The Biebermühl Railway ()—sometimes called the Moosalbbahn (Moosalb Railway)—is a 35.9 km long railway line from Kaiserslautern to Pirmasens in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which was built between 1875 and 1913. The first section between Biebermühle (now Pirmasens Nord station) and Pirmasens connected the city of Pirmasens to the railway network, which could only be achieved via a branch line due to the topography. In 1905, another branch was opened from Biebermühl to Waldfischbach, which was extended in 1913 to Kaiserslautern. It was subsequently used by long-distance services, which operated until 1990. Since then, it has been used only by local services. It is the only one of all the Palatine railway lines that were completed in the 20th century that have never been threatened with closure.
History First aspirations (1864–1867)
The first efforts to create a railway connection from Kaiserslautern to Pirmasens go back to the 1860s. Above all, the municipality Schopp was fiercely committed to a connection. The first proposal from 1864 suggested a route through Vogelweh, Hohenecken, Schopp, Biebermühle and Rodalben.
In the following year, a committee, to which representatives from Kaiserslautern, Waldfischbach and Schopp belonged, noted several advantages of such a route. It would benefit Pirmasens with its industry, the transport of timber in the areas of Johanniskreuz, Leimen, Lemberg, Merzalben, Ruppertsweiler, Trippstadt and Waldfischbach, the gravel pits in Heltersberg, Rodalben, Schmalenberg and Waldfischbach and the agriculture of the neighbouring Sickingen Heights and services for visitors to the waterfalls of the region.
In 1866, another proposal for a route was put forward, which was largely followed by the current route. Bavaria, which controlled the Circle of the Rhine (Rheinkreis) in which the planned line was located, gave the planned line from Landau to Zweibrücken higher priority. The proposed connection between Kaiserslautern and Pirmasens was not considered by the Ministry of Trade to be useful because of the difficult topography and the thin settlement.
Origins of the Biebermühle–Pirmasens branch line
The town of Pirmasens hoped for a connection to the railway network with the construction of the planned Landau–Zweibrücken line. As it soon became apparent that due to the difficult topography of the Palatinate Forest (Pfälzerwald) and the associated high costs of building a line in this area, it was unlikely that the line could be built through Pirmasens. There were intense discussions in the town. Some members of the town council argued that a branch line would significantly weaken the town.
The council therefore continued to favour a direct link via the planned South Palatine Railway (Südpfalzstrecke) between Landau and Zweibrücken. There were two options under discussion. The first would have involved a station built in the Dankelsbach Valley; this would have required careful tunnelling under the town. It was dropped quickly. The second ran further south via Ruppertsweiler with a station near Niedersimten. The Bavarian government, however, favoured the connection by means of a branch line. The majority of the town council finally voted 24:14 in favour of the government's draft plan because a station in the Niedersimten area could not have been regarded as a direct connection and would have meant that a later connection to Kaiserslautern no longer had any chance of being realised.
The branch line would branch off from the planned main line in the hamlet of Biebermühle where a junction station was to be built, run mainly along the Steinbach and end on the northern outskirts of Pirmasens at the military training ground. It was opened together with the Annweiler–Zweibrücken section of the main line on 25 November 1875. The operator was the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (Pfalzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft), which had already become part of the Palatinate Railways (Pfälzische Eisenbahnen) with its operational merger with the remaining Palatinate railways in 1870.
The planning of what was intended to be a single-track line, however, suffered from an error. Due to its very late rise out of the Steinbach Valley, the crest of the line would only be reached at the beginning of the tunnel at the entrance to Pirmasens. As a result, trains that were brought to a halt at the end of the climb or in the tunnel could not be started again. Therefore, Deutsche Reichsbahn later decided to build a second track, which began the climb much earlier—directly at the exit from Biebermühle station—to reach the new tunnel over a gentler and more even gradient. (See also Further developments section )
Connection to Kaiserslautern
Like the South Palatine Railway, the main line to Pirmasens mainly served freight transport. However, the efforts to extend the Pirmasens line to the Kaiserslautern did not end. As early as the 1860s, the district council of Waldfischbach had criticised the planned route of the Landau–Zweibrücken line. In 1872, the Palatine Railway received a request from the city of Kaiserslautern, which related to the planned connection to Pirmasens. Its director, Albert von Jäger replied that the organisation had to deal with so many projects that the line could not be built. Another, also unsuccessful request, was made in 1887.
In 1894, a plan was issued on behalf of the mayor's office of Kaiserslautern, with construction costs amounting to 4.4 million marks, of which about one third was for reconstruction of the stations of Kaiserslautern and Biebermühle. A year later this was forwarded to the government in Munich. Jakob von Lavale, the successor of Jäger who had died in the meantime, turned down the proposal. Thereupon a meeting took place in the , which resulted in a protest against this position. This led to several proposals on how to progress the matter.
