Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt tram line

Map of the line

The Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt tram line – occasionally also referred to as the Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt narrow-gauge railway - connected the three mentioned towns until 1959 as a meter-gauge interurban tramway. It was opened in 1888 by the private Lokalbahn Aktien-Gesellschaft (LAG) and initially operated as a steam-powered branch line from Ravensburg to Weingarten. In 1910, it was electrified and extended to Baienfurt in 1911.

In 1938, the railway, also known colloquially as "Zügle," "Mühle," "Bähnle," or "Bodensee-Blitz," was nationalized and henceforth officially classified as a tramway according to the Regulation on the Construction and Operation of Tramways (BOStrab) that came into force in the same year. After 1938, the route was the only tramway operation owned by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, and after World War II, it became the only tramway operation owned by the Deutsche Bundesbahn.

History

1849: Altdorf is bypassed

As early as November 8, 1847, the Upper Swabian district town and present-day district capital of Ravensburg was connected to the South Railway from Friedrichshafen. On 26 May 1849, this line was extended to Biberach an der Riß, and by 29 June 1850, Ulm was reached. From there, it connected with the existing Filstal Railway from Stuttgart. Contrary to the original expectations Altdorf – later known as Weingarten – did not receive a connection to this important mainline of the Royal Württemberg State Railways during the northern extension.

The kingdom, which did not possess coal deposits, aimed to lead its locomotives to Lake Constance via the shortest route possible; in the short term, there was even a threat to bypass Biberach. On the other hand, the Mayor of Altdorf, Adolf Prielmayer, vehemently opposed a direct connection. Consequently, the South Railway passed about two and a half kilometers west of the town. The old market towns of Waldsee, Tettnang, Baindt and Baienfurt, were also not connected at that time.

Compounding the issue, no train station was established at the location closest to Altdorf. The current nearby stop, Weingarten/Berg, was only opened in 1998 by the Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn. This meant that the nearest railway stations to Altdorf on the South Railway - Ravensburg and Niederbiegen - were about four and three kilometers away respectively. Although Altdorf had only about half the population of neighboring Ravensburg in 1849, it was well known regionally as a place of pilgrimage due to the Benedictine Abbey of Weingarten and the Basilica of St. Martin.

1865–1888: Weingarten in the shadow of transportation

The Württemberg railway network in the 1860s, with Altdorf and the Weingarten Monastery marked

In 1865, Altdorf adopted the name of the Benedictine abbey and was renamed Weingarten. At the same time, the town was granted city rights. Concurrently, during this period of industrialization, Weingarten also developed into an important industrial location. In particular, the Weingarten Machine Factory AG was founded in 1865 (known today as Schuler AG), as well as the spinning mill established the following year, played a significant role. The rapid development led to a sharp increase in population; by 1 December 1880, there were 5,232 people living in the city. Consequently, the lack of a railway connection became increasingly disadvantageous, leaving the city – unlike Ravensburg – in the shadow of transportation. Additionally, there was already a local transportation demand between Altdorf and Ravensburg at that time. Furthermore, from 1868, Weingarten had an 800-man garrison, but unlike Ravensburg, it had only a few industrial jobs.

To improve the inadequate situation, Weingarten subsequently sought to obtain a connection to the Württemberg State Railway through the construction of a branch line, albeit belatedly. The driving force behind this was the Weingarten Business Association, led by its energetic secretary, the Protestant teacher Christoph Klein. In 1879, he managed to enlist the support of the Zurich railway engineer Theodor Lutz for the project. Remarkably, the route via the Frauentorplatz in Ravensburg was already planned at this stage. However, a critical examination by the Weingarten City Council revealed that Klein had calculated far too tight radii for his standard-gauge railway laid in the street, and economically, he had assumed a much too high volume of traffic and thus a high return. Consequently, the plans were shelved.

After the Kingdom of Württemberg lost interest in the railway, efforts were made to alternatively promote the construction of a private railway. Privately operated lines were still a relatively new phenomenon at the time; in Württemberg, there were only three non-state railways at that time; The railway to Weingarten was intended to become the fourth private railway in Württemberg.

Redesign of narrow-gauge steam tramway

In the spring of 1886, the Augsburg engineers Theodor Lechner and Viktor Krüzner, who were active in the railway sector at the time, identified a corresponding transportation demand between the two emerging cities of Ravensburg and Weingarten, which could be addressed by the construction of a steam tramway. In October 1886, the company therefore submitted an application for a project planning concession for the construction of the railway to the government of the Kingdom of Württemberg.

In 1887, the two engineers finally presented a concept for a meter-gauge narrow-gauge railway to the municipal administrations of Ravensburg and Weingarten. It was planned to run from Ravensburg's railway station square via Schussenstraße to Frauentorplatz, then directly along the Ulm-Friedrichshafen state road to the Scherzach bridge in Weingarten. There, Lechner and Krüzner did not want to follow the sharp bend around the former forest, now the youth hostel, and planned the track to run directly from the Stadtösch stop (later Lamm) through the orchard of the Sonnenwirt to the terminus at the intersection of Waldseer Straße/Schloßstraße, now Abt-Hyller-Straße or Charlottenplatz. In contrast to the failed standard-gauge plans of a few years earlier, this railway could easily adapt to the given settlement axes. The routing in the public road space also allowed for lower construction and operating costs compared to a mostly independently routed classic railway.

The concept by Lechner and Krüzner convinced the civic bodies of the two participating cities both in terms of technology and profitability, albeit more so in Weingarten than in Ravensburg, where there was generally less openness towards the railway. The state government in Stuttgart also agreed after recognizing that the new railway posed no serious threat to the utilization of its line between Ravensburg and Aulendorf. This was not a given, as in the kingdom, the state held a monopoly on railways. If it allowed a private railway, it was only under the condition of being able to repurchase the line after a certain number of years of operation, at the accumulated asset value.

The conditions around Ravensburg and Weingarten were so acceptable that Lechner and Krüzner were able to enlist the influential Munich railway industrialist Georg Krauß for the project. He was the owner of the locomotive factory Krauss & Comp., specializing in local railway locomotives, and saw an opportunity to increase his sales in the planned route. Thus, Lechner, Krüzner, and Krauß founded the private Lokalbahn Aktien-Gesellschaft (LAG) on 9 February 1887. This company received the construction permit for the new railway and was also the builder. Construction began in August 1887, according to another source on 3 September. The operating concession was granted by the state of Württemberg on 15 November 1887. The licensing of private railways was still subject to the respective state law at that time.

Opening

The new railway to Weingarten was supposed to be ceremonially inaugurated on 22 December 1887, but the track was not yet completed. When it was finally completed by the next scheduled date, 29 December 1887, it could not be inspected by the responsible official from Stuttgart due to a snowstorm that buried it centimeters deep. Thus, passenger traffic could only commence on 6 January 1888, without an opening ceremony. Operations ran from 6:50 to 22:10, with a lunch break for the staff, resulting in a total of eleven services. The journey over the entire route took 20 minutes and cost 20 pfennigs for adults and 10 pfennigs for children under ten years old in the third class with wooden seats. Children under three years old could ride for free if they did not occupy their own seat. Tickets were valid for one day; double the price was required for a return journey. The second class, equipped with padded seats, was twice as expensive and mainly reserved for officers of the Weingarten garrison and their families. Tickets were only available at the ticket office in Weingarten, although some merchants and inns in both Ravensburg and Weingarten also served as additional sales points.

Public freight transport commenced over half a year after the start of passenger operations, on 15 August 1888. The LAG primarily transported goods in the existing half-luggage vans, with the few freight cars only rarely used. The track was laid with Vignoles rails weighing 24.77 kilograms per meter. Larger structures were not required, explaining the short construction time of the line. The management and depot of the railway were located in Weingarten.

The 4.18-kilometer connection was the first route of the newly founded LAG; the existing Feldabahn only joined the LAG in 1891. The concession to the Bavarian LAG was remarkable because it concentrated almost exclusively on activities in Bavaria. However, a few years after the opening of the steam tramway, the LAG expanded its activities in the Upper Swabia region by opening the Meckenbeuren–Tettnang railway line, located about ten kilometers south of Ravensburg, in 1895.

From a technical perspective, the former steam tramway to Weingarten largely corresponded to the Chiemsee Railway, which is still steam-operated today, although it runs continuously on its own track. The Chiemsee Railway was opened on 9 July 1887, just a few months before the Weingarten route. It still uses a locomotive identical to those used in Oberschwaben at that time.

The new route, especially in the third class, was soon well patronized after its opening, causing the recently introduced horse omnibus, which offered a five-pfennig discount on the return journey, to be discontinued shortly thereafter. The Weingarten city administration sought to introduce an additional service for students returning from Ravensburg shortly after the start of operations. However, this was rejected by the LAG, citing the necessary rest time for the locomotive driver, stoker, and conductor. Initially, the staff worked the entire day without shifts, using the same locomotive, while the other was kept on standby only for emergencies.

