Bexbach station is a station in the German state of
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
. It was opened in 1849 and is the oldest preserved station building in the state, although it has extended in 1872 and 1896. When it was built,
Bexbach
Bexbach () is a town in the Saarpfalz district, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Blies, approximatively 6 km east of Neunkirchen, and 25 km northeast of Saarbrücken. The Saarländisches Bergbaumuseum (Saarland Mining ...
was in the
Circle of the Rhine
The Circle of the Rhine (german: Rheinkreis) or Rhine Circle, sometimes the Bavarian ( or ), was the name given to the territory on the west bank of the Rhine from 1816 to 1837 which was one of 15 (later 8) administrative districts of the Kingdom ...
(''Rheinkreis'') of the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
. It was put into operation together with
Homburg Hauptbahnhof
Homburg (Saar) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the town of Homburg (Saar), Homburg in the German state of Saarland. It is a through station with four platforms and seven platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a station of Germ ...
and the
Palatine Ludwig Railway
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times. (''Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn''). Homburg station, which was destroyed during the Second World War, received a new entrance building at the beginning of the 1950s, but Bexbach station was preserved. When it was built, it was a border station between
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
and also the terminus of the historic Palatine Ludwig Railway. Today, it is a through station on the
Homburg–Neunkirchen railway
The Homburg–Neunkirchen railway is a two-track, electrified railway main line in the German state of Saarland. It connects Homburg on the Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway (historically called the ''Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn''— Palatine Ludwig Ra ...
. The building and its surrounding area have been given heritage protection.
History
![Bexbach Güterstraße 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Bexbach_G%C3%BCterstra%C3%9Fe_3.jpg)
Land purchases for the railway line and Bexbach station began in 1845. A single-track line was completed to Bexbach in the summer of 1848 and one year later it was extended to the border at Wellesweiler. A year later, the line was connected to the Heinitz colliery on Prussian territory. The most important reason for the construction of the entire line was the transport of coal from the mines located on Bavarian territory in Bexbach,
St. Ingbert
St. Ingbert (also ''Sankt Ingbert''; pfl, Dingmert or ''Dimbert'') is a town in the Saarpfalz district in Saarland, Germany with a population of 35,213 (2020). It is situated approximately 10 km north-east of Saarbrücken and 10 km so ...
and (later) also Frankenholz.
For many years coal was transported from the mines to Bexbach station in horse carts and later from Frankenholz by
ropeway conveyor
A material ropeway, ropeway conveyor (or aerial tramway in the US) is a subtype of gondola lift, from which containers for goods rather than passenger cars are suspended.
Description
Material ropeways are typically found around large mining conc ...
. With the closure of the Bexbach and Frankenholz pits in 1959, freight traffic at the Bexbach station drastically declined. Today there are two through tracks, three shunting tracks and a siding with a total of 13 sets of points. The goods shed was built in 1872/73.
In addition, Bexbach station was of great strategic importance as it was the area of the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. At the north end of the station, a 500-metre-long loading ramp was built in 1870, which was able to unload more than 50 troop trains a day in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. An equally long loading dock was built in Limbach bei Homburg (Saar) on the
Rohrbach–Homburg (Saar) railway and in
Blieskastel
Blieskastel () is a city in the Saarpfalz (Saar-Palatinate) district, in Saarland, Germany which is divided into villages. It is situated on the river Blies, approximately southwest of Homburg (Saar), west of Zweibrücken, and east of Saarbrüc ...
-Lautzkirchen on the
Landau–Rohrbach railway
The Landau–Rohrbach railway (sometimes called the Südpfalzbahn—"South Palatinate Railway"—or the Queichtalbahn—"Queich Valley Railway") is a major line running from Landau in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Rohrbach in the Saa ...
. The line was electrified in 1966.
In the course of the Second World War, work started in 1939 on building a strategic railway from
Waldmohr-Jägersburg station on the
Glan Valley Railway
The Glan Valley Railway (german: Glantalbahn) is a non-electrified line along the Glan river, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It consists of the Glan-Münchweiler–Altenglan section, which was built as part of the Landstuhl–Kuse ...
(''Glantalbahn'') to Bexbach, bypassing Homburg. This work was abandoned in May 1940.
Entrance building
Originally the two-storey entrance building was built as a simple rectangular building in the
Rundbogenstil
(round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular ...
("round arch style") similar to those of
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
(1848) and
Frankenthal
Frankenthal (Pfalz) ( pfl, Frongedahl) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
History
Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, aft ...
(1853). The original plans of the ground plan are no longer available, but recent plans suggest that a central corridor from the "house platform" must have existed from the establishments of the station forecourt. There were ticket office and other offices on the right (east) side. On the left side, a narrow corridor led to the baggage handling and the waiting rooms. The larger of the two was for the 1st and 2nd classes and included a restaurant. At the end of the corridor was the waiting room for the 3rd and 4th classes, which also included a restaurant. The latter room was a separate extension and was accessible through two doors from the street side and the platform. Later in the history of the building all the waiting rooms were removed and replaced by a large hall. The
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
canopy of the house platform was built around the turn of the century, but it was removed at the latest in the early 1980s during one of the many modifications of the station.
Further renovations took place in the early 1960s and 1977 and the character of the building has largely been destroyed, similar to other Saarland station buildings such as in Luisenthal, Bous,
Rohrbach Rohrbach or Röhrbach may refer to:
Places Municipalities in Switzerland
*Rohrbach, Switzerland, in the canton of Bern
Municipalities in Germany
*Rohrbach, Bavaria, in the district of Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria
*Rohrbach, Birkenfeld, in the district o ...
, Lebach and many others. Today, the station building is no longer accessible for public transport operations.
Current condition
There are only minimal service facilities at the station
and the station is not adapted for
accessibility
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...
. In the second half of 2011, the platform was equipped with a dynamic platform display.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bexbach station
Railway stations in the Saarland
Buildings and structures in Saarpfalz-Kreis
Railway stations in Germany opened in 1849