On 29 May 1900 a law was passed on "the development of railways of local importance in the Palatinate", which guaranteed railway construction. Two years later a concession was issued for the Biebermühle–Waldfischbach section. After about one year of construction, the corresponding 5.13 kilometre section was opened on 1 June 1904 with only one intervening station at Burgalben. Thus, Biebermühle station became a junction station with four branches. In 1909, the operation of the two lines became part of the Royal Bavarian State Railways (Königlich Bayerischen Staats-Eisenbahnen). The gap was closed on 1 August 1913, when the Waldfischbach–Kaiserslautern section was completed.
Further developments
Later the Biebermühle–Burgalben section was rebuilt on a new route through the middle of the Schwarzbach valley (Schwarzbachtal) for military reasons. The line was absorbed into Deutsche Reichsbahn on 1 April 1920. In 1922, the line was integrated into the newly founded Reichsbahndirektion Ludwigshafen (railway division of Ludwigshafen). In 1923, the so-called Regiebetrieb (military operation) commenced, which meant that the railway was operated by the French military until the beginning of 1924. In the course of the dissolution of the railway division of Ludwigshafen, the Biebermühl Railway came under the management of Saarbrücken on 1 May 1936.
A major reconstruction of Biebermühle station, which has been called Pirmasens Nord since 1938, followed. In addition, it was decided to build a second track a separate route to improve operations between Pirmasens North and the Hauptbahnhof. A total of three options were available. One would have passed through Petersberg and would not have needed a tunnel. The second would have run parallel to the existing line, which it would have crossed shortly before Fehrbach Tunnel and would have then climbed through a 400-metre-long tunnel. The third option, which was finally implemented by the Reichsbahn, ran almost parallel to the old line, but started climbing earlier towards Pirmasens and thus obtained a more even and gentler slope. It has a tunnel that runs parallel to the original one. This was commissioned in 1939; the construction costs amounted to 5.6 million Reichsmarks. After the commissioning, it was used for the operation of the trains running uphill, while the old track was reserved for the downhill trains. In addition, a connecting curve was established north of Pirmasens Nord station, which was subsequently used by direct services running between Zweibrücken and Kaiserslautern over the Biebermühl Railway.
Post-war period and Deutsche Bundesbahn (1945–1993)
At the end of the Second World War, the original valley track (Talgleis) of the southern Pirmasens Nord-Pirmasens Hauptbahnhof section was broken in four places as a result of the fighting. These problems were quickly resolved. There was more damage between Waldfischbach and Steinalben, so that through operations between Pirmasens and Kaiserslautern were not restored until 1946.
During the French occupation, the railway line was under the control of the Betriebsvereinigung der Südwestdeutschen Eisenbahnen (Union of south-west German railways, SWDE) which was absorbed into the newly founded Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in 1949. The latter integrated the Biebermühl Railway into the railway division of Mainz, which was assigned all railway lines within the newly created state of Rhineland-Palatinate. There was a great increase in passenger traffic. In 1955, the newer mountain track (Berggleis) was re-activated on the southern section of the line, the reconstruction of which had been long delayed. The line became a part of the area of responsibility of the railway division of Trier during the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz on 1 August 1971.
Steam operations on the line ended on 25 September 1975. Gelterswoog station was closed two years later. In the 1980s, the closure of the halts of Galgenschanzem Hohenecken, Karlsthal and Burgalben followed. After many lines had been closed throughout the Western Palatinate, DB concluded an agreement with the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which ensured the continuance of the Biebermühl Railway. At the end of the Cold War, from 1990 onwards, the line lost its importance as a strategic railway, which ultimately mainly depended on the American forces resident in the Pirmasens region.
Deutsche Bahn (since 1994)
In the course of the railway reform, the Biebermühl Railway became part of Deutsche Bahn (DB) in 1994. In the same year, interregional traffic ended on the neighbouring Landau–Rohrbach railway. With a few exceptions, the trains that had run from Pirmasens Nord had since run from the Hauptbahnhof, which meant an increase of services on the southern section of the Biebermühl Railway. On the section between Pirmasens Nord and Pirmasens Hauptbahnhof the older track, the so-called Talgleis, was closed in 1996, although it was not used on a regular basis since the 1960s. Just before the railway reform, its possible reactivation including the costs incurred had been investigated.
As part of the railway reform, the Zweckverband Schienenpersonennahverkehr Rheinland-Pfalz Süd (municipal association for rail transport of the southern Palatinate) has been responsible for the route since 1 January 1997. In this context, the Galgenschanze halt was reactivated.