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peat railway

peat railway

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peat railway

Recommended by 42 cyclists out of 50

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Location: Bösel, Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

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Top cycling routes to peat railway

4.8

(50)

166

riders

1. Kleinbahn Trail Edewecht loop from Garrel

52.4km

03:01

60m

Moderate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

4.7

(22)

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2. Kleinbahn Trail Edewecht loop from Edewecht

52.9km

03:10

60m

Moderate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

4.5

(26)

riders

3. Rest area by the horse pasture – Weather shelter loop from Bad Zwischenahn

49.1km

02:49

70m

Moderate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels.

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Moderate

Tips

Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

From May 1942, during the Second World War, Vehnemoor GmbH also employed Soviet Russian "civilian workers". The management criticized the Nazi authorities for the fact that this civilian work “in its bad shape and inadequate food” was unsuitable for the heavy piecework. In view of this situation, the peat company commented, "it makes more sense to deploy a smaller number of civil Russians in Germany and then to feed them better". As a result of this objection, the food allocation at the plant was increased in October 1942. [5] After the war, the production of horticultural growing media increasingly took the place of burning peat. In 1991 the rail connection was shut down due to insufficient profitability, the peat products are now transported by truck or ship. In 1990 Vehnemoor GmbH merged with Deilmann and has been run by Klasmann-Deilmann GmbH ever since.

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Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

Natural location

The more than 1600 ha large Vehnemoor is the eastern foothills of the Hunte-Leda Moor lowland. This lowland, which runs in an east-west direction, separates the East Frisian-Oldenburg Geest from the Hümling and Cloppenburger Geest thresholds over a length of about 60 km and a width of up to 25 km. Naturally, the Vehnemoor is surrounded in a semicircle in the south-west, south and east by the Esterweger Geest islands, the Garreler Talsandplatten, the Wardenburg Land and the Oldenburg Geestsspur. In the north, the high Esch hill divides the Edewecht Geest. To the east, the Geestinsel of Jeddeloh I and the Wildenlohsmoor form the border, to the west the Vehnemoor merges into the Lange Moor and the Fintlandsmoor. The Vehne, which flows through the moor from south to north, gives it its name. The area was drained via this small moor river until the middle of the 19th century

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Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

Creationedit

The large moorland areas of northwest Germany emerged in the warm periods of the Holocene. When the ice masses of the Elster and Saale Ice Ages melted, a ground moraine was formed, the relief of which was leveled and sunk by crawling in the ground. The sediment carried along made of clay, gravel and mainly fine and occasionally medium sand now forms the mineral subsoil of the Vehnemoor. From these sandy substrates, pronounced eroded soils with a water-retaining compaction horizon in the subsoil (podsoles) formed. When the temperature rose about 8000 years ago and a more humid oceanic climate set in, large-scale growth of peat moss began in the podsolized, permanently moist areas of the depression. Their dead vegetation remains formed the organic soils of the natural area "Hunte-Leda-Moorniederung" over the next millennia. Today the Vehnemoor is humid to wet, locally fresh and mostly drained

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Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

Directly on the Hunte-Ems Canal (today: Coastal Canal) was the 1,650 ha Vehnemoor moorland owned by Friedrich von Essern. In 1916 von Essern sold his agriculturally used moor land, including residential and farm buildings, equipment and livestock. The buyer was Georg Klasmann junior, who recognized the potential of the moorland for peat extraction and acquired the Vehnemoor estate for 670,000 marks. For a short time, the peat producer Friedrich Graf von Landsberg-Velen bought the moor estate with 250,000 marks.
On June 21, 1916, the two shareholders founded Vehnemoor GmbH, based in Oldenburg. The construction of a peat factory was planned, but this was initially not possible during the First World War due to a lack of material and labor. Instead, by the end of the war, the existing agriculture was initially only expanded from 20 to 105 hectares.

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Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

After the end of the First World War, the company headquarters moved to Edewechterdamm-Bösel under Managing Director Klasmann in 1919. The construction of the peat plant could now begin. The first bales of peat left the newly built plant on November 10, 1921. For the time being, the white peat was cut off by hand. However, the future should belong to mechanical potting, as Klasmann explained in 1921: “Preparations are being made to start digging peat. A peat litter factory for 40,000 tons of annual pipeline is also under construction. 30 hectares are to be pitted annually. You will have to reckon with a capital outlay of 5 million marks for the company. ”Mechanical dismantling with two Wielandt excavators began as early as 1922 after a high-voltage line had been completed.

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Alwin R 🚲

May 17, 2021

The ability to transport bulk goods to supraregional markets was important for economic success. Therefore, as one of the first measures in 1920, the plant was connected to the Bad Zwischenahn – Edewechterdamm small railway. In addition, the convenient location on the Hunte-Ems Canal made it possible to transport ships to Bremen's overseas port, which quickly made Vehnemoor GmbH an important export company. Peat from the Vehnemoor was transported to the Canary Islands and the USA.
The economic success soon attracted many workers from Thuringia and Saxony who were looking for work at Vehnemoor GmbH as a result of the economic crisis in the early 1920s. Barracks were built as accommodation for new seasonal workers. For the permanent staff, peat masters and craftsmen, a three-story "workers' home", which still exists today, was built in 1924, in which 75 people could be accommodated. In 1930 almost 450,000 bales of peat were exported annually. [3]

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Alwin R 🚲

April 19, 2021

It is worth cycling through Vehnemoor

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Holger Wemken

June 22, 2021

This is still peat mining of the old days in real life. When you look at the alignment of the tracks, you are amazed that everything always goes well. :-)

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Rolli

May 17, 2020

The old rails of the peat train exude a special flair here

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Melanie

October 4, 2024

Perfect for a break

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Sunday 16 November

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See rides here

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Location: Bösel, Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

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peat railway

1. Kleinbahn Trail Edewecht loop from Garrel

2. Kleinbahn Trail Edewecht loop from Edewecht

3. Rest area by the horse pasture – Weather shelter loop from Bad Zwischenahn

Other Popular Places to Check Out

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