Monday 26 September 2022

A plausible fiction

The blog is about building a small fictitious terminus based on an extension to the Wiesenttalbahn, it is merely an amalgam of features of existing locations in and around Fränkische Schweiz  in short, a plausible fiction.

The Wiesenttalbahn, now known as Dampfbahn Fränkische Schweiz, is a line from Ebermannstadt to Behringersmühle but once it extended to Heiligenstadt and had aspirations to connect with the Nürnberg line to Bayreuth.

 The map below shows its route.


 A short description 

 It was on June 1st, 1891 when the first train from Forchheim (situated on the main line Nürnberg - Bamberg, about 15 km west) reached the city of Ebermannstadt. For years Ebermannstadt Station became the temporary terminus, in 1915, when the extension to Heiligenstadt was opened  following the Wiesent River until Gasseldorf where it branches off along the Leinleiter stream.

In the economic depression following World-War-I the next extension from Gasseldorf then followed the Wiesent River reaching Muggendorf in 1922. The right-of-way to Güssweinstein - another 5.6 km - was already prepared but due to lack of rails and sleepers this part was finished in 1927.

The final 2.5 km to Behringersmühle was completed in October 1930 as the last branchline to be completed in the Bavarian region. From the outset the line lacked true economic success and lost business to road traffic. In 1960, the passenger traffic to Heiligenstadt ended followed by freight traffic in 1968 and the line was completely dismantled. 

Despite the background of financial failure, in 1919, a new construction project was put forward with an extension from Behringersmühle to reach Bayreuth via Pegnitz.

The fiction

It is plausible that work began on the extension but ran out of resources as it extended past Pottenstein and was closed at the same time as Heiligenstadt, the terminus would have been Pottendorf.


 
 

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