Route Description

The trains to Weingarten – and later to Baienfurt – departed from Ravensburg's railway station square, with the LAG station officially named Ravensburg State Station to distinguish it from the existing Ravensburg railway station. Boarding took place from the sidewalk opposite the state railway station building, with the former stop located directly in front of the main post office. The steam tram initially ran parallel to the South Railway in a northerly direction for about 100 meters, before making a sharp 90-degree turn eastward at the current bus station. Via Schussenstraße, it reached Ravensburg Frauentor at kilometer 0.83, located at the "Green Tower" junction. Due to its proximity to Ravensburg's old town, it was the second busiest stop on the railway after the starting station. After passing another 90-degree curve on Frauentorplatz, the route turned north again, following Gartenstraße towards Weingarten.

The rails in Gartenstraße were positioned on the right side of the road when heading out of the city. In the urban area of Ravensburg, they were initially laid within the roadway, while in the rural area, they were placed on a separate track to the right of the road. Gartenstraße was formerly the main traffic artery of the region, part of the former Württemberg State Road 49. This was particularly associated with a significant increase in individual traffic in later years. Along the course of Gartenstraße, another stop within the Ravensburg city area followed, called Ravensburg Holy Cross. The name originates from the former inn Holy Cross, which, in turn, was named after the Holy Cross leprosarium demolished in 1826. The stop was especially significant for the transportation connection to the adjacent St. Elizabeth Hospital.

At kilometer 2.46 – at the height of today's Ravensburg district of Burach (then spelled as Burrach), the railway crossed the border to the neighboring city of Weingarten and continued along the state road called Ravensburger Straße from here. The track ran through largely undeveloped areas before and after the territorial boundary at that time; in 1908, there was still a gap of about two kilometers between the two cities. Furthermore, the connecting road was not yet paved at that time; it was only paved between Ravensburg and Weingarten from 1916 to 1926.

About half a kilometer after the territorial boundary, the railway reached the 14 Nothelfer stop, the first of three stations on Weingarten territory. It was named after the Hospital of the 14 Holy Helpers, in front of which the stop was located. Unlike other stops of the steam tramway, this stop did not have a place name attached to it, as the hospital it was named after – formerly a leprosarium – was still located slightly outside the built-up area of Weingarten.

Following that, the trains reached the southern outskirts of Weingarten after about 500 meters, where the Weingarten Scherzachbrücke stop was located. Shortly thereafter, the track crossed the Scherzach river together with the road. After the bridge, the railway turned left, crossed Ravensburger Straße, and continued through then-undeveloped areas in a northerly direction. The alignment in this area corresponded to today's Waldseer Straße, which was rerouted in later years following the railway line. At the junction with the street now called Promenade, the railway rejoined the state road towards Ulm, following it on the left side. Subsequently, the track passed the railway depot and soon reached the terminus Weingarten Stadt. It was located slightly south of the former Charlottenstraße, now Abt-Hyller-Straße.

The track was single-track throughout, with train crossings possible at the two passing loops Ravensburg Holy Cross, which was only established later. This sufficed as the steam tramway operated with only two train tracks.

Railway or tramway

Legally, at the opening of the discussed route in the Kingdom of Württemberg – unlike in neighboring Bavaria, Prussia, or Saxony – there was no differentiation between a tramway and a railway. Thus, from a legal perspective, the route discussed here was initially considered a railway – simply because the existing Württemberg laws did not explicitly recognize tramways at that time. Nevertheless, the term tramway was also known in Württemberg. And regardless of the legal situation described, it was used not only colloquially but also officially. However, the LAG itself did not commit to a specific term; instead, it sometimes referred to its Ravensburg branch as a local railway and sometimes as a tramway. For example, the first tariff regulations dated 1 December 1887, were still labeled as Local Railway Ravensburg–Weingarten, while the timetable dated 1 December 1920, already stated Tramway Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt.

Even in later years, this legal gray area led to definition problems. For example, Wolfgang Hendlmeier writes that the route was mostly listed in railway statistics, except for the years 1933 to 1938. In his opinion, the distinction was often made arbitrarily.

Weingarten continues to grow

In the long run, the narrow-gauge branch line could no longer satisfy the increasing demand for transportation, especially as the population of Weingarten continued to grow rapidly, a trend that was further accelerated by the significantly improved transportation connections since 1888. On 1 December 1900, there were 6,678 people living in the area, while on 1 December 1910, the population had already increased to 8,077 inhabitants. Correspondingly, the workforce of the engineering factory also increased, from just under 50 in the opening year of the railway to 710 in 1913. Of these, 78 commuted daily from Ravensburg, with the railway as a technical innovation enabling the separation of residence and workplace.

Besides the increased demand in passenger traffic, the freight traffic by narrow-gauge railway, albeit quite sparse at the time, proved to be problematic. On the one hand, goods had to be laboriously transferred from narrow gauge to standard gauge at Ravensburg State Railway Station, and on the other hand, the goods from Weingarten had to be transported through the city area of Ravensburg beforehand. Above all, however, the desired expansion of rail freight transport was not possible with the existing infrastructure.

Baienfurt develops into an industrial town

Furthermore, in those years, the northern neighboring town of Baienfurt also evolved into an industrial location. When the South Railway was extended northward from Ravensburg in 1849, Baienfurt had only 800 inhabitants. Accordingly, the town was as little considered during the routing at that time as Altdorf. However, in later years, industrialization also led to significant growth in Baienfurt. At the center of this development was the paper mill in Baienfurt, built between 1870 and 1873, which remained the largest employer in the area until its closure in 2009.

By the turn of the century, Baienfurt found itself in a situation similar to that of Weingarten until 1888. The nearest station on the South Railway – the Niederbiegen station – was two and a half kilometers from the town center, and it was also about two and a half kilometers to the terminus of the steam tramway in Weingarten. Thus, there was also an urgent need for improved transportation in Baienfurt, especially because the horse-drawn carts of the paper mill could not keep up with the supply of wood or the removal of finished paper via Niederbiegen.

Ravensburg expands to the north

Around the turn of the century, Ravensburg also continued to grow steadily, with the population increasing from 10,550 in 1880 to 15,594 in 1910. However, because there was limited housing available in the city center, this led to an expansion of the built-up area, including to the north. There, along the road towards Weingarten, the Nordstadt district was established, and the existing hamlet of Burrach was also developed into a district. Consequently, the branch line to Weingarten increasingly gained importance for intra-urban transportation in Ravensburg. To meet the changing needs, however, new stops had to be established – so far, the railway only served the Ravensburg Heilig Kreuz stop in the section north of the city center. However, the steam tramway would have been only partially suitable for this purpose, as each additional stop would have involved a lengthy acceleration process, resulting in corresponding increases in travel time on the entire route.

Expansion Plans

To further improve the transportation situation for the three involved towns, it was decided to comprehensively expand the infrastructure of the branch line. In addition to extending it northward and establishing new stops in Ravensburg, electrification was also considered because operating a steam-powered railway through built-up streets was already seen as outdated. This was particularly true for the existing downtown route through Ravensburg, and especially regarding the intended northern extension. This extension was planned to pass directly through the town center of Weingarten, even passing by the Basilica. Moreover, electric traction was advantageous for reducing the distances between stops in the northern part of Ravensburg; this helped mitigate the time losses incurred during acceleration.

Around the turn of the century, the LAG (Lokalbahn AG) was considered a pioneer in electrifying railway lines in Germany. It had gained early experience with electric railway operations on five of its routes:

• Meckenbeuren–Tettnang (opened in 1895, electrified from the beginning)
• Türkheim–Wörishofen (opened in 1896, electrified from the beginning, operated by LAG since 1905)
• Bad Aibling–Feilnbach (opened in 1897, electrified from the beginning)
• Isartalbahn (electrified in 1900)
• Murnau–Oberammergau (electrified in 1905, albeit operated with alternating current)

At that time, numerous German cities had already established electric tramways, including Stuttgart in 1895 and nearby Ulm in 1897. Therefore, it was only logical to convert the steam tramway to Weingarten to electric traction.

The technical questions seemed less problematic than the legal ones. The main concern was the electricity monopoly of the Württembergische Gesellschaft für Elektrizitätswerke (WGE), a subsidiary of the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, which was strongly linked to the state. After years of negotiations, a compromise was reached, which was significant for the procurement of vehicles. The LAG was allowed to establish its own power plant for its railway electricity within the WGE area. In compensation, it had to have its railcars built in Esslingen, not by its main supplier, MAN. However, at that time, Esslingen had little experience with electric vehicles, which is why special customizations had to be made according to the latest plans for the LAG, which ultimately proved to be absolutely suitable for operation.

