SOME  GERMAN  CONTRACTORS'
RAILWAYS  IN  1957

GEOFFREY H. STARMER

(Photographs  by  the  Author)

After the cessation of hostilities in Europe in 1945, some members of the British services returning from Germany told of cities being criss-crossed by narrow gauge railways laid in the streets. Small steam locomotives were seen hauling trains of rubble from the sites of bombed buildings. If this was true to any great extent, it had apparently ceased by 1957, but even then there were traces of the large-scale use of contractors' railways. Those remaining could be grouped into three categories:-

(a)   Truncated systems, often in cities, still operating on tasks associated with the removal of rubble from bombed buildings.

(b)    Well-laid out contractors' yards still storing locomotives and wagons hopefully for an occasion when they would be needed on some civil engineering project.

(c)    Groups of quite large locomotives operated by contractors working in quarries of various types.

The following notes describe one example from each of these categories.

Carl Brandt, Bauunternehmung, Bremen

    As the DB (Deutsche Bundesbahn) train from Oldenburg ran into Bremen it was possible to see narrow gauge steam locomotives trundling wooden tip wagons of rubble on the west side of the DB line just before the junction with the line from Bremerhaven. This was the 60cm gauge railway operated by Carl Brandt and which formerly ran from bombed sites in the harbour area. At the time of my visit in May 1957 there were still traces of narrow gauge rails across the nearby cobbled streets but the system had been reduced to carrying rubble brought in by lorries to a crushing plant for T. V. G., Bremen, makers of bricks from rubble.

    From the lorry tipping dock, the loaded wagons were drawn back almost to the road bordering the west of the site. Then they were taken up an incline leading on to the elevated track, supported on a steel bridge-like structure, to the crushing plant. After tipping into the crusher, the empty wagons were taken to the end of the line over Nordstrasse, then pulled back via the south curve of the high level 'triangle', over the dust heaps and back to near the road crossing before finally reversing to come alongside the lorry tipping dock. Two trains followed each other round this circuit, with one usually hauled by a steam locomotive and the other by a diesel.

    The sequence, as described, meant that the locomotive was always at the same end of the train at the lorry tipping dock. The curved elevated section behind the machine shop appeared to be little used. Presumably in the earlier days of operation, the trains of rubble would have come in from across the streets, up the incline to the crusher, then using the elevated curve so that when they descended to go back across the street the locomotive was still at the head of the train.

    The crushed rubble was hand-loaded into steel V‑shaped hopper tip wagons hauled by an Orenstein & Koppel 4‑wheel diesel belonging to T. V. G. This company's system seemed very much entangled with that of Carl Brandt.

    From near the road crossing close to the lorry tip, a line ran south along the foot of the dust heaps and embankments into a compound surrounded by an approximately 8ft high chain link fence surmounted by barbed wire. The compound housed the workshops for the railway and was used to store the wagons and locomotives after work each day. The steam locomotives stood in the open whilst the diesels were placed under an open-sided shelter formed by extending the roof of the workshops which were all built rather roughly of timber.

    The locomotives in the compound at the end of the day's work on 15th May 1957 were:-