Quedlinburg station is a station on the Magdeburg–Thale railway in Quedlinburg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It was built in 1862 as a through station on the southern edge of the town. The Gothic Revival entrance building of 1862, together with the other parts of the nearly complete Gründerzeit ensemble, is heritage-protected.
Since the conversion of part of the formerly standard-gauge line to Frose in 2006 to create the Quedlinburg–Gernrode section of the metre gauge Selke Valley Railway (Selketalbahn), it has been an interchange station between that line and the standard gauge Halberstadt–Thale railway. From 1908 to 1969, the station was also served by the line to Blankenburg, the so-called Quäke.
Of the other four former Quedlinburg stations, the request stop of Quedlinburg-Quarmbeck is the only one still operating.
Location
The station is located on the eastern side of the Bode, about 850 metres from the market square of the medieval old town. In front of the station there are two squares, first the station forecourt (Bahnhofsplatz) and, on the other side of the river, the Friedrich-Ebert-Platz. The station is connected to the town by the station bridge (Bahnhofsbrücke), which was rebuilt after a devastating flood in 1925 and redeveloped in the late 1990s. The station is located on Quedlinburg's town ring with the streets of Rathenaustraße and Harzweg adjacent to it. There were formerly numerous metal and industrial factories in the street of Klopstockweg at the back of the station that used the freight yard. Companies such as a rolling works used to be connected to the rail network. With the decline of industry in the early 1990s, the volume of freight dropped, so that the freight yard was abandoned. In its place there is now a parking area for tax office workers and a commuter parking area for cycles, cars and buses including an access road from Frachtstraße and Stresemannstraße. The building complex of the former Mertik Maxitrol company was rebuilt and rebuilt as the tax office of the Harz district.
History
The station was opened on 2 July 1862 with the railway line from Halberstadt to Thale. The entrance building and other buildings date from its opening. A number of industrial companies settled in the following years near the railway. In 1885, Quedlinburg became a small railway junction with the opening of the line to Gernrode and Ballenstedt. The railway line to Blankenburg was opened in 1908. The station had to be rebuilt to accommodate the additional trains. During the reconstruction, a new platform 1 West and a new water tower were built.
Quedlinburg station also played a significant role in times of peace. During the First World War, Quedlinburg Station was used to transport prisoners of war who were being transported to or from the Quedlinburg POW camp on the Ritteranger, two kilometres north of Quedlinburg. The first prisoners arrived in Quedlinburg on 24 September 1914. The railway area was heavily fought over in March 1920 during the Kapp Putsch. Evidence of this is provided by photographs of the bombed station tunnels, although the history of the fighting is not known in detail.
Shortly before the end of the Second World War, the Allies suspected that V-2 rockets were being transported by Quedlinburg station. However, the planned bombing was not carried out. The reason for this suspicion was the existence of a V2 factory in Nordhausen. This belonged to the concentration camp of Mittelbau-Dora, which established field offices in September 1944 in, inter alia, Quedlinburg and Traunstein. Therefore, it was erroneously assumed that such a production facility existed in Quedlinburg, but these outposts had no association with V-2 production and maintenance. Nevertheless, in April 1945, a freight train with individual V2 parts actually stood on a siding at the gas works. The engineers Rössler and Bühring conducted this train on 10 April to near Ditfurt, where it was captured by American units.
Passenger traffic was abandoned on the railway to Blankenburg in 1969. Sidings off the line in the urban area were still served until 1993. Passenger trains were hauled by steam locomotives until 1988.
The importance of the freight and marshalling yard fell with the decline of the metal industry in the Quedlinburg station area at the beginning of the 1990s. Therefore, it was partially shut down. The first tracks were dismantled as early as the mid-1990s in order to extend the grounds of a company in Stresemannstraße. During redevelopment by Deutsche Bahn of the infrastructure of the Magdeburg–Thale line, the sidings towards Magdeburger Straße were removed and the line up to Badeborner Weg level crossing was converted to single-track. At the same time, the signaling technology was updated.
In December 2003, the Minister of Transport of Saxony-Anhalt, Karl-Heinz Daehre signed an agreement with the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways (Harzer Schmalspurbahnen GmbH—HSB) to build a connection from the Selke Valley Railway (Selketalbahn) to Quedlinburg and develop interchange facilities at Quedlinburg station. The last infrastructure of the former Quedlinburg freight yard disappeared with the reconstruction of the southeastern part of the station by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways. Instead, there is now a modern parking area for bicycles, cars and buses. This also enabled a barrier-free crossing to be built to the island platform above ground level. Before that, only access through the tunnel was possible. The 182 metre-long island platform was 2007 renovated in just three months and handed over in June 2007. A total of €450,000 were used to raise the platforms, relocate the paving and install guidance for the visually impaired. However, as the station complex is also a listed building, both the platform canopy, the pedestrian tunnel exits and the original natural stone platform edges were preserved. However, part of the platform was removed behind the tunnel entrance to provide access between platforms 1 and 2/3.