The modernization and expansion of the infrastructure were carried out gradually. Alongside the expansion of the narrow-gauge railway, the construction of the standard-gauge railway lines Niederbiegen–Weingarten and Abzw Baienfurt West–Baienfurt Gbf was also planned. These two new lines were intended to take over freight traffic to and from Weingarten from the narrow-gauge railway and, for the first time in its history, provide Baienfurt with a connection to rail freight transportation. On 21 August 1909, the Württemberg state finally granted the permit for the extension. In contrast, the two standard-gauge lines were approved only on 14 May 1910.

Failed Development of the City Center and the Southern District

Prior to electrification, there were concrete plans to also connect the historic center of Ravensburg as well as the expanding new districts to the south by rail. To route the railway through what is now Marienplatz, a breakthrough through the city's own construction office was even planned, which at that time still served as a school building. However, the project ultimately failed not due to the loss of at least two classrooms, but due to the realization by the LAG that both the route through Eisenbahnstraße and through Bachstraße would have led to unreasonable bottlenecks and inclines. Apparently, nobody in the Ravensburg Magistrat had considered the noise pollution the railway would have caused in these narrow, densely built streets, extending late into the night for residents.

Electrification, First Extension, and New Stops

Since 1910, the railway toward Weingarten Freight Station also passed directly by the Basilica

The transition to electric operation took place on 1 September 1910, although steam operation was not definitively discontinued until September 1911. Initially, a voltage of 700 volts DC was chosen for the electrical supply, which was later increased to 750 volts in subsequent years. At the midpoint, a substation was established to power the overhead line. Simultaneously with electrification, the track infrastructure was modernized, and the line was extended by 950 meters with the addition of three new stops. The railway now extended to the northern outskirts of Weingarten, with the interim terminus located on the station square of the freight station under construction. However, the freight station itself was not put into operation until the following year. Additionally, about 300 meters of existing track in Weingarten were rerouted.

From Ravensburg, the railway now crossed Waldseer Straße at the junction of Promenade and followed it, now on the right side, to the present-day Charlottenplatz. The former terminus Weingarten Stadt on the left side of Waldseer Straße was abandoned. It was replaced by the new stop Weingarten Charlottenstraße on the right side of Waldseer Straße. The new station was located in the green area near the current bus stop Weingarten Charlottenplatz (outbound) and was designed as a passing loop. Immediately afterward, the new route sharply turned 90 degrees to the right and proceeded through Charlottenstraße – now Abt-Hyller-Straße – initially in an eastern direction. After 500 meters, directly at Basilica St. Martin, where the new stop Weingarten Post was located, the route turned again sharply to the north at a right angle. From here, after passing the Weingarten Traube stop, it finally reached the interim terminus Weingarten Freight Station.

The new operations center of the railway was also built at Weingarten Freight Station. This included a wagon shed approximately 40 meters long with additional sidings in front of and beside the shed, as well as a six-part building with residential apartments for the approximately 70 railway employees at that time. The latter was located at Baienfurter Straße 22–32 and was designed in the same architectural style as the station building of the freight station. However, the old depot of the steam tramway on Waldseer Straße was abandoned in 1910. Concurrently, as planned, three new stops were established in the Ravensburg area along the existing route: Ravensburg Falken, Kraftwerk and Unterburach.

The Kraftwerk stop was designed as an additional passing loop. Thus, a total of four passing opportunities were available in 1910: Ravensburg Heilig Kreuz, Kraftwerk, 14 Nothelfer, and Weingarten Charlottenstraße. Despite being already on Weingarten territory, the Unterburach stop served to access the Burrach hamlet belonging to Ravensburg. Since both Kraftwerk and Unterburach were still in open fields at that time, like the 14 Nothelfer station in 1888, they did not receive a local designation.

With the new electric vehicles, the total capacity per train increased from 300 to 752 passengers, making the railway ready for peak traffic during events like Blutfreitag and Rutenfest. The electrification also led to the nickname "Mühle" (mill) for the entire railway. This referred to the control lever operated by the tram driver, which resembled a coffee mill crank.

Second Extension - Baienfurt is reached

In this area, there used to be a three-rail track. In front of the level crossing on the left edge of the image, the meter gauge track branched off to the right towards Baienfurt Ort.

Just over a year later, the second extension between the Weingarten freight station and the northern neighboring village of Baienfurt was also opened. The new route was built together with the standard gauge railway line Niederbiegen–Weingarten and therefore partly executed as a three-rail track. The new meter gauge section went into operation on 13 September 1911, and was exclusively served for passenger traffic from the beginning. Operations started at 5:45 a.m. and ended at 11:45 p.m. after a total of 66 trips. The festive opening with processions, speeches, and musical performances took place on 12 October 1911.

The new terminus, referred to as Baienfurt Ort to distinguish it from the northern Baienfurt freight station, was located only about 250 meters from the historic center of Baienfurt. It was situated immediately south of the bridge over the Wolfegger Ach, near today's Baienfurt Achtalschule bus stop. The total length of the route thus increased to 6.56 kilometers, of which only the last 180 meters were within Baienfurt's territory. The temporary terminus Weingarten Güterbahnhof became the fifth passing loop on the still completely single-track route. After 1911, only arriving or departing trains terminated or started there.

The Traubenhof stop

At the former Traubenhof stop, with the sign of Trauben in the background

As part of the extension to Baienfurt, an additional intermediate station was established about 200 meters south of the hamlet of Trauben, belonging to Weingarten. At that time, it was still in an open field. The Traubenhof stop also served to better connect the neighboring hamlets belonging to Baienfurt, namely Neubriach, Knechtenhaus, Briach, and Köpfingen. The name Traubenhof was coined by the LAG, as the associated hamlet was officially called Trauben already in 1911. This was done to avoid confusion with the simultaneously opened Weingarten Traube stop. This was only corrected in December 2007 when the corresponding bus stop was renamed from Weingarten Traubenhof to Weingarten Trauben. The Weingarten Traube bus stop had been closed for some time, so there is not longer a concern for confusion. Furthermore, during the railway's operating times, the Traubenhof stop never had the addition "Weingarten" in its name, although it already belonged to the city of Weingarten at that time. The addition was only introduced later during bus operations. The reason was to avoid confusion for passengers unfamiliar with the area whose destination was one of the four hamlets belonging to Baienfurt.

Abandonment of the narrow-gauge freight traffic

With the commissioning of the standard-gauge line Niederbiegen–Weingarten on 1 October 1911, the use of freight traffic by narrow-gauge railway could finally be abandoned. From then on, freight for the machinery factory and other freight customers in Weingarten was delivered directly by standard-gauge freight cars from Niederbiegen. This measure proved to be a big success: While the narrow-gauge railway transported only 2,673 tons of freight in 1910, by 1914 the standard-gauge railway transported 111,594 tons of freight. This represents an increase of more than fortyfold, although it now also included goods to and from Baienfurt.

Operation on the three-rail track

At the southern edge of Baienfurt, the meter-gauge track coming from Baienfurt Ort on the left merged into the standard gauge.

The three-rail track became a characteristic feature of the railway in the newly opened section. The section in question was just under a kilometer long and was located between the exit from the Weingarten freight station and the southern edge of Baienfurt. In the direction towards Baienfurt, the right rail of both gauges was used. This was practical for two reasons: firstly, because the platform edge of the Traubenhof stop was also on the right-hand side, and secondly because it only required the installation of two instead of four frog switches. Between the start of standard-gauge freight traffic to Weingarten on 1 October 1911, and the cessation of tram operations on the northern section on 30 June 1959, both meter-gauge electric passenger trains and steam-operated standard-gauge freight trains, occasionally also passenger trains, operated on the same track in this area. The section was double kilometered, meaning it was kilometered in opposite directions for the tramway from south to north and for the standard gauge. Consequently, the three-rail track later had two separate route numbers, namely 4522 for the tramway and 4520 for the railway. Legally, after 1938, the trams also operated in this short section according to the railway construction and operating regulations (EBO) and not, as on the other sections, according to the then newly introduced BOStrab.

The shared section was secured by means of a special signal board; there was no stationary signaling. Only the train whose crew possessed the single signal board at the time was allowed to travel through the section. Train movements on the standard-gauge line had to be reported by telephone to the operating management in Weingarten. Approval was only granted by the Weingarten operations manager if he had the signal board in his possession. This principle resembles the train staff system commonly used on single-track tram lines in the past, and it is still used today on the Kirnitzschtal tramway.

Furthermore, the electric vehicles of the Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt line had traditional railway wheel tires. These were slightly wider than those commonly used on trams. This ensured that they could pass through the section with the three-rail track without any problems, especially at the two frog switches at the merging and branching points.

No competition from the standard gauge

Although the unelectrified standard-gauge line from Niederbiegen to Weingarten was primarily built for freight traffic, occasional scheduled passenger trains also operated on it from 1914 onwards. They ran in addition to the electric narrow-gauge trains to Ravensburg and provided passengers heading towards Ulm or the state capital Stuttgart with a shorter connection than via Ravensburg. However, this service was very sparse over the years, and passenger numbers were always far behind those of the electric narrow-gauge railway. For example, in 1914, only 16,519 passengers were carried on the standard-gauge railway, whereas in the same year, 839,865 passengers traveled on the narrow-gauge railway. The Niederbiegen line never became a serious competitor to the electrified line to Ravensburg. At times, passenger traffic on the freight line was also suspended, for example, from 1922 to 1925. In 1938, it was finally completely abandoned.

