Kesteren–Amersfoort RailwayKesteren–Amersfoort Railway LineThe railway line from Kesteren to Amersfoort, also called the Kersenlijn, was opened in 1886 and was part of the Amsterdam – Cologne connection, via Amersfoort, Veenendaal, Nijmegen and Kleve. The line connected to the Eastern Betuwe Line (Elst / Ressen-Bemmel–Geldermalsen) at Kesteren and was intended to provide a direct connection between Amersfoort and Nijmegen and thus between Amsterdam and Nijmegen, an HSM connection in competition with the Rhijnspoorweg / Staatsspoorwegen. After the railway bridge at Rhenen was destroyed in World War II, the line was not reopened for passenger traffic, parts of the line remained in use for freight transport. The section between De Haar and Rhenen was reactivated in 1981, now as a branch of the Amsterdam - Arnhem railway line (Rhijnspoorweg), this line is now known as the Veenendaal line. The section between Amersfoort and Leusden is now popularly known as the Pon line. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line History As early as 10 November 1875, the state had plans to build a railway line from Amersfoort via Veenendaal to Wageningen, but for defence reasons the plans were changed at the time; instead of via Wageningen, the railway line had to connect via Rhenen and the Rhine Bridge to the Betuwe line from Dordrecht, Geldermalsen and Tiel to Arnhem and Nijmegen. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Early Years The line was completed around 1884, but it had not yet been decided which railway company would take on the operation. The government wanted a railway from Amsterdam via Nijmegen to Kleve in Germany, operated by one company. The Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HIJSM) was the lord and master in the Dutch capital and wanted an operation from Amsterdam to Nijmegen, partly because it already had the railway line in use between Amsterdam, Hilversum and Amersfoort and because the connection with Veenendaal and Kesteren was a good fit for establishing an operation to Nijmegen. However, the HIJSM needed the help of the competitor Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS), which could take the train further to Nijmegen. This was called a 'Running Power'. This was very difficult at the time, because these two companies were regularly involved in competition with each other. SS did want to cooperate, but on a different condition. SS already operated the Betuwe railway line from Nijmegen to Dordrecht via Kesteren, Tiel and Geldermalsen and saw the new railway line to Amersfoort as a nice, connecting connection to the capital. They wanted a Running Power of the HIJSM on the Oosterspoorweg between Amersfoort and Amsterdam. SS also wanted a station there and this was a nice opportunity. However, HIJSM did not want to know anything about it. Amsterdam for HIJSM and for no one else was the slogan, after which SS started making other plans. In the meantime, the government and the First and Second Chambers were also involved in a battle about this situation. The solution came in January 1886 with a Royal Decree, in which the exploitation was temporarily awarded to the HIJSM, so that finally on 18 February 1886 the HIJSM started commuting between Amersfoort Staat and Kesteren. In Amersfoort, the HIJSM had joint use of the station of the Nederlandsche Centraal-Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NCS). A connecting track was constructed between Amersfoort Staat and the NCS station. When the through trains started running to Nijmegen, a grade-separated crossing was constructed, making it possible to cross the NCS railway line directly from Amersfoort Staat station and connect to the existing Oosterspoorlijn. Through trains to Nijmegen were not yet possible at that time, because there was still no agreement between the two railway companies. But things started to move when the government threatened to assign the joint use of the railway line to the HIJSM and the SS had to tolerate that. The SS and the HIJSM agreed that all HIJSM trains from Kesteren would be brought to Nijmegen with SS traction, whereby the through connection between Amsterdam and Nijmegen would eventually be established on 1 June 1889. Eventually the government decided that the major railway lines would be redistributed again. The Betuwe railway line was transferred to the HIJSM. As a result, the HIJSM was no longer dependent on SS, the yard in Kesteren was expanded and there were many opportunities for the HIJSM to expand its train services. At the end of the 1890s, all kinds of trains ran on the railway line between Amersfoort, Veenendaal and Kesteren to Nijmegen, Kleve and further into Germany: express trains, local trains and many freight trains. In 1891, three local trains were added with only 2nd and 3rd class. Due to the community of interests that SS and HIJSM had entered into in 1917, the competition came to an end. Not much changed, but the Kesteren – Amersfoort line did become less important. A new feature around 1919 and 1920 was that many express and local trains from Amsterdam and Amersfoort were extended from Nijmegen to Maastricht and Heerlen and in the summer even with through carriages to the Swiss Basel. The through D-trains to Nijmegen and Germany via Kleve ran until around 1932. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line World War II In 1940, the through trains came to an end and the express and local trains did not go further than Nijmegen. There was a brief interruption during the Second World War, when on 13 May 1940 the railway bridge at Rhenen was fired upon by Dutch artillery. The ignition of the explosive charge that had been placed did not work. With literally the last grenade, the explosive charge was detonated, destroying the bridge. After the battle of the May days, the bridge was restored to a single track using freed bridge sections from the bridge over the Oosterdoksluis in Amsterdam. Throughout the war, transport was carried out as well as possible. During the war, the railway line and the trains were shelled several times. On February 3, 1943, an English bomber crashed near the railway line, more than two kilometers north of Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel station. Exactly 75 years later, a monument was erected at the site of the crash. In 1944, the railway strike put an end to train services on the railway line. The Rhenen bridge was destroyed again on 2 October 1944. This time, the cause was an attack by the Allies. In December 1944, German Demolition Commandos made the bridge even more unusable. Only two pillars remained. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Definitive End of Passenger Transport After the war, the bridge at Rhenen was not restored as a railway bridge. A new road bridge was built in 1957, partly on the two remaining bridge pillars. Passenger service was not resumed on the railway line from Amersfoort and would therefore only be used for freight transport. Because Rhenen was no longer accessible to passengers by rail, the station in Kesteren was renamed Kesteren-Rhenen. A bus service was set up between Rhenen and Amersfoort until the final decision was made to discontinue passenger transport by rail between Rhenen and Amersfoort. In the early 1950s, a branch line was constructed in Veenendaal along the Groeneveldselaan to the then new SKF factory. In 1954 the railway line was given the status of a local railway line, with signalling being simplified. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Commissioning for Car Trains From 16 December 1966, Pon's Automobielhandel took its unloading point on the line in Leusden into use. [ 4 ] This part of the railway line is also called the Pon line. Car trains still run here almost every working day from Germany to importer Pon. Peugeot importer Nefkens also had an unloading point for cars at Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel station. This was closed in 1992. On 28 May 1972, the Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel – Veenendaal – Rhenen section was closed due to the termination of freight transport. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Partial Reopening In May 1981, passenger transport was reinstated on the section of the line south of the Utrecht – Arnhem railway line, as a branch of the line from Utrecht. With this Veenendaal line, Veenendaal and Rhenen were again accessible by rail. The Kesteren - Rhenen station on the other side of the Rhine was called Kesteren again. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Further Closures In 1988, the Leusden section of the Pon – Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel junction was closed [source?] and subsequently dismantled up to the Leusbroekerweg in Leusden. The section of track between the Pon siding and the Leusbroekerweg between Leusden and Woudenberg was still used in the early 1990s as a storage location for special rail sections with diagonal sleepers. A special gantry crane on broad gauge was installed for this purpose. This type of sleeper was used on a number of railway lines shortly after the war to save on materials. In practice, however, this proved difficult to maintain, which is why these track sections were later moved to sidings and marshalling yards. The track sections that were stored on the Pon line were used to construct the Bokkeduinen marshalling yard in Amersfoort, among other things. They were also partly placed on the Pon line itself. The track where the sections were stored, including the broad gauge for the gantry crane, was dismantled in March 2017. Only the Amersfoort-Leusden section of the Pon line now remains, with a few sidings at the site of car importer Pon. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Special Rides Although passenger services on this line ended in 1944, a few passenger trains still ran for special transport. For example, the Rhenen yard was used in the 1950s as a camping site by the foundation Youth and Students from Amsterdam. In 1949, the Dutch Railways had given a few old carriages, including old compartment carriages and a dining carriage, to this foundation JES, for their 'Youth Train'. Furthermore, a number of private journeys were made, namely on 29 August 1970 between Amersfoort and Rhenen for the NVBS, on 24 May 1972 from Veenendaal to Rhenen for the Ritmeester cigar factories, on 6 October by NS from Amersfoort to Rhenen, in 1976 for the neighbourhood association 't Spoor from Woudenberg, with three shuttle services between Woudenberg and Veenendaal and on 30 October 1976 for NVBS between Amersfoort and Veenendaal. In the weekend of 26 and 27 September 1981, the event 'Stoom '81' took place between Amersfoort and Woudenberg on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the NVBS. Among other things, a parade with steam locomotives was held and shuttle rides with steam were made between both places. After the Leusden - Woudenberg section had also been dismantled, a number of company rides were held on the Ponlijn. The most diverse (diesel) material in Leusden could be seen here, such as: The NS 20 (Camel) executive carriage, ACTS Class'58 + DB carriages + VolkerRail V100 + ACTS 1254, DE2 186, Plan U's 114, 116 & 151. Rolling Stock on the Kesteren - Amersfoort Railway Line A lot of equipment has been used on the Kesteren – Amersfoort railway line. In the HSM period, the HSM-Bogen series 350-408 (1600 series in the NS period) could be seen. Particularly after the community of interests in 1917 and the merger in 1925 between the HSM and SS to form the NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen, various types of machines from both SS and HSM could be seen, all of which had been renumbered in the meantime. On the Veenendaal line, most services were operated by the Amsterdam and Nijmegen Depots. The 1900 series and also the Nijmegen Zeppelins of the 3600 series were often seen here. Furthermore, 3700s, 3800s and 3900s could be seen and the 1700s (formerly of SS) were also active. After the war, the English Austerity engines of the 4400 series could also be seen on the freight trains that still ran on the railway line between Amersfoort and Rhenen. Over time, the steam traction was replaced by diesel locomotives. On passenger trains, just before the war, a few diesel trains of the Dieselvijf type could also be seen. In 1952, the steam locomotives of the 4400 series disappeared. Grote Sikken took their place, but later also the other diesel locomotives of the 600, 2200 and 2400 series. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Security and Signalling The Veenendaal line was given a classic mechanical railway safety system between 1913 and 1923, complete with the classic block system. The entire railway line was divided into five blocks:
Between Rhenen and Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel the railway line was constructed as a single track. At Rhenen and Veenendaal and Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel, block system A was introduced, whereby the section of the route consisted of two blocks. Between Rhenen and Veenendaal only one train could enter the block, regardless of the direction. This meant that if the block was occupied because a train was on its way, no second train could leave Veenendaal and Rhenen until the train towards Rhenen had been blocked in by post 11 in Rhenen or towards Veenendaal by post T in Veenendaal. This also applied to train traffic to Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel. Between Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel and Amersfoort Staat the railway line was also constructed as double track, but instead of block system 2 the block system 3 was put into service with an intermediate block post in Leusden. Between Amersfoort and Woudenberg-Scherpenzeel a maximum of two trains could run behind each other at block distance in both directions. When the first train had passed the block post in Leusden a second train could depart in the same direction. The station security was observed from the various signal boxes and at the Posten T where the train controllers were located. In addition to the entry and exit signals that secured the departure and arrival tracks, there were of course also shunting signals at the stations. And along the entire route there were also the various signals and signs as speed indications as well as the well-known attention beacons that belong to the advance signals. There were also a number of guard posts along the track for operating the level crossings. Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Stations and Buildings Overview of stations along the line (italics: former station): Station Opened Current Building
Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Total Length: 30.5 km Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Track Gauge: standard gauge 1435 mm Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Created By: HIJSM Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Opened: February 18, 1886 Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Closed: 1988 Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Reopened: Rhenen - De Haar: 1981 Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Electrified: Rhenen - De Haar: 1981 Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Number of Tracks: 1 Kesteren–Amersfoort Railway Line Train Service: through | |||||
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