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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

railway with a gauge of at

Habsheim Habsheim () is a Communes of France, commune in the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It forms part of the Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération, the inter-communal local government body for the Mulhouse conu ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

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 and secondary spurs to the ammunition depot ''Kägymühle'' and the

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

Park Steige. The main route was later extended by to

Altkirch Altkirch (, ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, 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 c ...

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 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 known ...

). It was delivered on 13 June 1917 from

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and is now preserved on the

Chemin de fer Froissy-Dompierre The Froissy Dompierre Light Railway (, CFCD) is a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge light railway running from Froissy (La Neuville-lès-Bray), Froissy (a hamlet of La Neuville-lès-Bray) to Dompierre-Becquincourt, through Cappy, Somme, Cappy ...

.Jens Merte
''Museal erhaltene Lokomotiven O&K, Werk Berlin.''
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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
{{coord, 47.7279, 7.4253, region:FR_type:building, display=title, name=Habsheim railway station 600 mm gauge railways in France Railway lines in Grand Est