World War I

After surpassing the million mark in the last year before the war in 1913, World War I also meant a deep cut for the tramway. Initially, the LAG reduced the timetable to save oil in the company's own power plant. In 1917, it was finally connected to the general network of the Upper Swabian Electricity Works (OEW) with a substation because the railway transported numerous workers for the armaments industry in Friedrichshafen with its branches in Ravensburg and Weingarten.

Difficult Interwar Period: 1920s: economic problems and temporary shutdowns

Timetable from 1 December 1920 – already officially referred to as tramway at that time. Six out of twelve stops were on-demand stops.

As with many other railway lines, the operation of the Ravensburg–Baienfurt connection also faced economic difficulties due to the recession in the first half of the 1920s. The closure of the route was even threatened at times. The financially struggling LAG (Local Railway Company) therefore demanded subsidy payments from the two participating cities. When these were not granted, the LAG actually suspended railway operations beginning 1 November 1923. Nevertheless, the city of Ravensburg stuck to its decision. Instead of the unpopular railway operation, which largely escaped municipal influence because decisions were always made in distant Munich, the city favored bus operation, thus hindering the further development of the railway. Despite the railway also serving an important intra-urban function in the city of Ravensburg – with five stops located within the Ravensburg city area, excluding Unterburach – the establishment of additional crossing stations in Ravensburg, for example, was never unanimously possible. It was only when the city of Weingarten agreed to grant an annual subsidy that the railway could continue operating from 15 January 1924. This reopening was initially intended as a one-month trial operation. However, due to its success – the new deficit was not as high as feared – the operation could continue even after the probation period expired. At that time, particularly during the holidays, a challenge for the LAG were the postal and private buses operating parallel to the railway. This competition only ended when the railway company legally enforced its transportation monopoly.

Temporary stabilization in the 1930s

In the 1930s, the then mayor of Ravensburg, Rudolf Walzer, attempted to replace the perceived outdated tramway with motorbus transport, which could have extended to the southern part of the city. However, after an examination of the situation, the Reichspost was not interested, and the Ministry of the Interior insisted on retaining the established railway – as did the adjacent communities of Weingarten and Baienfurt.

Despite its economic problems, the LAG continued to invest in railway operations. For example, in 1931, it succeeded in expanding the central Ravensburg Frauentor stop to become the sixth crossing station, despite resistance from the city of Ravensburg. This expansion also involved realignment; trains traveling towards Baienfurt now passed on the left side of the Kreuzbrunnen. Although a renovation of the LAG was achieved again in 1934 through loans from the German Reichsbahn, capital reductions, and concessions from the states of Württemberg and Bavaria (because of the two Upper Swabian LAG routes), it only postponed the end. In the mid-1930s (before 1936), the LAG finally abolished the distinction between carriage classes. Previously, the two middle compartments of the four-axle railcars or the end compartment of the single two-axle railcar were designated as 2nd class ("upholstered class"), while the remaining seats in the railcars and most of the trailers represented 3rd class ("wooden class"). This differentiation was highly atypical for a tram-like operation with comparatively short travel times. Capacity could thus be slightly increased. For example, the large railcars now had 48 seats instead of the previous 44. However, the spatial separation from the compartments of the former 2nd class was not eliminated; it now serve as a division between smoking and non-smoking areas. Even in 1937, just a year before the liquidation of the company, two new four-axle trailers were acquired.

First conflicts with road traffic

Motorization increased significantly between the two world wars. While carriages and carts were formally the primary mode of transportation, automobiles now dominated. In 1934, the Württemberg State Road 49 was designated as Reichsstraße 30, further increasing its importance. Therefore, plans for a bypass road for the towns of Ravensburg, Weingarten, and Baienfurt were already made between 1936 and 1942.

This development also increasingly influenced tram operations. In the 1930s, it became increasingly apparent that the street-level alignment chosen in 1888 was only partially compatible with the requirements of modern road traffic. It became increasingly clear that the Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt railway was more of a tramway, a mode of transport actively participating in road traffic. For example, the step-boards of the trains posed a problem as they protruded 20 centimeters beyond the actual clearance profile of the railway and occasionally endangered road traffic. Therefore, in the last years of LAG management, the steps were angled towards the end of the vehicles. In addition, during those years, directional indicators (informally known as "blinkers") were retrofitted to the railcars – but not the trailers – in accordance with the regulations of the newly introduced Road Traffic Licensing Regulations, which came into effect on 13 November 1937.

To prevent nighttime accidents with motor vehicles, whose out-of-town drivers, according to court records in the Ravensburg area, were least likely to expect an oncoming tram, the front ends of the railcars also received a second headlight and two roof lights in this period.

The new Baienfurt Süd stop

The Baienfurt Süd stop at kilometer 6.3 was introduced later to better serve the residential area north of Baienfurter Friedhofstraße. This increased the total number of tram stops from 14 to 15, decreasing the average distance between stops from 505 to 469 meters. It was the only stop newly established between electrification in 1910 and closure in 1959. The date of its opening is not recorded. However, it was still located within the municipal boundaries of Weingarten, as the city boundary to Baienfurt ran slightly further north of the station. Parallel to this, there was already a Baienfurt Süd stop about a hundred meters westward. However, unlike the jointly served Traubenhof stop, these two stations were completely separate operationally.

Under the management of the state railway - 1938: From LAG branch line to DR tramway

Historical tickets of the tramway – at times, a distance-dependent fare was in effect, while at other times, a flat fare was applied. The station abbreviations listed on the blue ticket are: Ra for Ravensburg Bahnhof (Ravensburg train station), Fr for Frauentor, Fa for Falken, Kz for Heilig Kreuz, Kf for Kraftwerk, Ub for Unterburach, Nh for 14 Nothelfer, La for Lamm, Ch for Charlottenplatz, Po for Post, Gü for Güterbahnhof (freight station), and Bf for Baienfurt.

Since the economic situation of the LAG did not improve, the nationalization of the LAG was finally decided in the Reich Law Gazette Number 23 of 20 June 1938. Taking effect on 1 August 1938, all assets of the LAG were given over to the German Reich. The Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) took over the operation of all LAG routes as of this date, including the tram-like operation Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt. The line now belonged to the Reichsbahndirektion Stuttgart. The LAG depot in Weingarten became the locomotive station Weingarten, which was a branch of the Bahnbetriebswerk Friedrichshafen.

The meter-gauge line to Baienfurt was a particularity for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. It was operated as the only German state railway line according to the Regulation on the Construction and Operation of Tramways (BOStrab), which had already come into force on 1 April 1938. From the timetables from 1943 onwards, the Reichskursbuch explicitly indicated "electric tramway" in the header, while in the winter edition of 1941/42, the general notice "Electric operation" was still present. From 1944 onwards, the – typically found on all other single-class branch lines – notice "All trains 3rd class only" was finally omitted, implying that a uniform class for tramway operations was assumed.

However, the Deutsche Reichsbahn had already been responsible for the operation of the steam tram Neuötting–Altötting, which was shut down in 1930, for ten years prior. It acquired this line from the Royal Bavarian State Railways upon its foundation in 1920. Unlike in Württemberg, a clear distinction between a tramway and a railway was possible under Bavarian law before 1938. Additionally, the Deutsche Reichsbahn also owned the State Goods Railway Deuben, which was also licensed as a tramway. Although it was built by the Royal Saxon State Railways, it was operated by the Dresden tramway.

The classification as a tramway meant, among other things, that through-ticketing between the tramway to Baienfurt and the railway was still not possible, even though they were operated by the same company since 1938. Passengers could not purchase through tickets from railway stations to destinations on the tramway. Conversely, conductors on the tramway did not sell tickets to destinations beyond Ravensburg. The same applied to luggage transport; through luggage check-in was not possible. Additionally, limited luggage transport applied to all trains. Furthermore, the transition from a branch line to a tramway was also noticeable externally: the railcars were equipped with destination signs prescribed by the BOStrab. Section 32 states: "The first vehicle of a scheduled train must display a destination sign at the front, which must be clearly visible even in darkness."