In the future, the terrain of the former marshalling yard is to be upgraded. The line to Thale is maintained mainly for tourism. A planned refurbishment of platform 1 has not yet been undertaken. The future of the pedestrian tunnel is under study. Different parties are responsible for the renovation of the buildings, as some of the buildings and the ground floor of the entrance building have been sold by DB Station&Service.
In the spring of 2009, Mitteldeutsche Baustoffe GmbH was commissioned to rehabilitate the already disused and isolated second track between the Magdeburger Straße level crossing and the former Groß Orden siding. A railway loading plant for gravel and greywacke was built in the area of the former coal yard. Goods from Bode Kieswerk in Ditfurt, two kilometres away, and from the quarry in Rieder, twelve kilometers away, are transhipped from trucks to trains here. It was planned to resume operations after the restoration of the siding on 24 June 2009 and the relocation of two kilometres of track from the end of July 2009, but trial operations could only start in October 2009 and regular operations began on 12 May 2010. Annual traffic of about 200,000 ton was sought. Trains up to 590 metres-long were to be used. The 126 tonne heavy diesel locomotive (Voith Maxima 40 CC) that hauled this traffic was named Quedlinburg on 27 May 2011.
The Bahnhofsmission (a Christian charity) in Halberstadt has been responsible for care for people in need in Quedlinburg station since 30 May 2011.
The main platform and the underpass is to be renewed by 2018. In addition, the construction of new lifts is planned. €3 million have been provided for the whole project.
Architecture Buildings The station has a nearly complete ensemble from the Gründerzeit. It consists of a listed Gothic Revival entrance building from 1862, a locomotive shed from 1862 and 1889/1892, a goods shed, one of the oldest surviving turntables in Germany from 1889, an express freight shed and a toilet block. Furthermore, it includes a water tower of the Schäfer type from 1907/1908, a residence building from 1906, signal boxes from 1907/1908, a toilet block from 1908, a ticket office from 1909 and a water crane from the period around 1955.
The interior of the Gothic Revival entrance building has stained glass windows, which were redesigned in 1906. These were produced by the Ferdinand Müller stained glass factory and represent views of the castle hill (Schlossberg) and the town hall (Rathaus). The station has been entered in the list of Quedlinburg cultural monuments.
Signal boxes
There were two signal boxes in the Quedlinburg station area: "Qmf" and "Qo". The dispatcher sat in the Mitte (middle) signal box (Qmf), which was built in 1908; this was a mechanical box of the Jüdel type. The building at the Stresemannstraße level crossing was abandoned during the work to connect the HSB to the station and the abandonment of old railway tracks in 2007. The Qmf nameplate had already been removed. All signalling control was centralised in the Quedlinburg-Ost (east) box (Qo, on the Frachtstraße level crossing). This was a mechanical signal box of the E/GS II type. The third signal box in Quedlinburg was located in the area of Quedlinburg-West (Qw) and was responsible for the Quäke marshalling yard. Qw had reduced responsibilities with the abandonment of the Blankenburg–Quedlinburg railway and its station. In the end, it was only a gatekeeper's box, looking after the Gernröder Weg level crossing. It became redundant with the re-gauging and modernisation of signalling at the level crossings and is now out of service. Qw was like Qmf equipped with a mechanical interlocking of the Jüdel type.
Level crossings
In central Quedlinburg there are ten level crossings, two of which are used exclusively for agricultural traffic. At the end of the 20th century, the full barrier systems were manually operated. The gatekeepers worked at Gernröder Weg, at the Quedlinburg Ost, Mitte and West signal boxes and at the Magdeburger Straße crossing. Initially, the Frachtstraße level crossing was upgraded to electronic-control by the Quedlinburg-Ost interlocking, followed by the Gernröder Weg and Neinstedter Feldweg crossings. As part of the conversion of a line to be incorporated in the Harz narrow gauge railways in 2005/2006, the affected level crossings were converted to automatic systems with half barriers. These are additionally connected to the traffic lights at Gernröder Weg/Harzweg and Harzweg/Stresemannstraße. As a result, traffic on the connecting streets to Stresemannstraße and to Gernröder Weg is controlled, so there is no traffic jams at the crossings. The Stresemannstraße level crossing was formerly controlled by Quedlinburg-Mitte (QmF) signal box, which was directly adjacent. Like the following crossing in Albert-Schweitzer-Straße, the barriers were raised and lowered by wire ropes. Today, the level crossings have different modes of operation. Thus, the level crossing in the station area in Stresemannstraße can be operated both by the Quedlinburg-Ost signal box and fully automatically.