Keilbahnhof

Keilbahnhof (plural: Keilbahnhöfe, literally: "wedge station") is the German word for a station located between branching tracks.[1] There appears to be no direct English equivalent for this term, which appears in the route diagrams of German railway lines. In a keilbahnhof, the platforms curve in opposite directions so that they are parallel at one end of the station & not at the other.

Keilbahnhof in Figeac, department of Lot

Definitions

Diagram of a Keilbahnhof

A Keilbahnhof is a type of junction station whose tracks usually diverged before passing the platforms, the station building being located between the tracks.[2] The through tracks thus pass by on either side without rejoining one another again, in contrast to an island station, in which the tracks merge again after passing either side of the station building. There are also Keilbahnhof stations whose through tracks diverge in the area of the platforms, but never after them. The y-shaped Keilbahnhof is not suited for splitting trains into separate rakes with different destinations.[3]

Examples in Germany

• Altshausen station on the Herbertingen–Aulendorf and Altshausen–Schwackenreute railways
• Berga-Kelbra station on the Halle–Hann. Münden railway
• Döbeln Hauptbahnhof on the Riesa–Chemnitz and Borsdorf–Coswig railways
• Elsterwerda-Biehla station on the Węgliniec–Roßlau railway
• Hagenow Land station on the Berlin-Hamburg and Hagenow Land–Schwerin railways
• Nordstemmen, Northeim (Han) and Kreiensen stations on the Hanoverian Southern Railway
• Wittenberge station on the Berlin–Hamburg Railway
• Zwickau Hauptbahnhof on the Dresden–Werdau and Schwarzenberg–Zwickau railways

Examples elsewhere

• Kidsgrove railway station on the Stafford–Manchester and Crewe to Derby lines
• Helsby railway station on the Chester to Manchester and Ellesmere Port to Warrington lines
• Lewes railway station
• Sargans railway station on the Chur-Rorschach and Ziegelbrücke–Sargans lines
• Clybourn station on the UP North and UP Northwest lines.

References

1. Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter, 1989. ISBN 3-87097-145-2.
2. Lexikon der Eisenbahn (in German) (5. ed.), Berlin: Transpress VEB Verlag, 1978, pp. 732–733, Stichwort Trennungsbahnhof
3. Yves Marclay (March 2018), "Halbstundentakt auf der Strecke Martigny – Le Châble / Orsières", Schweizer Eisenbahn-Revue (in German), Minirex (3), pp. 162–164, ISSN 1022-7113