New Station Names

Furthermore, after the Deutsche Reichsbahn took over the line in 1938, new designations were introduced for some tram stops. These changes likely occurred at the first timetable change after the takeover, at the beginning of the winter timetable 1938/39 – 2 valid from October 1938:

old	new
Ravensburg Staatsbahnhof	Ravensburg Bahnhof
Kraftwerk	Ravensburg Kraftwerk
Unterburach	Ravensburg Unterburach
14 Nothelfer	Weingarten (Württ) 14 Nothelfer
Weingarten Scherzachbrücke	Weingarten (Württ) Lamm
Weingarten Charlottenstraße	Weingarten (Württ) Charlottenstraße
Weingarten Post	Weingarten (Württ) Post
Weingarten Traube	Weingarten (Württ) Traube
Weingarten Güterbahnhof	Weingarten (Württ) Güterbahnhof

With the addition of (Württ) for Württemberg, confusion with the railway stations Weingarten (Baden) or Weingarten (Pfalz) was to be avoided. The reason for renaming Weingarten Scherzachbrücke to Weingarten Lamm is not documented. Lamm was the name of a hotel in the neighboring Liebfrauenstraße 53. Nevertheless, the Traubenhof stop continued to be designated without the addition of Weingarten or Weingarten (Württ). The station Unterburach received the additional name Ravensburg, although it was located in the territory of Weingarten. This was because the district named Burach belongs to Ravensburg. Additionally, the city border in this area runs directly next to the former railway track.

National Socialism and Further Renamed Stops

During the Nazi era, Weingarten was incorporated into Ravensburg on 1 April 1939. With the exception of the northern terminus Baienfurt Ort, all tram stops were now located within the city limits of Ravensburg. In this context, two tram stops in Weingarten were renamed. This presumably happened at the beginning of the summer timetable on 15 May 1939:

old	new
Weingarten (Württ) Charlottenstraße	Weingarten (Württ) Horst-Wessel-Straße
Weingarten (Württ) 14 Nothelfer	Weingarten (Württ) Städtisches Krankenhaus

The renaming in the first case is evident since there was already a Charlottenstraße in the old town of Ravensburg, which is still named such today. In the second case, the Christian name addition "14 Nothelfer" was eliminated for political reasons. However, the Weingarten hospital itself was not renamed; it still carries its Christian name addition and is now operated as Krankenhaus 14 Nothelfer GmbH. Paradoxically, the Weingarten tram stops continued to be prefixed with Weingarten (Württ), even though Weingarten did not officially exist on paper during this time.

World War II and Period following war

During World War II, the tramway was allowed to operate even during air raids. In contrast to municipally operated tramways in other cities, it was subject to the Railway Air Protection as a public transport railway. This is evident from a letter written by the responsible DR operations office in Friedrichshafen on 22 February 1941.

There were no serious war damages to the tramway, so it could continue to operate continuously during the war. However, on 23 April 1945, operations were suspended because the Wehrmacht erected tank barriers at that time. On 28 April 1945, French forces entered Ravensburg. The barriers were leveled again. The city and the tramway henceforth belonged to the French occupation zone. Operations were initially suspended. However, on 18 June 1945, Steiner, the French military governor of the Ravensburg district, ordered the resumption of tramway operations. After a little over two and a half months of interruption, it resumed normal operations on 11 July 1945. To ensure orderly railway operations, the new authorities first established the Upper Directorate of the German Railways of the French-occupied Zone with its headquarters in Speyer on 8 January 1946. The tramway to Baienfurt also fell under this authority. On 25 June 1947, it was finally merged into the Operating Association of the Southwest German Railways, whose headquarters were also in Speyer.

Era of the German Federal Railway

In the post-war period, the Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt tramway shared the fate of the other railway lines in the French-occupied zone. With the amalgamation of the Southwest German Railways, they passed into the ownership of the German Federal Railway due to the Federal Railways Act of 18 December 1951. From then on, Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt was not only the only tram operation of the German Federal Railway, but also the only tram operation still owned by the German state. Despite numerous nationalizations, the parallel existing German Reichsbahn did not own a tram operation. The former electric narrow-gauge railway Klingenthal-Sachsenberg-Georgenthal of the German Reichsbahn was operated under similar circumstances to the Baienfurt line, yet it was legally always classified as a railway – regardless of the use of only slightly modified tram vehicles.

Traffic Issues

During the 1950s, not only did the number of tram passengers increase, but also the use of private vehicles in Ravensburg and its surroundings continued to rise. This so-called mass motorization increasingly posed problems for the tramway. The conflicts already known from the 1930s worsened further. Especially in the city center of Ravensburg and on the sections along Federal Highway 30, which emerged from Reichsstraße 30 in 1949, the tram was increasingly perceived as a traffic hindrance. Due to the rails laid in side position, trams traveling towards Ravensburg came directly towards northbound road users in the town sections of Ravensburg and Baienfurt. The relatively wide old vehicles of the tramway, more resembling a narrow-gauge railway than a traditional tram in construction and size, exacerbated the problem. This led, among other things, to trucks on the road protruding into the clearance profile needed by the tram in curves. Additionally, the asymmetrical design of the old vehicles posed difficulties. They were wider in the passenger compartments than in the entry platforms area. As a result, the actual space they needed could hardly be estimated from the front.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the protruding steps of the old vehicles also caused problems again. The inclination made during the LAG era could not solve the problem in the long run. In the first half of the 1950s, the German Federal Railway therefore decided, as a emergency measure, to permanently lock the doors on the west side. The obstructive steps on the road side, i.e., towards Federal Highway 30, could thus be completely removed. This conversion was only possible because all platforms of the tramway Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt were located on the same side – namely on the east side. Furthermore, this successfully prevented passengers from disembarking directly on the road side and being endangered by traffic. This relatively rare operating form of bidirectional operation with doors on one side still exists today on the Kirnitzschtalbahn, the Drachenfelsbahn, the Gmunden tram, and the Italian railway line Trieste-Opicina, even though the reasons for this differ partially for the mentioned operations.

1953 to 1955: Hesitant Modernization and Timetable

At the beginning of the 1950s, the number of tram passengers on the Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt tramway suddenly increased. While about two million passengers were carried annually in the immediate post-war period, in 1951 there were already 3,192,650, with a further increasing trend. During that time, the tramway to Baienfurt became a mass transit system. Despite the massive traffic problems, the German Federal Railway initially did not consider converting the line to bus operation. To meet the increasing traffic demand, a fixed 20-minute interval timetable was introduced all day beginning in 1953, with service every 30 minutes after 9:00 p.m. This replaced the previous demand-oriented timetable. However, before that, the entire tramway fleet had to be converted from the traditional manually operated trumpet coupling to the modern automatic BSI compact coupling. This rationalization measure significantly simplified shunting operations, especially the turnaround at the termini. This was necessary because the new timetable allowed for relatively short turnaround times. Thus, in Baienfurt, only three minutes and in Ravensburg, only four minutes were scheduled for the turnaround process. To ensure punctual operation, it was essential, especially in case of delays, to avoid delaying the departure of the tram in the opposite direction.

However, at the same time, the city of Ravensburg pushed forward the plan to convert the tramway to bus operation. Without the involvement of Weingarten and Baienfurt, an initial meeting between Ravensburg and the German Federal Railway took place on 12 June 1953. Due to the increasing motor vehicle traffic, it was planned to widen Federal Highway 30 – at the expense of the tramway track – to four lanes. Furthermore, the existing city bus service in Ravensburg was considered deficient due to its short routes and was expected to become more economical by incorporating the longer route to Baienfurt. The German Federal Railway agreed and, for cost reasons, also demanded diesel bus services. In contrast, Weingarten and Baienfurt formed an alliance in favor of the tramway and commissioned corresponding counter-reports.

After passenger numbers continued to increase in the following years, the German Federal Railway decided to further increase the frequency shortly after the introduction of the interval timetable. To this end, in 1954, it acquired two modern large-capacity railcars for its unusual branch of operations. With this, the fleet increased from six to eight railcars. They needed to operate every ten minutes between Ravensburg Bahnhof and Weingarten Charlottenplatz during peak hours. This further expansion of services was introduced in 1955. Thus, the German Federal Railway continued the modernization of the tramway that had begun in 1953, albeit very hesitantly. With the ten-minute interval, the tramway reached the limit of its capacity; because the track remained single throughout even after 1955. However, the frequency increase was also associated with a significant fare increase; thus, ticket prices rose by 40% on 1 October 1955.

1956 to 1957: Class Reform and Three-Light Head Signal

Summer timetable 1957: the intermediate services introduced in 1955 are not explicitly listed

With the so-called class reform – meaning the abolition of the former 1st class – the tram cars operating between Ravensburg and Baienfurt were "upgraded" with the start of the summer timetable on 3 June 1956. Consequently, the timetable now stated consistently: All trains only 2nd class. However, in practice, the German Federal Railway – like the former German Reichsbahn before – did not label their tram vehicles accordingly. Unlike the other vehicles of the two state railways, they were not marked with the respective class numbers. Thus, the change in 1956 was merely on paper.

Regardless of the traffic problems described above, the railcars of the Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt tramway also received an additional front headlight installed in the roof area in 1957. This ensured the so-called three-light head signal. Its introduction was demanded by the legislature to better distinguish rail vehicles from the steadily growing number of road vehicles at night. However, the introduction was nationwide according to the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations and had nothing to do with the explicit safety problems on the route discussed here.

