Four stories high – and shining in green colors. The many gables and oriels in the attic are eye-catching. In some of the simple, rectangular and evenly spaced windows, christmas decorations are lit up in mid-december. Sounds like the description of an average apartment building.
Watch out, train is coming: when cranking was still going on in oberlangenstadt
True, but it is only half the story of the house, which has not always been green. "They’ve repainted the old station in recent years", says rolf schierer, who has lived next door since 1996 and has been a hobby photographer of trains since the 1980s. "Otherwise, however, the house still looks from the outside as it did in the 1930s."
And so as at the time when its function changed. The railroad station in the market town became a residential building, whose apartments the railroad often rented out to its employees, especially in the early years.
New station smaller
Rudolf mayer explains the reason for the construction of the new, much smaller station a few meters next to the old one: "when the line was generally renovated in 1936, the new station was built closer to the railroad crossing in order to save on the barrier attendant", recalls mayer, who was a supervisor and dispatcher at kups from 1956 to 1967. "This then settled the supervisor with." today, cars drive through an underpass independently of the trains. Until 1999, things were different: the tram ran above ground and traffic between the center of the town and tuschnitz came to a standstill when a train arrived.
Steinbach station: starting point of the culemeyer trips
That took time, but was typical for the station, which only developed over time into the remote-controlled stop of today. Not only is the railroad crossing history, but the buildings are also being used in a different way: the "new" one train station is empty, former post office is home and office space. Where there used to be the depot with its own loading track, there is the local part of the electronic signal box. Rolf schierer: "everything that was available in kups was loaded here – especially the basket maker and the porcelain factory."
15 people in wage and bread
"Every day, up to five trolleys of stucco goods were received and shipped", rudolf mayer recalls. Up to 15 people were employed at the station – supervisors, train dispatchers, switchmen, etc. And kups was known to many railroad employees as a railroad station. This was the site of the region’s only mechanized unit signal box, which was often used for training purposes.
Experienced and apprentice railwaymen lived through an eventful history at the kups railroad station. In the 1930s, the frankenwaldbahn was electrified between hochstadt am main and probstzella and had its heyday. After the second world war, when democratic germany ended in ludwigsstadt, the line went downhill. It was rebuilt on one track. "A lot of material was brought to nurnberg for the reconstruction of the war damage", tells rolf schierer.
The frankenwaldbahn: a picture of history
Only in uberholbahnhofen as kups were more rails, which is why here not infrequently had to wait goodzuge. Only after the turnaround did the "gap closure program" bring a rethink – and the line got a second track again.
Good connection to the wide world
"We have restored the pre-war condition. The connection of the region has even been improved by the express train", says schierer with a view to the since 9. December valid new timetable.
So in kups there is no longer a used train station building, but a good connection to the wider world. "With the regional express you can now go directly to nurnberg for 22 euros and to leipzig for 28", says schierer. "The station is still important for a place that is one of the few in the county that is still growing."
Numbers& facts about the kups train station connection in kups stop after the timetable change on 9. December per day 23 regional express trains, going directly to leipzig or nurnberg.
Facilities on each of the two tracks there is a covered waiting house and covered bike parking. There are ten seats, six of them covered. There is no warm waiting place. The train station is barrier-free, if you come from the right side.
Parking there are 30 free parking spaces for commuters.