The Bergerhammer junction

Quarry
At the beginning of the 20th century there were two small quarries at the southern end of Berge. In them, paving stones and stones for house building were extracted. In 1927, a company "vom Ende" took advantage of the location directly on the railroad line - today's bicycle path - by expanding the quarry to the north and having a siding built on the railroad line for shipping the stones.

In the following years there were several changes of ownership. Since 1974, the quarry has been operated by Basalt-Actien-Gesellschaft with headquarters in Linz / Rhine. The railroad connection was closed down in 1996.

Hammer mill
Since the end of the 18th century a hammer mill existed at this site. In the course of time, the plant was converted several times to different products such as paper, nails, rivets or piano strings. After the construction of the railroad in 1911, Mr. Adolf vom Braucke bought the site in 1913 and converted it into a wire drawing mill. A railway siding was built here shortly after. This and also the factory existed until 1977.

In 1978, the Severin company took over the buildings and operated a plastic injection molding plant in them. This in turn was sold in 2005 to the company HR Plast GmbH, which still manufactures there today.

^{Picture 1: In the foreground the siding of the ballast works, in the background the hammer/wire works (Photo: Heimatverein Berge)
Picture 2: A wagon of the "Deutsche Reichsbahn" stands in the siding of the hammer mill/wire works (Photo: Berge local history society)
Picture3: Quarry of the Basalt-Actien-Gesellschaft in Bergerhammer in 2011 (Photo: Archive Basalt AG)
Fig. 4: In the 1980s, the works locomotive shunts wagons for loading at the ballast works siding (Photo: Berge local history society)}