Lambrecht (Pfalz) station

The station is located on the northern outskirts of the town and is surrounded by sandstone formations.^[7] Bahnhofstraße (station street) runs immediately south – approximately parallel to the tracks – and continues through a long S-curve into Hauptstraße (main street), which is also the route of federal highway 39. To the west, it becomes Sommerbergstraße. The latter bridges the station area and runs back to the east – also approximately parallel to the railway – through a residential area to the north of the railway. The station itself is at line-kilometre 70.752.^[8] The zero point for the kilometrage is between Bexbach and Neunkirchen on the former Bavaria–Prussia national border.^[9][10]

The Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway runs from east to west on a slight curve. About a kilometre and a half from the station area, the Little Cuckoo Railway branches off the main line and turns south across the federal highway and runs through the Elmstein valley to Frankeneck.

Originally it had been planned to build a railway running north–south in the then Bavarian Circle of the Rhine (Rheinkreis). However, it was agreed to first build a railway running east–west, which was to be used primarily for transporting coal from the Saar district (now part of the Saarland) to the Rhine. Two options were discussed for the general route through Kaiserslautern, as the development of a route through the Palatinate Forest (Pfälzerwald) proved to be complicated. At first the responsible engineers considered a route through the Dürkheim valley. However, this proved impractical because its side valleys were too low, and above all the climb to Frankenstein would have been too steep. This would have required stationary steam engines and rope haulage to overcome the differences in altitude.^[11] For this reason, they chose an option through the Neustadt valley, which would also be difficult to climb according to expert opinion, but this would be feasible and, in contrast to the Dürkheim valley, would avoid the need for stationary steam engines.^[12] A station would also be built in the then St. Lambrecht-Grevenhausen – called Lambrecht from 1887.^[13]

After the construction of the Palatine Ludwig Railway route from Rheinschanze to Bexbach had been approved, the Ludwigshafen (formerly Rheinschanze)–Neustadt section was opened on 11 June 1847. Operations were also possible from Homburg to Frankenstein from 2 December of the following year. Completion of the Neustadt–Frankenstein section was delayed by difficulties in acquiring land needed for the construction and the need to overcome difficult topography. For example, ten tunnels had to be built through hills and foothills.^[14] The opening ceremony finally took place on 25 August 1849.^[15] Previously, stagecoaches ran between the two completed parts of the line.^[16] Lambrecht station was opened along with Weidenthal as an intermediate station on the last section.

In the 1880s, there were first efforts to improve transport links with the neighbouring Elmstein valley (Elmsteiner Tal). However, plans to build a tramway from Neustadt via Lambrecht to Elmstein did not proceed. The Bavarian government accepted a bill which would have allowed the construction of branch lines in the Palatinate on 5 April 1892; this would have granted interest rate guarantees for certain routes. During this time, the construction of a branch line from Lambrecht to Elmstein was also discussed by Andreas Deinhard in the Chamber of Deputies. With the gradual demise of timber rafting at the end of the 19th century, the main source of livelihood in the Elmstein Valley was threatened and the population was forced to find other sources of income. Those affected saw the solution to the problem as a railway link that would act as a replacement for the transportation of wood using timber rafts. In addition the planned line was seen as a way of stimulating the economy of the valley.^[17]

In 1902, an industrial siding was opened via Frankeneck to the hamlet of Sattelmühle as a stage towards building a line to Elmstein. Finally, the Little Cuckoo Railway running up to Elmstein was opened on 23 January 1909. The train that was expected to make the opening trip from Elmstein, however, was involved in an accident, and had to be replaced by a train from Lambrecht.^[18]

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the station had ticket gates like other stations in the Palatinate.^[19][20] During this time, the station was managed by the operations and construction inspectorate (Betriebs- und Bauinspektion) of Neustadt an der Haardt and was the site of a Bahnmeisterei (office of the supervisor of track maintenance).^[21] The Königliche Eisenbahndirektion (Royal railway division of Ludwigshafen, which was established when the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft) was taken over by the Royal Bavarian State Railways (Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen) in 1909, became the Reichsbahndirektion (Reichsbahn division) of Ludwigshafen after the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1922. A year later, the railway workers employed at the railway station were expelled during the operation of the railway by the French military during the occupation of the Palatinate by France. They then returned to work.^[22] During the dissolution of the railway division of Ludwigshafen on 1 April 1936, it was transferred to the railway division of Mainz and the Betriebsamtes (RBA) Neustadt (operations office of Neustadt).^[23][24][25]

In the course of the combat operations during the Second World War, the station building was destroyed in March 1945 by a fire, which was fought by foreign forced labourers. As a result, a barracks, which had previously been used by the Wehrmacht to accommodate horses, had to assume its function.^[26]

In 1949, the newly founded Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) transferred the station to the Bundesbahndirektion Mainz (Bundesbahn railway division of Mainz), which was assigned all railway lines within the newly created state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The new entrance building was opened on 5 June 1957.^[26] Regular passenger services ended as early as 1960 on the Little Cuckoo Railway. Due to the thin population of the area, it was mainly useful for freight traffic; passenger traffic had always been minor. Since the main line from Mannheim had always had a great significance for long-distance traffic to Saarbrücken, it was gradually electrified, starting in 1960. The Saarbrücken–Homburg section could be operated electrically on 8 March 1960. The Homburg–Kaiserslautern followed on 18 May 1961 and from 12 March 1964 the entire line, including Lambrecht station, was electrically operated. The electrification of the remaining section was delayed mainly because of the numerous tunnels between Kaiserslautern and Neustadt that had to be enlarged.^[27] On 1 August 1971, the station came under the jurisdiction of the railway division of Karlsruhe with the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz. At the same time the platforms were raised.^[28][25] The last scheduled freight train south of Frankeneck operated on the Cuckoo Railway on 30 June 1976. A year later the traffic on it was officially abandoned. In the last years of operations, the branch was officially designated as only a siding of Lambrecht station.^[29] From the mid-1970s onwards, Frankeneck station, which was located on the branch, was officially designated as a part of Lambrecht station.^[30] Since 1984, the branch line has been operated as a heritage railway. Since 1990, the station has been part of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar transport association, VRN).^[31]

The former freight handling facility, which had last served as a private house, was demolished in 1999 to build a parking area. On 16 May of the same year, an electronic interlocking was installed in Neustadt, which meant that the station lost its last employee. In addition, DB Netz dismantled more railway tracks, so that since then the station has had three main tracks.^[32] The platforms were upgraded in preparation for the integration of the Mannheim-Saarbrücken railway as far as Kaiserslautern into the network of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn in 2003. This was carried out by Wieland & Schultz GmbH company on behalf of DB Station&Service.^[33] The S-Bahn was opened on 14 December 2003 and Lambrecht station has been integrated in it ever since.