1957 to 1958: Fatal Traffic Accident and Controversial Closure Plans

In the second half of the 1950s, the mutual impediments between the tramway and the further increasing motor vehicle traffic became unbearable for the government. After a series of traffic accidents between 1956 and 1958, they repeatedly pushed for the closure of the operation. In contrast, the local population advocated for the retention of the rail service, partly because they feared higher fares in case of conversion to bus operation. For example, opponents cited the existing bus connection from Ravensburg to Eschach, where a ticket cost two and a half times as much as a tram ticket on the approximately equally long route to Baienfurt. While the German Federal Railway acknowledged the imminent fare increase, it pointed out that "this increase would also be unavoidable if rail operations were maintained".

On 3 July 1957, there was another serious traffic accident, resulting in the first fatality. A long timber truck collided with a tram at the Ravensburg Kraftwerk stop while traveling to Weingarten – three passengers were injured, and a 58-year-old woman died. The 20-year-old truck driver was initially acquitted on 11 June 1958, but the Ravensburg Regional Court overturned the verdict on 24 September 1958, and convicted the driver – but also attributed partial blame to the tramway. Police investigations revealed that the load protruded up to 40 centimeters beyond the side limit of the truck. Additionally, it was the driver's first time driving this long and heavy vehicle, and the tachograph recorded a speed between 45 and 50 km/h on the narrow, busy, and uneven road, which was only five and a half meters wide.

The revision of the judgment prompted authorities to impose a maximum speed limit of ten kilometers per hour on the tramway by decree on 9 October 1958, effective 13 October 1958. This applied to the sections Ravensburg Bahnhof–Ravensburg Frauentor and Ravensburg Heilig Kreuz–Weingarten Lamm. Furthermore, in the fall of 1958, the aforementioned protruding passenger compartments of the old vehicles were provisionally marked with a conspicuous red-white striped warning marking. However, the proposal by the Federal Railway to install a continuous white line along the tracks at a safety distance of 40 centimeters on the road of Federal Highway 30 was rejected by government agencies.

As a result of the ten kilometers per hour speed limit, travel times increased, and due to limited crossing opportunities, the intermediate services introduced in 1955 as part of the ten-minute interval during peak hours could no longer be offered. Consequently, the already comparatively slow tramway lost even more attractiveness compared to competing individual traffic – or to the envisaged bus operation. Students and workers could no longer travel home during lunch breaks. This led to massive protests from citizens and businesses, with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce considering a strike. As a replacement for the missing additional services between Weingarten and Ravensburg, the German Federal Railway provisionally operated buses during peak hours, alternating with trams, which now ran at intervals of at most every 20 minutes.

Because under the given conditions, competitive operation was no longer possible, the German Federal Railway presented the Baden-Württemberg state government with a choice: Either the state would cover the difference of 1.97 million marks between the costs of bus operation and the higher costs of a traffic-safe operation of the tramway route – or agree to a complete switch to buses. The state railway wanted to protect its employees from legal risks, among other reasons.

Consequently, the state government in Stuttgart decided to switch to bus operation. Furthermore, after the closure of the tramway, Federal Highway 30 between Ravensburg and Weingarten was to be expanded to four lanes for a total of 2.8 million German marks. Initially, however, only an – immediately feasible – widening of 35 centimeters was planned, which was necessary for smooth operation of future bus traffic. This measure was entrusted to the cities of Ravensburg and Weingarten. At the same time, the planned bypass road for Ravensburg, which had already been specifically planned at the end of the 1950s, was abandoned. At that time, the concept of the so-called Car-Friendly City, named after the book of the same name published in 1959, was also pursued in Upper Swabia, where the tramway was discontinued that year by the Ravensburg Otto Maier Verlag.

1959: Gradual Transition to Rail Replacement Service

Bus timetable from 1 July 1959. Although it still constitutes rail replacement service, the route is already officially referred to as a rail bus line

As early as 27 October 1958, the Stuttgart Regional Railway Directorate decreed: "Large buses will temporarily take over traffic between Ravensburg and Weingarten. The former 20-minute service on the Weingarten – Baienfurt route will be resumed." However, due to an administrative complaint from the city of Weingarten and the municipality of Baienfurt, which, unlike the city of Ravensburg, continued to advocate for the retention of the railway, the state railway could not initially implement its plan as planned. Ultimately, the protests from Weingarten and Baienfurt were ineffective. In January 1959, the President of the Stuttgart Regional Railway Directorate, Kurt Hagner, announced the switch to bus operation, and on 12 February 1959, the Tübingen Regional Council announced that beginning 23 February 1959, tram services would only run between Weingarten Charlottenplatz and Baienfurt Ort. The timetable for these services was only published by the German Federal Railway two days earlier, on 21 February 1959. However, the bus service temporarily introduced between Ravensburg and Weingarten was legally considered provisional. Due to the pending administrative complaint, it was declared as so-called emergency service. Therefore, de jure, it initially constituted rail replacement service. For passengers from Baienfurt, this temporarily meant having to transfer in Weingarten.

After another four months, when enough buses were available, the remaining 2.5-kilometer section in the northern part of the Weingarten–Baienfurt route was finally converted to bus operation. The trams ran for the last time on Tuesday, 30 June 1959. Even though the buses to Baienfurt initially continued to operate legally as rail replacement service, the German Federal Railway officially designated the route as a rail bus line as of 1 July 1959. However, there was no specific line designation at that time, and several years later the typical four-digit line numbers in rail bus services were introduced by the German Federal Railway. This bus service introduced in 1959 initially had a provisional character. For example, due to the lack of suitable stops, the Ravensburg Unterburach, Ravensburg Kraftwerk, Traubenhof, and Baienfurt Süd stops could not initially be served. Additionally, in 1959, with the introduction of rail replacement service, two stops were renamed:

old	new
Weingarten (Württ) Städtisches Krankenhaus	Weingarten (Württ) Krankenhaus
Baienfurt Ort	Baienfurt Rathaus

On the other hand, the transition also led to significant improvements in the transportation situation. For example, the buses in Baienfurt now extended beyond the previous terminus to Baienfurt Feuerwehrhaus, thus also serving the Baienfurt town center. Furthermore, the timetable was expanded further, although this improvement was primarily a result of the lower capacity of buses compared to tramway trains.

The intermediate services between Weingarten and Ravensburg were now offered not only during peak hours but throughout the day until around 9:00 p.m. Furthermore, they now ran not only to Weingarten Charlottenplatz but all the way to Weingarten Güterbahnhof. During the morning peak hours (from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.), the intermediate services even ran all the way to Baienfurt. This meant that a ten-minute interval service was now offered for the entire route. The 20-minute base frequency of the tramway was also extended into the evening hours after 9:00 p.m. It now applied until the end of operations. Furthermore, during peak hours between Ravensburg Bahnhof and Weingarten Güterbahnhof, so-called express buses operated in addition to the intermediate services. They only stopped at the Ravensburg Frauentor, Weingarten Lamm, and Weingarten Post stops. These services were specially marked by a red diagonal line on the signage, indicating a so-called canceled line signal.

Outdated Fleet

In addition to the traffic problems, the very outdated fleet of the railway also played a significant role in the decision to switch to bus operation. In the year of discontinuation in 1959, the eight railcars of the railway had been in service on average for 37.5 years, including the two new railcars from 1954. At that time, the five railcars procured for electrification had already been in service for 49 years each, and they were also worn out due to two world wars. The situation was even more critical with the eleven trailers. In 1959, they averaged 56.1 years old. Six of them were still from the steam tramway era and thus from the founding year of the railway. These veterans were already 71 years old at that time. Additionally, the introduction of the clock timetable in 1953 exacerbated the situation – it significantly increased the daily mileage of the vehicles – as did the heavy usage due to continuously increasing passenger numbers. While the six railcars together with the trailers in the early years of the electric tramway only transported around one million passengers annually, by 1954, the total number of passengers was almost five million.

Spirit of the Time and General Trend

Thus, almost 21 years after being taken over by the Reichsbahn, the second tramway in German state ownership, following the former Neuötting–Altötting steam tramway, became history. Regardless of the specific situation on the Ravensburg–Baienfurt route, the discontinuation of the railway followed a general trend in West Germany in two respects. Firstly, many municipal transport companies at that time also converted their tramways to bus or trolleybus operation. In 1959 alone, six more operations were discontinued (Rheydt, Herne–Castrop-Rauxel, Minden, Solingen, Völklingen, and Lübeck). The weekly newspaper "die Zeit" describes this spirit of the time in its 6 March 1959 issue, as follows: "So the tramway is finally on the extinction list – here as elsewhere. But it is difficult to make people understand in the heat of the battle of Weingarten and Ravensburg that a new era is dawning ..."

