The signal box 'Kf' (Kreuztal Fahrdienstleiter) is located on the Ruhr-Sieg line in the Altena-Siegen section, which was opened in 1861. Commissioned on October 14, 1923 as an electromechanical command and dispatcher signal box, it served as a replacement for an older mechanical signal box. It was built as a bridge-like signal box in a conventional design.
The service manager's floor, which overhangs to the track side, is richly windowed (windows renewed) and half-timbered, resting laterally on massive, two-storey saddle structures. The roof, consisting of two parts, is covered with slate. The track-facing side of the eastern base building, which houses the staircase, is clad in ashlar masonry. A small, single-storey building adjoins the western base building to the south.
The electromechanical operating system of the signal box with 72 changeover devices has been preserved. The electromechanically operated horse-drawn signal box in Kreuztal in question here is a particularly vivid document of this development, which began at the turn of the century and took place at a time when the standardization of the mechanical signal box, which was not even realized until 1901, had not yet been completed.
In Westfalen, electromechanical signal boxes did not become widespread until after the First World War. In our region, the horse-drawn signal box is a type of construction that can be found particularly in the 1920s/30s. The architectural design of the power and mechanical signal boxes corresponded to the style of the time. In the 1920s, for example, you can still find largely traditional designs in the Heimatstil. The 'Kf' signal box in Kreuztal is also a good example of this. The building also bears witness to the development of the town of Kreuztal and the Siegerland region in terms of transport and economic history.
The opening of the Ruhr-Sieg Railway and thus the connection of the Siegerland mining district with the coal reserves of the Ruhrgebiet ushered in a new phase in the economic history of the Siegerland. Date of entry in the monument list 03.03.1998. The monument value justification was provided by the UDB Kreuztal (author: Imme Wittkamp, LWL Amt für Denkmalpflege).
Literature: Werner Herling, Eisenbahnen im nördlichen Siegerland, Kreuztal 1978 / Festschrift 150 Jahre Bahnhof Kreuztal, Stadt Kreuztal
Old pictures of Kreuztal station:http://bahnhof-kreuztal-gleis-3.npage.de/galerie185193.html
Photo: LWL Office for the Preservation of Monuments