Oberau Tunnel

Last updated April 28, 2019

The Oberau Tunnel (Oberauer Tunnel) was the second railway tunnel in Germany after a railway tunnel on the Tollwitz–Dürrenberg Railway (Tollwitz-Dürrenberger Eisenbahn, a 585 mm gauge mining railway), but it was the first tunnel of a normal railway on the continent of Europe. It was driven between 1837 and 1839 on the Leipzig–Dresden railway by Freiberg miners and opened out in 1933/1934. Today only an obelisk commemorates this milestone in German railway history.

A narrow-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard 1,435 mm. Most narrow-gauge railways are between 600 mm and 1,067 mm.

The Leipzig–Dresden line is a German railway line. It was built by the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company between 1837 and 1839. It was the first long-distance railway and the first railway using only steam traction in Germany. It also included the first standard gauge railway tunnel in continental Europe.

Freiberg is a university and mining town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called Große Kreisstadt and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district.

History

Although the Leipzig–Dresden railway ran over the fairly flat terrain of northern Saxony, the northern slopes of the Dresden Basin ^[1] meant that a tunnel was required because at that time it was believed that trains on major railways could not climb significant slopes. Similarly, the Berlin-Dresden railway, which was built half a century later, partly running parallel with it, has its steepest gradients in this area.

Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig.

The Dresden Basin is a roughly 45 km long and 10 km wide area of the Elbe Valley between the towns of Pirna and Meißen. The city of Dresden lies in the Dresden Basin.

More than 500 miners sunk four 20 m-deep shafts to the level of the tunnel floor. The tunnel was driven from the bottom of these shafts and from the tunnel portals. Two of the shafts were later used for the ventilation of the tunnel.^[1] The tunnel was completely lined with 8,900 m³ of Elbe Sandstone to reduce the water inflow.

Elbe Sandstone describes sandstones that naturally occur in North Bohemia and those parts of Saxony within the area around Dresden. It is named after the River Elbe, which cuts through the sandstone region in a transverse valley, the Elbe Valley Zone. It reaches the surface most strikingly in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, which are divided into the regions of Saxon Switzerland on German soil and Bohemian Switzerland on Czech territory. The term Elbe Sandstone is used in both geological and economic contexts.

With the opening of the Leipzig–Dresden railway on 7 April 1839, Oberau station, which was situated high above the cutting leading to the tunnel, was the closest station to Meissen. Because of this unfavourable situation, Meissen sought a more convenient station and in 1842 Niederau station was opened on the line about 2.5 kilometres south of the tunnel. With the opening of Niederau station, the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company closed Oberau station on 15 May 1842.

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche. The Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district.

Niederau station is a regional station on the Leipzig–Dresden railway in Niederau in the German state of Saxony. The railway station, which was opened on 15 May 1842, for a long time had the oldest operating station building in Germany, but Deutsche Bahn stopped using the it and sold it after 2000.

The Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company was a private railway company in the Kingdom of Saxony, now a part of Germany. Amongst other things, it operated the route between Leipzig and Dresden, opened in 1839, and which was the first long-distance railway line in Germany. On 1 July 1876 the company was nationalised and became part of the Royal Saxon State Railways.

From 1933 to 1934, Oberau Tunnel was converted into a cutting because of its restricted structure gauge and the severe damage caused by water and frost during its operation. In the area of the former tunnel, state road 177 between Radeburg and Meissen now crosses the line on a bridge.

The structure gauge, also called the minimum clearance outline, is the minimum height and width of tunnels and bridges as well as the minimum height and width of the doors that allow a rail siding access into a warehouse. In addition, the term may apply to the minimum distance to railway platforms, buildings, electrical equipment boxes, railway signal equipment, third rails or to supports for overhead lines from the track. The width of a narrow cut can also affect the maximum loading gauge.

Radeburg is a town in the district of Meißen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Meißen, and 18 km north of Dresden. The main tourist attraction is the narrow-gauge Radebeul-Radeburg railway line that connects Radeburg and Radebeul via Moritzburg. The painter and illustrator Heinrich Zille was born in Radeburg.

A monument to the tunnel was built out of the original material of the portal crown; it reused the Saxon coat of arms, which was once at the centre of the portal. The Dresden coat of arms was placed on the left and is now located on a memorial stone next to the road bridge.

Overview data

length: 513.3 metres
built: 1837–1839
opened out: 1933/1934
located at km: 93.2
maximum coverage: 15 m
type of rock tunneled through: shale (Schiefer), granite

Shale A fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility. It is the most common sedimentary rock.

Granite A common type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock with granular structure

Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be predominantly white, pink, or gray in color, depending on their mineralogy. The word "granite" comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a holocrystalline rock. Strictly speaking, granite is an igneous rock with between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, and at least 35% of the total feldspar consisting of alkali feldspar, although commonly the term "granite" is used to refer to a wider range of coarse-grained igneous rocks containing quartz and feldspar.