On the other hand, the German Federal Railway soon also ceased passenger services on its other narrow-gauge lines. Due to their elaborate operation, they were considered uneconomical: in 1960 for the Walhallabahn, in 1964 for the two neighboring lines Öchsle and Federseebahn in Upper Swabia, in 1966 for the Bottwartalbahn, in 1967 for the Altensteigerle, and in 1973 for the Odenwaldexpress. Although the Zabergäubahn was converted to standard gauge in 1964/65, it was also eventually switched to bus operation in 1986. The Wangerooger Inselbahn has become the sole DB narrow-gauge railway that still operates today.

Bus Service from 1962 to Present - Downgrading and Final Establishment of Bus Operation

An RAB bus in the design of the city bus Ravensburg-Weingarten GmbH

Over the course of 1961, they began dismantling the overhead lines and the tarring over of the tracks. Between Ravensburg Bahnhof and Frauentor, they were completely removed in August of the that year. On 1 January 1964, the tramway line was finally formally decommissioned and thus declassified. The three-rail section remained unaffected; it was still used by standard-gauge freight trains to Weingarten until 26 October 1999, and was officially decommissioned on 1 December 1999.

From Rail Bus Line to City Bus Network

Over the decades, the rail bus line evolved into a regular city bus route network. The direct successors of the tramway are today's bus lines 1 and 2. Their route exactly corresponds to that of the former tram line. However, both lines are now trunk lines and also serve the Ravensburg districts of Schmalegg and Weststadt in the southwest. Furthermore, they extend northward beyond Baienfurt to Baindt. In addition, new lines were introduced. They also serve residential areas located away from the former tram line, such as today's line 3 to Hegaustraße (at Sonnenbüchel) or line 5 to Schacherösch (to Baienfurt).

The former rail bus division of the German Federal Railway – which took over the operation of the tramway at that time – was dissolved in 1989, and it turned into DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee (RAB), which still exists today. It was initially a wholly-owned subsidiary of the German Federal Railway, and since its privatization in 1994, it has been a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG.

The RAB cooperates closely with the cities of Ravensburg and Weingarten and the private bus companies in the area. Initially, this was done as part of the Rundumbus Ravensburg Weingarten transport community, which was launched in 1996 and evolved into today's stadtbus Ravensburg Weingarten GmbH in 2004. The RAB, along with Stadtwerke Ravensburg, Stadtwerke Weingarten, and two private bus companies, is a shareholder of the GmbH. It owns the largest share (45.2%) in the joint company. In addition to its own lines, it also operates lines that are licensed to Stadtwerke Ravensburg or Stadtwerke Weingarten, as these companies do not have their own buses. The operation of city bus services by the Deutsche Bahn Group is relatively rare due to the licensing of the former tramway. Usually, the companies of DB Stadtverkehr GmbH only operate regional buses.

Today's traffic situation

The former tram route remains the main axis in the public transport of the cities Ravensburg and Weingarten. Most bus stops are still located at the same positions as the 15 former tram stops. Moreover, even over sixty years later, eight stops still carry their old names, although the addition "(Württ)" for the Weingarten stops has been omitted:

Former Tram Stops	Current Bus Stops	Comments
Ravensburg Bahnhof	Ravensburg Bahnhof
Ravensburg Frauentor	Ravensburg Schussenstraße
–	Ravensburg Gartenstraße	Newly furnished
Ravensburg Falken	Ravensburg Gymnasien
Ravensburg Heilig Kreuz	Ravensburg St. Elisabethen-Klinikum
Ravensburg Kraftwerk	Ravensburg Polizeipräsidium	Renamed in December 2020
Ravensburg Unterburach	Ravensburg Berufschulzentrum
Weingarten (Württ) Städtisches Krankenhaus	Weingarten Krankenhaus 14 Nothelfer
Weingarten (Württ) Lamm	Weingarten Linse	Renamed in December 2007
Weingarten (Württ) Charlottenplatz	Weingarten Charlottenplatz
–	Weingarten Ev. Stadtkirche	Newly furnished
Weingarten (Württ) Post	Weingarten Post
Weingarten (Württ) Traube	–	Abandoned
Weingarten (Württ) Güterbahnhof	Weingarten Güterbahnhof
–	Weingarten Haasstraße	Newly furnished
Traubenhof	Weingarten Trauben	Renamed in December 2007
Baienfurt Süd	–	Abandoned
Baienfurt Ort	Baienfurt Achtalschule

Passenger Transport Frequency Over the Years

In comparison to the later electric railway, the steam tram operated with its two sets of trains relatively infrequently in the early years of the railway. As late as 1897, only eleven trips were offered on weekdays, the same number as in the opening year of 1888. This changed later: With 37 (1906) or even 38 (1909) daily train trips per direction, the steam tram had reached the limit of its capacity. After electrification and extension of the route, the timetable was further condensed. In 1914, with a total of six available motorcars, trains ran approximately every 30 minutes, and on Sunday afternoons, about every 20 minutes. In economically difficult times (1927 and 1946), one train per hour had to suffice. But already by 1934 or 1948, the frequency was back to normal. Until 1953, the schedule was largely demand-oriented, primarily focusing on connections to and from the trains on the Südbahn (Southern Railway). It was only in 1953 that a fixed interval timetable was introduced for the entire day. The following data are recorded over the years:

Year	1888	1906	1909	1919	1920	1944	1946–1950	1957
Weekdays	11	37	38	67	33	37 / 35	43	58 / 59
Saturdays	11	37	38	67	33	37 / 35	43	59 / 62
Sundays and Public Holidays	9	37	34	70	31 / 32	32 / 31	48	58 / 61

The individual trips were distinguished by train numbers, which were used as late as 1944, which is atypical for a tram. However, they are no longer listed in the 1957 timetable. The courses in the direction of Baienfurt had even numbers, while those in the direction of Ravensburg had odd numbers. At times, the demand was so high that individual courses had to be additionally reinforced by so-called "advantages"; these additional trains are not included in the table. Advantage and main trains then followed each other at a sight distance, the advantages were appropriately marked to ensure that the oncoming trains had to wait for the main train in the passing loops.

Operating Hours

The operating hours also corresponded to the usual times for major city tramway operations, even in the war year of 1944, trains ran until shortly before midnight:

1920: from 4:55 a.m. to 11:05 p.m. 1944: from 4:52 a.m. to 11:55 p.m. 1957: from 4:23 a.m. to 01:06 a.m.

Travel Times and Speed

According to the timetable of 1920, most trains still needed 33 minutes for the entire route Ravensburg–Baienfurt, which corresponds to an average speed of only 11.9 km/h. In later years, the timetable was somewhat streamlined; in 1944 and 1957, for example, most trains covered the entire route in 26 or 27 minutes, respectively, that is, at an average speed of 15.1 or 14.6 km/h.

Circuits

With the introduction of the fixed interval timetable, the following vehicle requirements arose in the last six years of operation:

10-minute interval service (peak hours)	5 circuits	3 main circuits covering the entire route 2 additional circuits between Ravensburg Bahnhof and Weingarten Charlottenplatz
20-minute interval service (daytime)	3 circuits
30-minute interval service (from 9:00 p.m.)	2 circuits

Passenger Numbers

								1888	1889
								179.474	179.553
1890	1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899
204,496	213,164	204,874	220,522	234,907	243,660	243,508	253,144	263,034	265,484
1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
289,831	289,939	309,219	319,869	352,399	364,502	374,743	471,018	518,737	556,823
1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919
682,166	918,060	unknown	1,089,908	839,865	unknown	unknown	unknown	1,507,000	1,786,084
1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929
1,859,260	1,444,678	1,487,251	781,650	763,361	1,069,338	991,761	1,063,477	1,078,284	1.134.416
1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
1,063,046	836,484	750,883	771,002	803,259	935,023	1,019,208	1,178,929	unknown	unknown
1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	~2 million	~2 million	~2 million	~2 million
1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
~2 million	3,192,650	unknown	unknown	4,920,000	4,392,000	5,035,263	4,733,370	unknown	unknown

Vehicles

Procurements Over the Years

The LAG 2 in 1930 at its second deployment location, Regensburg

For the opening of the steam tramway, two box locomotives without engine casings were procured, the LAG 1 and LAG 2 with serial numbers 1814 and 1817. They were from the company Krauss & Co., a co-shareholder of LAG, and were the first locomotives of LAG. An identical train had been delivered by Krauss shortly before to the Chiemsee Railway.

For passenger cars, the steam tramway had seven two-axle trailers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 16) and three freight cars (6, 7, and 17) available. The passenger cars were supplied by MAN, weighing 5000 or 6050 kilograms, with lengths of 8.35 meters and widths of 2.5 meters, and a wheelbase of 3.9 meters.

A railcar of the 800–804 series with two trailers in a factory photo from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen

To start electric operations, the vehicle fleet was extensively expanded. At that time, LAG acquired a total of five large four-axle railcars from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, their electrical equipment was from Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW). They were designated as elT (for electric railcar) at LAG and numbered 800 to 804. They were complemented by three two-axle trailers (832, 833, and 834), including a half-luggage car. In addition, the former trailers of the steam tramway were continued to be used behind the new railcars.

