Hof Central Station - History

History

After the old Hof station north of the city centre was no longer able to handle the growth in traffic, the Bavarian and Saxon railway administrations built a common, large-scale, through station between 1874 and 1880 west of the city, which was both the boundary and border station between the Royal Bavarian State Railways (K.Bay.Sts.B.) and the Royal Saxon State Railways (K.Sächs.Sts.E.B.). The new Hauptbahnhof was connected to the city centre through the new Hof tramway system, which appeared in 1901. Today buses have replaced the trams. The station comprised two halves, each of which had all the necessary operating facilities (locomotive shed, coal bunkers, locomotive depot (Betriebswerk), storage sidings, etc.). The southern side belonged to the Royal Bavarian State Railways; the northern half to the Royal Saxon State Railways.

The station building was designed in 1856 by the architect, Georg Friedrich Seidel (1823–1895), for the Royal Bavarian State Railways and was, like the entire station, laid out perfectly symmetrically. The border between the two railway administrations ran exactly through the middle of the station building, along the axis of symmetry. In this building there was a magnificent royal waiting room (Königssaal).

The symmetry of the station was given up on the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The superfluous and duplicated buildings were knocked down over time or used for other purposes. Above the entrance on the station forecourt and in the main hall on the track side the royal coats of arms of Bavaria and Saxony are still to be found today. The royal waiting room has been fully preserved and restored. It belongs today to the station restaurant and is used for events and festivals.

Semaphore signals could still be seen in Hof Hauptbahnhof until 1974. On 22 September 1974 a new signal box went into service next to the station building. It was equipped with a modern relay interlocking system of the Siemens Sp Dr S 60 type with 2 train dispatchers (Fahrdienstleiter - Fdl Nord and Fdl Süd) and colour light signals. The signalling installations controlled from Hof include the Hauptbahnhof itself and the adjoining routes to Feilitzsch, Oberkotzau and Hof-Neuhof, as well as the stations of Hof-Neuhof and Oberkotzau (the latter only at night). The old signal box was largely knocked down. The old 'Signal Box 8' at the northern station approach (by the Kuhbogen bridge) is today the home of the Hof Model Railway Club (Modelleisenbahnhclubs MEC Hof).

Hof Hauptbahnhof is located between two bridges over the river Saale. To the south the Moschendorf bridge crosses the river between Oberkotzau and Hof in the district of Moschendorf; to the north the line switches from one side of the river to the other in the district of Unterkotzau at the Unterkotzau bridge between Hof and Feilitzsch.