Around 3am on 11th September part of the Carola Bridge at Dresden collapsed blocking river traffic on the River Elbe. Fortunately nobody was injured. The bridge dates from 1971. It is thought that the steel within the concrete reinforcing the overall structure had started to corrode weakening the bridge.
This has left the paddle steamers Dresden, Leipzig and Pillnitz, together with the large all weather Grafin Cosel and August Der Starke unable to transit the bridge for their regular sailings to Castle Pillnitz and on into Saxon Switzerland.
However the paddle steamers Diesbar, Krippen, Kurort Rathen, Pirna and Stadt Wehlen were positioned upstream of the bridge at the time of its collapse and so, with the exception of Diesbar which is laid up for the winter, have continued to offer trips.
When I was there in the first week of October Pillnitz was rostered for the daily down river “wine country” run away from Dresden at 9.30am for Radebul, Meissen, Diesbar and Seusslitz due back at 6.15pm.
Kurort Rathen was scheduled for the daily down river run from Bad Schandau at 9.30am for Prossen, Konigstein, Kurort Rathen, Stadt Wehlen, Pirna and Pillnitz due back at 4.30pm.
For the up river trips from Dresden passengers are asked to meet at the company shop in Georg-Treu-Platz from where they are taken by coach to the landing stages numbers 17, 18 and 20 upstream of the bridge to join the paddle steamers.
Stadt Wehlen berthed at Number 17 pontoon close to the Albert Bridge.
That week Stadt Wehlen was rostered for two round trips to Castle Pillnitz leaving Dresden at 10am back 1.15pm and 2pm back 5.15pm.
Pirna was rostered for one round trip from Dresden to Pillnitz at 12 noon back 3.15pm and then a “City Cruise” from Dresden at 4pm back 5.30pm. The other “City Cruises at 11am, 1pm and 3pm were run by Krippen.
Here in the UK vessels are supposed to keep to the starboard hand and pass port side to port side or red to red on rivers. That is not the case on European waterways where a blue board signal is used if vessels wish to pass green to green instead. One vessel puts up its blue board with a flashing white light at its centre. If the other vessels agrees then it puts up its blue board, as in this pic, and they both pass green to green. This is a very useful system which takes account of different strengths of current in different parts of the river and also the fact that a vessel may wish to be on the “wrong” side of a river, for example, when berthing.
Stadt Wehlen’s two cylinder oscillating steam engine. The third connecting rod in the middle of the engine is for the air pump which is needed to produce a vacuum to suck used steam out from the low pressure cylinder on its way to the condenser.
Kuort Rathen’s port paddle wheel.
To add to their woes high river water levels after loads of rain in central Europe in September led to cancellation of all the services until the river went down again, As you can see in this pic there is not a lot of room under some of the bridges to squeeze a paddle steamer underneath even with her funnel lowered down.
Despite being 58.5m long and carrying 300 passengers Stadt Wehlen has a core crew of just three, a captain, deckhand and engineer plus catering crew to serve the biers, sausages, potato salads and so on. The captain does his own steering all the time including on and off the piers. In his control box here on the port bridge wing he has an electric telegraph for the engine movements. In the centre is a small tiller style jog switch for steering. The two banks of the buttons on the right are for controlling the bow thrust. The other buttons are for signal bells to the deckhand forrard or aft and the ship’s whistle.
Work is progressing on removing the collapsed bridge but as of 8th October there was still some way to go.
All sailings from Dresden are subject to change according to the river level and other circumstances so do check with the Saechsische-Dampfsiffahrt Company itself for the latest details: Home page – Sächsische Dampfschifffahrt (saechsische-dampfschifffahrt.de)
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years running on the River Dart. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for the second phase of the rebuild. You can read more about the rebuilds and how you can help if you can here.
John Megoran
