Freital-Potschappel station

Freital-Potschappel S
Former interchange station
Entrance building from the street side
Location	Am Bahnhof 8, 01705, Freital, Saxony Germany
Coordinates	51°00′48″N 13°39′43″E / 51.013218°N 13.661839°E / 51.013218; 13.661839Coordinates: 51°00′48″N 13°39′43″E / 51.013218°N 13.661839°E / 51.013218; 13.661839
Line(s)	Dresden–Werdau (km 6.844) formerly Freital-Potschappel–Nossen (km 0.000) formerly Freital-Potschappel–Freital-Hainsberg (km 0.000)
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	1914
DS100 code	DPA
IBNR	8013445
Category	5
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	28 June 1855
Services
Preceding station   Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn   Following station Freital-Deuben toward Zwickau Hbf RB 30 Dresden-Plauen toward Dresden Hbf Preceding station   Dresden S-Bahn   Following station Freital-Deuben toward Freiberg (Sachs) S 3 Dresden-Plauen toward Dresden Hbf

Freital-Potschappel station is a station on the Dresden–Werdau railway in the district of Potschappel of the municipality of Freital in the German state of Saxony. From 1884 to 1972, the station was the starting point of the 750 mm gauge Freital-Potschappel–Nossen railway. Today, Freital-Potschappel serves in particular as an access point to line S3 of the Dresden S-Bahn.

Potschappel station was opened on 28 June 1855 with the inauguration of the two-track line of the Albertsbahn AG and now part of the Dresden–Werdau railway. The Albertsbahn (Albert’s Railway) was built with the aim of transporting hard coal mined in the Döhlen Basin (Döhlener Becken) to Dresden more quickly. Potschappel was an important location for the Saxon coal industry, so the opening of a railway station proved to be a good idea. A year later, on 1 December 1856, the Niederhermsdorfer Kohlezweigbahn (Niederhermsdorf coal branch railway) was opened to connect with the coal fields of the Königliche Steinkohlenwerk Zauckerode (Royal Zauckerode colliery). It branched off at Potschappel station in the area of the Dresden Porcelain factory (Sächsische Porzellanmanufaktur Dresden), crossed the street of Roßthalerstrasse (now Carl-Thieme-Strasse) and followed the course of Wiederitz to the village of Niederhermsdorf.

From 1856 to 1875, more than a million loads with 100 tons of coal each were handled in Potschappel. This meant that the 1860s the station was one of the most important stations for handling freight in Saxony. At the same time, the passenger traffic between Dresden and the growing industrial communities of the Döhlen Basin developed. In 1886, approximately 488,000 passengers were carried daily in 22 trains, and in 1897 twice as many trains each day handled over one million passengers.

In 1886, the Potschappel–Wilsdruff narrow-gauge railway was opened and provided further traffic. This line, which was extended to Nossen in 1889, was the first part of the system that developed into the Wilsdruff network (Wilsdruffer Netz). The narrow-gauge railway used the track bed of the Niederhermsdorf coal branch railway between Potschappel and Niederhermsdorf, a third rail only was inserted. The station infrastructure had already been expanded by the end of the 1870s.