The Nieder Kostenz Viaduct: part of the Simmern-Kirchberg-Hermeskeil railway line - part 1
From here you have a wonderful view of the Kyrbachtal and the railway viaduct at Nieder Kostenz. The railway bridge is part of the Hunsrückquerbahn, which leads from Langenlohnsheim via Simmern and Kirchberg to Hermeskeil. The first plans to build a railway line across the Hunsrück already existed around the middle of the 19th century. Since there were doubts about the profitability of the railway, the project initially met with little approval from the government and municipalities. It was not until many years later that the railway line from Langenlohnsheim to Simmern was built and opened in 1889. The first step towards developing the Hunsrück by rail had been taken. In order to promote the continuation of the railway in the direction of Morbach and Hermeskeil, the Kirchberg city council passed a petition in October 1889. It took another seven years until the Prussian House of Representatives secured the financing of the railway line from Simmern to Kirchberg on June 3, 1896. The start of construction was delayed, however, as requests for changes were repeatedly made to the district government. In 1899, construction work began on the Kirchberg - Morbach railway line. The construction workers were mostly Slovaks and Dalmatians. They worked day and night shifts. Finally the time had come: the connection from Simmern to Kirchberg was completed in 1901 and from Kirchberg to Morbach in 1902. Almost a year later one could travel by train from Langenlonsheim via Simmern-Kirchberg-Morbach to Hermeskeil and from there to Trier or via the turquoise mill to Saarbrücken or to transport goods. Kirchberg's importance as a market place was quickly recognized. From October 1904 until the outbreak of World War I, a special train ran between Morbach and Kirchberg on market days. Source: Text information board