THE RAIL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN THE SOVIET ZONE OF GERMANY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500760016-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: February 20, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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over, the profiles are worn down to such an extent that loco-
motives with more than 20 tons of axle load cannot be used on any
of the rail stretches, In fact the road from Jueterbog to the
Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin= formerly one of the most traveled
roads in Germany, is now only a one--track road and can no longer
be used by heavy trains-
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
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COUNTRY : Germany (Soviet Zone)
SUBJECT : The Rail Transportation System
in the Soviet Zone of Germany
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF INFORMATION
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SET -,------------t
NO. OF PAGES 3
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
2.. A particularly thorny problem of rail deterioration is offered
by the Municipal Railroad of Berlin: This line,- which goes in
two large rings around the city and connects mcet of the suburbs
with the city, is electrified; The trains used by the municipal
system consist alternately of a motor car and a pulled car, in
an arrangement such that the first and last cars are always motor
cars, Through this arrangement the swinging rhythm of the trains
is approximately equal for .l1 cars and thereby wears down the
rails at a very fast rate If the last cars were pulled, the
rhythm of the swing would vary from car to car. The equal rhythm
S E C'J R I T lSERVTT 10 N --~-
FORM NO
. Sl-4F
OCT 1951
A very sericus situation has developed in the Soviet Zone
transportation system because of the shortage of rails. Since
the end of World War II, I never saw new rails on any road in
the Soviet Zone, although I did quite a bit of professional
traveling throughout the Zone. It 13 known that rails are
actually produced at Unterwelborn and Hennigsdorf; Germany, but
the production seems to go exclusively to the USSR. Furthermore,
the rails which used to make up the second track of the Soviet
Zone railroads have all been dismantled, so that there is no
longer any road with two tracks in the Soviet Zone except the
road from Jueterbog-?Halle-'Sallfeld to Erfurt. All of the roads
that I saw were single-tracked, When the second track for the
stretch between Jueterbog and Wittenberg was rebuilt,: after it
had been previously dismantled, it was made up of old rails
which were welded together.. The rail situation is so serious
that the rc-xds carrying heavy traffic can only be traveled at
an average speed of 15-20 miles per hour The rail foot is
weak and therefore the rails cannot carry any great weight. More-
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be,necessary ' re?&4 t opcnent of the steam is not properly
purified. A non-pin-I.f"i.ed? water will. form a salty sediment
on the inside of i-.he: tops. If the salty sediment begins
to line the top the top will become too hot and will
burst. It'. is necessary to treat the water
before it is used, a:a rez,,ove oxygen and carbon from the
water. The great e-r?:pe-c-t in the field of the purification
of toed water is 1r (fnu) aaj , who has e3caped to the
western Zone, )'inc .Fa,.a great gap in the Soviet Zone
economy.
(o) Connecting rods ;P-3d piston rods are frequently made of
poor quality steel and apt to break. They cannot be re-
paired because metals for their repair are unavailable.
The piston rings have poor gliding properties because of
the poor material from wig t .?h they are made, and due to
thg poor qua.liLy of the i.ubrricating oils. Piston rings
which are made of cast iron do not have the proper thrust.
The thrust shoulri. be f3:) k :/r:q tixith a friction of less
than 0.01. As a consequence of the poor metal and poor
lubricating oil, the thrust of the piston rings is
Done.iderably lower, at a higher friction rate.
#. In all railway stations one can see partly dismantled loco-
wAtivr e. Some of them are ,till standing rroin the time of the
war, but most of them have been ciis_naitled since 1945, to help
repair the locomotives which are ;still y n use. The station at
Merseburg, which is fairly large . has sev-.n locomotives left
whicrh are used for all plxr^poses. Compared t.. the war years,
the stations have an average of ore-third of their former stock
of locomotives. Some of the locomotives which had survived
the war were given to the Soo lets as a "gift'; others were
taken by the Soviets without any lornLal "presentations". These
locomotives have not been replacc.x. All trains are badly over-
crowdtd. This is not only true '?,f the re lar passenger trains
which shuttle every day betwwr,en Leuna and Meraeburng and Leuna
and Naua~burg. The regular arrangement in these trains is that
in one compartment eight people are seated and at least eight
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people are standing. To Illustrate the shortage of loco-
motives, it should be mentioned that if the local train from
Berlin arrives too late at Halle, the train bringing.-giotrk .8
to Leuna will z e late because the looomo~ive o"' the :3eina..-, .
train has to --.e held at Halle until the..Berlln-train-fan
arrived.
-the
_L order, to prevent Soviet Zone paseengere frog leaving-
East Zone trains in the Western Sector of Berlin, the Soviets
had a railway line built which avoids the Western Sector
completely. This detour line, the construction of which was
begun in the winter of 1950-51, originates at Ludwigetelde
c-md leaves the main line at Grossbeeren. It is a double-
track line which leads on to Grunau, where it meets the line
connecting Berlin with Silesia. I have never traveled this
line myself, but my son told me that the rails of the road
are old rails which have been welded together. He also -told me
that the sand embankments which were put up to carry the rails
were already weakened because the line was operated before the
sand in the embankment had time to settle. The bridge
constructions which span tho various rivers and water courses
of the new road are not new construction, but have been die-
amtartled from bridges which once aooomodated double-track runs
before the arrival of the Soviets. The dismantling of br-Age
25X1 spans the railway line from Leipzig to Corbetha.
In the vicinity of Duerrenberg small water courses which were
previously spanned by bridges are now running through culverts
which have been bored through the railroad embankment. This
situation will be dangerous if the water courses carry flood
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6. 1.tir t1'alns on thn tic t?r ietou line
around Be.:rlin 1-7r7. (7r77?ii io slow down in warn' pia.ceo, partl;;
because the c,ai th-wc 1 ;; h uF caved in, p,:3rt.iy bc.,% ;usr. the rails
are poorly pi'ord'.c.o . The loss of time ciuf L'erecl by these slow-
downs is so serious that a run from Na.untburk, to Berlin now takes
five hours, while it, used to take about 3.5 hours. The run from
Naumburg to the 03tbal-hnhnf, which used t,:) lake one hour, now
takes 2.5 hours. 'i'he t.ralnr3 used on this road are motor trains.
From my own experience on a line which runs from
Jutorbog to Konigsi/nar ter aa.uscn via ossen. The line is a single-
track road and the rail profiles are badly worn. Even a
25X1 relatively light train has to go at a reduced speed of approxi-
mately 20 miles per hour. the Soviet
25X1 Zone rail transportation system would not enable a Soviets to
launch an attack through the Soviet Zone of Germany,
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