The Apprentice

The railway was what made Bergische Grauwacke competitive beyond the region: the closer a quarry operation was to a railway station, the easier and cheaper it was to organise the transport of the products. The tracks along the Agger, Sieg and Wupper rivers served less for passenger traffic and more for the development of major industrial sectors. The most important connections with standard gauge of 1,435 millimetres included the Volme Valley Railway from 1874, the Agger Valley Railway from 1884, and the Wiehl Valley Railway from 1897. The Leppe Valley Railway, which opened in the same year between Engelskirchen and the quarry operations near Marienheide, was already considered a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 1,000 millimetres.

In quarry operations without a direct rail connection, Grauwacke was tipped onto heavy horse-drawn wagons via adjustable ramps and transported to the nearest loading station. Additional animals were harnessed for steep ascents. This period saw the economic heyday of the cartage industry, known as “hauderei”, before the First World War. Farmers, in particular, supplemented their meagre income this way. However, with the increasing quantities of paving stones, gravel and grit, the system reached its limits: transport capacities were too low, and the laborious use of manpower and animals was too extensive. Many quarry operations now invested in their own lorries. The first lorry in the region was put into service in 1912 in Peter Lenz’s quarry operation in Gummersbach-Frömmersbach.

Shortly before the First World War, the railway line between Immekeppel and Lindlar was built. It was opened in 1912 to great public interest. From the quarry operation of Bergisch-Märkische Steinindustrie at Brungerst, a railway led directly to the terminal station in Altenlinde. During this time, production of finished products increasingly gave way to the manufacture of paving stones. Other quarry operations also focused on this rapidly growing market, including the newly established operations around Lindlar-Remshagen.

Kilometres of tracks also crisscrossed many of the larger quarry operations in the region. Box tippers and mine carts were moved through pure muscle power by several workers or pulled by sturdy horses. In Lindlar, such a working animal was still in use around 1960. Privately funded narrow-gauge railways with a track gauge of 600 millimetres provided the connection from the quarry operations to the main railway lines. Adjustable ramps also facilitated the effective loading of Bergische Grauwacke. Small steam and diesel locomotives were used for this purpose. The high demand led to an increasing number of manufacturers. One of the most well-known was the subsequent Deutz AG. The narrow-gauge locomotives produced in Cologne were used, for example, in the quarry operations in Lindlar-Felsenthal and Wiehl-Alperbrück.

As early as 1898, a several-kilometre-long narrow-gauge railway was built from the quarry operations in Gummersbach-Talbecke and Marienheide-Müllenbach to connect to the Volme Valley Railway at Marienheide-Holzwipper. Initially operated with draft animals, the section was electrified as early as 1906. Before the First World War, three innovative electric locomotives were used here.

Local blacksmiths were responsible for repairing the box tippers and mine carts. They poured new lead bearings, welded breaks in the metal or renewed worn-out wooden boards. Their workshops often had separate areas for carpentry work. In smaller companies, the workers themselves took care of maintaining the transport wagons.

However, with the development of alternative means of transportation, the tracks in the quarry operations quickly lost their significance. The nearly 70-year era of steam, diesel and electric-powered narrow-gauge railways came to an end in the 1950s with the emergence of wheel loaders and lorries. Bergische Grauwacke could now be moved without the complex and costly construction of tracks. In 1965, the last rail operation was closed in Karl Kohlmeier’s quarry operation in Engelskirchen-Wiehlmünden. The remnants of many narrow-gauge railway installations can still be seen in the landscape, and to this day, simple narrow-gauge railways are used in other industries to transport heavy raw materials such as loam, sand or clay.

Since 2018, after more than 50 years, a quarry light railway is once again operating in the Bergisches Land. In a little over six years of work, volunteers from the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Bergisch Open-Air Museum Lindlar laid over 600 metres of track with a gauge of 600 millimetres. You can find more information about the construction project online at www.foerderverein-bergisches-freilichtmuseum.de.