorf. On the way, there was a long branch line to Schlierbach as well as secondary spurs to the ammunition depot ''Kägymühle'' and the
Pioneer Park Steige. The main route was later extended by to
Altkirch
Altkirch (, ; gsw, label= Alsatian, Àltkìrech) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.
The town is traditionally regarded as the capital of Sundgau.
Etymology
The name of the commune means ''old church'' ...
and by to
Wahlbach.
Buildings
The railway staff's offices were located in Landser's town hall and on the first floor of the ''Le Bœuf Rouge'' restaurant.
The camp of the Romanian prisoners of war was located within a military camp at the eastern exit of
Dietweiler. Many prisoners of war died due to malnutrition, forced labor and the poor living conditions and were buried in the Romanian cemetery in Dietweiler.
Locomotives
One of the locomotives was the
O&K ten-wheeler No. 8285/1917 (
0-10-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, ten powered and coupled driving wheels on five axles and no trailing wheels. In the United Kingdom, this type is k ...
). It was delivered on 13 June 1917 from
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
and is now preserved on the
Chemin de fer Froissy-Dompierre
The Froissy Dompierre Light Railway (french: Chemin de fer Froissy-Dompierre, CFCD) is a narrow gauge light railway running from Froissy (a hamlet of La Neuville-lès-Bray) to Dompierre-Becquincourt, through Cappy, in the Somme department, ...
.
[Jens Merte]
''Museal erhaltene Lokomotiven O&K, Werk Berlin.''
/ref>
References
External links
*
A commemoration of the travels on railways that were built or operated by Kodeis B (commander of the railway troops) in the period from 28 May to 3 June 1918, Goswin von Haag, Captain & Commander of the Railway Troops
{{Coordinate, NS=47.7279 , EW=7.4253 , type=building , region=FR , name=Habsheim railway station
600 mm gauge railways in France
Railway lines in Grand Est