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Radebeul is a town in the Elbe valley in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany, a suburb of Dresden. It is well known for its viticulture, a museum dedicated to writer Karl May, and a narrow gauge railway connecting Radebeul with the castle of Moritzburg and the town of Radeburg. The Meißen area, where Radebeul is located, is one of the northeasternmost areas where wine is grown in the 21st century.

The House of Wettin is a dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors and kings that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its origins can be traced back to the town of Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt. The Wettins gradually rose to power within the Holy Roman Empire. Members of the family became the rulers of several medieval states, starting with the Saxon Eastern March in 1030. Other states they gained were Meissen in 1089, Thuringia in 1263, and Saxony in 1423. These areas cover large parts of Central Germany as a cultural area of Germany.

Wurzen is a town in the Leipzig district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Mulde, here crossed by two bridges, 25 km east of Leipzig, by rail N.E. of Leipzig on the main line via Riesa to Dresden. It has a cathedral dating from the twelfth century, a castle, at one time a residence of the bishops of Meissen and later utilized as law courts, several schools, an agricultural college and as a police station including a prison.

The Royal Saxon State Railways were the state-owned railways operating in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1869 to 1918. From 1918 until their merger into the Deutsche Reichsbahn the title 'Royal' was dropped and they were just called the Saxon State Railways.

The Magdeburg–Leipzig railway is a double-track, electrified railway in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, connecting Magdeburg via Köthen, Halle and Unna to Leipzig.

The Leipzig–Hof railway is a two-track main line in the German states of Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria, originally built and operated by the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company. It runs from Leipzig through Altenburg, the Werdau wye junction, Reichenbach and Plauen to Hof. The Werdau–Hof section is part of the Saxon-Franconian trunk line (Sachsen-Franken-Magistrale), the line connecting Dresden and Nuremberg. Its first section opened in 1842 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany.

The Chemnitz–Riesa railway is a two-track and electrified mainline railway in the German state of Saxony, originally built and operated by the Chemnitz-Riesa Railway Company. The line was opened between 1847 and 1852 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. The line runs from Riesa via Döbeln to Chemnitz and is part of the Berlin–Chemnitz route.

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Priestewitz station is on the Leipzig–Dresden railway and the Großenhain–Priestewitz railway, which branches off it. The station is in the town of Priestewitz in the German state of Saxony.

Radebeul-Kötzschenbroda station railway station in Radebeul, Germany

The Radebeul-Kötzschenbroda station is in Kötzschenbroda, a district of Radebeul in the German state of Saxony. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a Haltepunkt. It is located on the Pirna–Coswig railway, which was recently created as a separate line as part of the upgrade of the Leipzig–Dresden railway. The station, which was previous called Radebeul West, was rebuilt and renamed Radebeul-Kötzschenbroda in 2013 and it is now served mainly by the Dresden S-Bahn.

Radebeul-Weintraube station German railway station

Radebeul-Weintraube station is in Radebeul in the German state of Saxony. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a Haltepunkt. Weintraube station was opened in 1838 in the Lößnitz fields as the first station out of Dresden on Germany's oldest long-distance railway, the Leipzig–Dresden railway. It is now the oldest station still regularly served in Saxony.

Radebeul Ost (east) station is a station in the Große Kreisstadt of Radebeul in the German state of Saxony. It is in the suburb now called Radebeul-Ost. The station buildings are located within the boundaries of Alt-Radebeul on Sidonienstraße. The station is on the Dresden S-Bahn network.

Meissen station is the largest railway station in the town of Meissen in the German state of Saxony. The station was opened in 1860 in the district of Cölln. Its entrance building, which was built in 1928, is a heritage-listed building and along with the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof it is considered an architecturally significant transport complex of the interwar period. After the ending of long-distance traffic in the 1960s, the station is now a station of the Dresden S-Bahn with only regional significance.

Siebenlehn is a district of the town Großschirma in Landkreis Mittelsachsen. Until 2003 it was a separate town. Upon fusion with the neighbouring rural municipality Großschirma on 1 September 2003, the town privileges were transferred to the joint municipality.

References

1 2 Ralf Haase (2009). Wirtschaft und Verkehr in Sachsen im 19. Jahrhundert – Industrialisierung und der Einfluss Friedrich Lists[Economy and Transport in Saxony in the 19th century—industrialization and the influence of Friedrich List] (in German). Dresden. pp. 169 f.

External links

Coordinates: 51°11′37″N13°32′44″E / 51.1936°N 13.5456°E / 51.1936; 13.5456

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[Wirtschaft_und_Verkehr-1] 1 2 Ralf Haase (2009). Wirtschaft und Verkehr in Sachsen im 19. Jahrhundert – Industrialisierung und der Einfluss Friedrich Lists[Economy and Transport in Saxony in the 19th century—industrialization and the influence of Friedrich List] (in German). Dresden. pp. 169 f.