The Kłodzko-Wałbrzych railway line

The railway route Wałbrzych - Kłodzko is poor in many respects.

The railway between Wałbrzych and Kłodzko was born not without pain. Her idea was connected with the Prussian concept of the Silesian Mountain Railway, developed in the mid-19th century. It was mainly about shortening the railway connection between Berlin and Vienna by leading this route through Wałbrzych-Kłodzko-Międzylesie. The author of the foundation was Carl Eduard Kruger. The beginning of measurement work on the route dates back to 1856.

It turned out that work on the construction of a railway line in such difficult conditions is very tedious and it is not up to particularly lucrative ventures. The locals did not want to work on the construction site for the remuneration they were offered. They considered them too low. In addition, there was a lack of local specialists familiar with the ropes of railway works. Both due to the low rates and the need to hire professionals familiar with the construction of even tunnels, when working on the railway line, most of the workers were Italians and Czechs.

Eventually, the construction started in 1874. The official opening of the line took place on October 15, 1880. Considering the really difficult mountain terrain and the challenge that constituted for the builders, the entire investment ran smoothly.

What decided about the creation of this line? Well, first of all, the local industry needed a turn. Four main branches of industry developed in the region: textile, coal, wood and stone. Each of them needed a convenient means for transporting raw materials as well as finished products. The railway was also a need to transport passengers - workers traveling to industrial plants. The decision-makers, when undertaking the construction of this line, had in mind the development of industry - the mining case was the strongest contributor to the whole affair, and in fact it influenced the creation of this railway.

The railway turned out to be a success. The transport of goods and passengers increased - with time, it became necessary to expand the line. In the years 1906-1913, it was rebuilt into a two-track line, which again was associated with the huge amount of engineering work. This investment was also successful, because the culmination of transport on the discussed line occurred just before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. At that time, the passage of the fast train connecting Wałbrzych with Kłodzko lasted 63 minutes. (For comparison: today, the bus runs this route in 73 minutes). The post-war recession and, above all, the defeat of Germany in the struggle with the Entente countries contributed to the crisis of the entire industry. This directly translated into a decrease in the number of rail transport. However, since the 1930s, we can again see an increase in the number of train journeys. The journey time was also accelerated - the journey by fast train from Wałbrzych to Kłodzko lasted 49 minutes.

The most interesting technical monuments on the route:

-3 tunnels (from Wałbrzych they are successively):

-tunnel under the Mały Wołowiec mountain, 1603 meters long, between Wałbrzych Główny and Jedlina stations - it was the longest tunnel in Silesia, at the moment it is also the longest railway tunnel in Poland;

-tunnel under the Sajdak mountain, 337 meters long, between Jedlina-Zdrój and Gluszyca stations

-tunnel under Świerkowa Kopa mountain, 1176 meters long, between Bartnica and Świerka stations

On the line, a total of three pairs of tunnels were created (during the modernization of the line in the first years of the twentieth century, twin tunnels were added to the tunnels created at the beginning), and passing them is undoubtedly one of the greatest attractions of this route. The tunnels are located on the 17-kilometer section of the line. They have several cavities for evacuation. The longest tunnel was built by Italian specialists.

In 1947 an accident took place in the tunnel near Mały Wołowiec. The freight train pulled by the steam engine entered the tunnel, but it had problems to cross it. This may have been caused by slippage of wheels on wet rails. The steam engine could not cross the tunnel, and smoke, containing poisonous carbon monoxide, was constantly emitted from the chimneys. The poorly ventilated tunnel acted like a trap. On this day, all the train staff died as a result of poisoning.

-9 steel bridges, the most interesting of which are:

-in Wałbrzych, 123 meters long

-in Głuszyca Górna, 149 meters long

-in Ludwikowice Kłodzkie, 164 meters long (the only two-track bridge on the route)

-in front of the 148-meter long Zdrojowisku resort

-on Zatorzu, 185 meters long (the longest bridge on this line - at the end of World War II it was blown up by German soldiers, the bridge was rebuilt in 1946)

-in Nowa Ruda with a length of 148 meters (the highest bridge on the whole line: 36 meters high, at the time of construction was also the highest bridge in all of Prussia, today it is the highest railway bridge in Lower Silesia).

Bridges were built by placing steel lattice spans on the stone foundations, which was characteristic of this type of building in Europe at that time. It is also worth noting that their pillars have not been changed since the construction, which proves their perfect performance.

• 45 viaducts

• 97 culverts

• variable track gradient (average slope on the route is 0.43%, the highest station on the line is Bartnica, which lies at 537 m above sea level)

All the objects mentioned skilfully connected steel and stone materials with each other. They belonged to the close European leaders at the time when it comes to the quality and technical sophistication of the solutions used.

List of stations currently operating on the route:

Wałbrzych Main-Jedlina Górna-Jedlina-Zdrój-Głuszyca-Głuszyca Górna-Bratnica-Świerki Dolne-Ludwikowice Kłodzkie-Zdrojowisko-Nowa Ruda Suburb-Nowa Ruda-Ścinawka Średnia-Gorzanów Kłodzki-Bierkowice-Kłodzko Main.
Cena biletu to ok. 5 EUR.