The small railcar (number 875)

Trailer 922 as a museum vehicle of the DEV, Hüinghausen at the MME, 2020

In 1914, a smaller two-axle railcar with number 875 was added, later known by the nickname "Piccolo". Its electrical equipment – differing from the existing four-axle ones – came from Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon in Switzerland. In 1937, LAG finally procured two large four-axle trailers (921 and 922). They had the same capacity as the large railcars. In 1941, the Deutsche Reichsbahn introduced new designations for railcars and their associated trailers. At that time, the four-axle railcars were assigned to the series 196.0 (ET 196.0 or EB 196.0), and the two-axle ones were grouped under series 197.0 (ET 197.0 or EB 197.0).

With the introduction of the 1955 schedule densification to and from Weingarten Charlottenplatz, Deutsche Bundesbahn procured two large four-axle high-capacity cars from Duewag. Their electrical equipment came from Kiepe, and they entered service on 9 April 1954. In principle, these were standard vehicles, as procured by many German tramway companies at that time. They were classic bidirectional vehicles, but with the peculiarity – similar to the few years earlier converted old vehicles – that they only had doors on one side. Also characteristic of the two Duewag tramcars of Deutsche Bundesbahn was the scissor-type current collector unusually located in the middle of the car, as well as the absence of line number boxes. Furthermore, due to the design of the new cars, smoking compartments could not be designated in the new cars, unlike the old ones. The two railcars were classified as Class ET 195 (ET 195 01 and ET 195 02; serial numbers 26887 and 26888) and were occasionally operated in double traction. However, due to technical reasons, their electrical equipment was incompatible, so they could not be operated together with the older vehicles. The two new railcars became the backbone of the railway, but the old railcars remained indispensable. Especially during the 1955 ten-minute interval schedule and during peak times, in which case the older vehicles were preferred to be sent ahead of the new railcars as "extras".

Colours

Originally, the vehicles of LAG were uniformly painted dark green. Around 1936, a two-tone paint scheme was introduced, with the vehicles painted light green below the windows, while the window band was "pale cream." The two areas were separated by a dark green dividing line. Shortly thereafter, they were repainted by the Deutsche Reichsbahn into their commonly used railcar livery, with the lower part below the windows being light red, while the window band remained pale cream.

Subsequently, the Deutsche Bundesbahn introduced another scheme, painting the vehicles dark red, similar to their other railcars. This paint scheme was complemented by three white decorative stripes running around the roof area, at the level of the window sills, and above the lower edge of the car body. However, as a special feature, the two large-capacity cars from 1954 – differing from the rest of the tram fleet in particular and the other railcars of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in general – were painted light green. This unique paint scheme was complemented by a circumferential decorative strip connected with a similarly circumferential dark decorative stripe – both just below the window band.

Disposition of the Vehicles

2007: The two new railcars at RTM Ouddorp – in the middle is the generator car added in the 1960s

All vehicles of the tram that were still present at the time of its cessation in 1959 were initially stored on the premises in Weingarten. The majority of them were eventually scrapped around 1962, after the track had been legally decommissioned. Only the four newest vehicles of the tram – the two trailers from 1937 and the two railcars from 1954 – were able to be sold. Three of them were preserved and serve as reminders of the tram.

The railcars ET 195 01 and ET 195 02 – just five years old at the time of cessation – were sold by the Deutsche Bundesbahn to the Dutch railway company Rotterdamsche Tramweg Maatschappij (RTM) in 1961. They were converted for operation on the non-electrified network of RTM by adding a generator car. This diesel-electric railcar, now designated as M 17, was transferred to the Austrian Zillertalbahn in 1967. Since 1999, the train has been back in the Netherlands and has been regularly used on the RTM museum railway line between Ouddorp and West-Repart since October 2003.

1980 at the Zillertalbahn in Jenbach (still with tobacco advertising)

The trailers EB 196 01 (formerly 921) and EB 196 02 (formerly 922) were acquired by the Austrian Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft in 1962, but only EB 196 02 entered service, receiving the new operating number B 20,221. EB 196 01, on the other hand, was scrapped in Austria without ever being used. The remaining B 20,221 (formerly EB 196 02) underwent a major inspection at Stern & Hafferl in September 1971 and was then in service on the Gmunden–Vorchdorf local railway until 1976. In October 1980, it was transferred to the Stuttgart Tramway Museum, where it was provisionally stored at the former depot of the Esslingen–Nellingen–Denkendorf tramway in Nellingen, in anticipation of the planned museum operation between Nellingen and Neuhausen. After the museum plans fell through, it was finally transferred to the German Railway Association in June 1986. After extensive restoration, it has been in operation on the Bruchhausen-Vilsen–Asendorf museum railway since December 1990. Under the new operating number 21, it is used either as a trailer behind railcars or "out of class" in classic steam or diesel trains.

Relics

The tram depot built in 1910 now serves the buses of the RAB.

Overhead line rosette at Gartenstraße 10.

Apart from the three vehicles preserved elsewhere as museum pieces, little remains today to remind us of the tram. The meter-gauge sections were completely removed due to road expansion. In front of Ravensburg Station, the tracks were covered with asphalt for many years, and with the construction of the new bus station around 1990, these last traces of rails were also removed. The former three-rail track between Weingarten and Baienfurt, abandoned in 1999, still exists partially, but the original rails and sleepers in this section have been replaced over the years with used two-rail track components from other standard gauge lines. The following relics remind us of the tram:

• At the former freight station in Weingarten, aside from the former station building of the standard gauge line, the former tramcar depot still exists, now used as a bus depot for the RAB. This is the focal point of the independent RAB branch in Weingarten. Inside, there is, among other things, a bus wash. Buses are also parked on the former track area. The property is still owned by the state.
• On the premises of the Weingarten depot, two steel overhead line masts have been preserved, used as street lamps.
• At the former Ravensburg Frauentor stop, now the Ravensburg Schussenstraße bus stop, the wooden station building has been preserved. The small house attached to the Green Tower was built around the turn of the century by the LAG and used as a ticket sales office. Today, it serves as a kiosk and is classified as a cultural monument.
• Occasionally, the brackets for the overhead line tensioning have been preserved on the buildings along the route. Among them are seven artistically ornamented overhead line rosettes from the year of electrification. One can be found at Gartenstraße 8, Gartenstraße 10, Gartenstraße 34, Schussenstraße 2, and Schussenstraße 18, and two more at the building complex of the former Maschinenfabrik Ravensburg in Schussenstraße 21.

During the parade of the Welfenfest, celebrated annually in the summer in Weingarten, a parade group recalls the "Bähnle." Students dressed as passengers and conductors accompany a model of a tram.

Reactivation Plans

The demand to reactivate the former Ravensburg-Weingarten-Baienfurt tramway as part of a modern regional light rail system reappears in politics from time to time, for instance, by the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) in August 2005. The passenger association PRO BAHN also supported such a project in a position paper from January 2003. These considerations are influenced not least by the great success of the Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn, launched under municipal management in 1993. Connections with this railway have also been considered, such as through services from Weingarten or Baienfurt to Friedrichshafen. However, reactivating the former tramway route would essentially require complete reconstruction and would thus be costly. Only the short section along the former three-rail track could be used for such a project, but formally it has also been decommissioned since 1999.

Miscellaneous

Parts of the power supply system that were no longer needed after the tramway was discontinued were sold to the Austrian Montafonerbahn. As a result, in 1965, they were able to increase the traction voltage of their Bludenz-Schruns railway line from 720 to 900 volts DC. However, since 1972, they have been using the alternating current system common in the Austrian Federal Railways, with a voltage of 15 kV and a frequency of 16⅔ Hz. Consequently, the equipment from Germany became redundant once again.

Further reading

• Bergsteiner, Leonhard (2008). "Bundes-Straßenbahn – Die Strecke Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt". BahnExtra. 3. München: GeraMond-Verlag: 82–83. ISSN 0937-7174.
• Bürnheim, Hermann (1974). Localbahn AG München. Gifhorn: Zeunert. ISBN 3-921237-21-1.
• Kolb, Raimund (1987). Bähnle, Mühle, Zug und Bus: Die Bahn im mittleren Schussental. Bergatreute: Wilfried Eppe. ISBN 3-89089-007-5.
• Raimund Kolb: Zügle, Mühle, Bähnle. Die Eisenbahn Ravensburg – Weingarten – Baienfurt, in Raimund Kolb, Rolf Brüning, Bernhard Günzl: Bähnle, Öchsle, Hopfenexpress. Eisenbahn-Romantik in Oberschwaben. DGEG Medien, Hövelhof 2005, ISBN 3-937189-12-2, pages 20–41.
• Wolff, Gerd; Menges, Hans-Dieter (1995). Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Band 3: Württemberg. Freiburg: EK-Verlag. ISBN 3-88255-655-2.
• Kurt Seidel: Schmalspur in Baden-Württemberg. Einhorn, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1977, ISBN 3-921703-19-0