Murr Railway
Encyclopedia
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
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The Murr Railway is a major railway in the German state of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
and the shortest rail link between Stuttgart
Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of the city of Stuttgart, the capital of the Land of Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is the largest regional and long-distance railway station in Stuttgart, the main node of the Stuttgart S-Bahn network, and, together with the halt at Charlottenplatz, the main...
and Nuremberg
Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof
Nuremberg Central Station is the main railway station for the city of Nuremberg in Germany. It is the largest station in north Bavaria and belongs to the 20 stations in the highest category of importance allocated by DB Station&Service....
.
It starts at Waiblingen
Waiblingen station
Waiblingen station is a railway station in the city pf Waiblingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The station is located at the junction of the Rems Railway and the Murr Railway .-The first station building :...
and runs between Backnang
Backnang
Backnang is a town in Germany in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, roughly 30 kilometers northeast of Stuttgart. Its population has increased greatly over the past century, from 7,650 in 1900 to 35,761 in 2005....
and Fornsbach through the upper valley of the Murr. The Backnang–Ludwigsburg railway, known as the Kleine Murrbahn ("Little Murr Railway"), runs through the lower part of the Murr valley. The Murr Railway continues to Gaildorf
Gaildorf
Gaildorf is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Kocher, 13 km south of Schwäbisch Hall.-People:* Stefan Everts* Hermann Frasch...
on the Rot
Rot (Kocher)
Rot is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany....
river, then to Schwäbisch Hall
Schwäbisch Hall
Schwäbisch Hall is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and capital of the district of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is located in the valley of the river Kocher in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg....
on the Kocher
Kocher
The Kocher is a 168 km long right tributary of the Neckar in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name "Kocher" originates from its Celtic name "cochan" and probably means winding, meandering river. The Kocher rises in the eastern foothills of the Swabian Alb from two karst...
. There it connects with the Hohenlohe Railway
Hohenlohe Railway
The Hohenlohe Railway is a double-tracked, main line railway in southwest Germany that runs from Heilbronn, crossing the Hohenlohe region.-History:...
from Crailsheim
Crailsheim
Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, 32 km east of Schwäbisch Hall, 40 km southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district, incorporated in 1338....
to Heilbronn
Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof
is the main passenger station in Heilbronn in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.-Description :The station is located about 1 km west of the inner city of Heilbronn and the Old Neckar on a 1 km wide island between the old Neckar and the modern canalised Neckar. Southwest of the modern...
.
The first section of the Murr Railway to Backnang is integrated with the Stuttgart S-Bahn
Stuttgart S-Bahn
The Stuttgart S-Bahn is a suburban railway system serving the Stuttgart Region, an agglomeration of around 2.6 million people, consisting of the city of Stuttgart and the adjacent districts of Esslingen, Böblingen, Ludwigsburg and Rems-Murr. It consists of seven lines numbered S1 through S6 and...
as line S3. The section to Backnang is double track and the remaining line to Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental is single track.
History
The Royal Württemberg State Railways
Royal Württemberg State Railways
The Royal Württemberg State Railways were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg between 1843 and 1920...
built the Murr Valley Railway (Murrtalbahn) and the Gäu Railway (Gäubahn) from Stuttgart to Freudenstadt
Freudenstadt
Freudenstadt is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is capital of the district Freudenstadt. The closest population centres are Offenburg to the west and Tübingen to the east ....
simultaneously, creating a diagonal line through Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. Construction supervisor (Oberbaurat) Carl Julius Abel was responsible for planning and construction of the line. With it, the existing routes between Nuremberg and Stuttgart via Aalen
Aalen
Aalen is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district, and its largest city, as well as the largest city within the Ostwürttemberg region. In spatial planning, Aalen is designated a Mittelzentrum...
or Heilbronn
Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....
were shortened.
On 26 October 1876, the Waiblingen–Backnang section was opened, followed by the section Backnang–Murrhardt section on 11 April 1878 and the Hessental–Gaildorf section on 1 December 1879. On 15 May 1880, the gap between Murrhardt and Gaildorf was closed, which required the construction of two tunnels.
The original station in Waiblingen on the Murr line was closed and replaced by one just to the west as a junction station. The chosen route had a disadvantage for the city of Schwäbisch Hall, since the connection for the line between Stuttgart and Nuremberg had to be made at Hessental, now a suburb of Schwäbisch Hall, on the Hessental–Crailsheim section of the Hohenlohe Railway (then called the Kocherbahn), which opened in 1867. The majority of trains running from Crailsheim to Hessental proceed to Backnang and Stuttgart, missing the lower part of the Hohenlohe line through Schwäbisch Hall.
A branch line was built from Backnang via Marbach to Bietigheim in 1879 in order to provide a bypass of the Stuttgart node for long-distance transport. It is sometimes called the Little Murr Railway (Kleine Murrbahn).
The line was single track and after the First World War France prohibited its duplication for strategic reasons under the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. On the Rems Railway
Rems Railway
The Rems Railway , also known as the Rems Valley Railway was historically the main line route from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt via Aalen to Nördlingen. Today the designation Rems Railway only refers to the section from Stuttgart to Aalen, the Aalen–Nördlingen line becoming part of the Ries Railway...
, in contrast, the line had been duplicated by 1910 to Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd station
Schwäbisch Gmünd station was opened in 1861 and is located northwest of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is on the Rems Railway and is a stop for InterCity trains.-History :...
. In 1926, its duplication was completed to Aalen
Aalen station
Aalen station is a junction on the Rems Railway from Stuttgart, the Brenz Railway from Ulm, the Upper Jagst Railway to Crailsheim and Ries Railway to Donauwörth...
and Goldshöfe
Goldshöfe station
Goldshöfe station is a station in the German state of Baden-Württemberg at the junction of the Aalen–Crailsheim line and the Aalen–Nördlingen line . In addition to its function as a junction station it also serves the towns of Hüttlingen and Buch in the municipality of Rainau, both about two...
.
Trains on the Murr line were mainly hauled after the First World War, with the establishment of Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
, until 1975, by the famous Prussian P 8
Prussian P 8
The Prussian Class P 8 steam locomotive of the Prussian state railways was built from 1906 onwards by the Berliner Maschinenbau and the Linke-Hofmann factory in Breslau by Robert Garbe...
locomotives, which had replaced the Royal Württemberg State Railways’s class 38 locomotives.
On 22 December 1934 there was a major accident caused by a signally error between Murrhardt and Sulzbach on the ridge at Schleißweiler. Two trains collided on the single track and ten people died.
In 1937 the Flying Stuttgart (Fliegende Stuttgarter), which was similar to the Flying Hamburger
DRG Class SVT 877
The DRG Class SVT 877 Hamburg Flyer – sometimes also Flying Hamburger or in German Fliegender Hamburger – was Germany's first fast diesel train, and is credited with establishing the fastest regular railway connection in the world in its time...
, ran on the line.
At the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
intended to blow up the Schanz Tunnel between Fornsbach and Fichtenberg. This plan was prevented just before its execution, however, by the courageous intervention of the mayor of Gaildorf
Gaildorf
Gaildorf is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Kocher, 13 km south of Schwäbisch Hall.-People:* Stefan Everts* Hermann Frasch...
, who feared the economic isolation of his region.
The Waiblingen–Backnang section was electrified and duplicated from 1962 to 1965. This included the duplication of the viaduct over the Rems. A new two-way tunnel was built next to the old single-track Schwaikheim Tunnel. This was lined completely with concrete rather than brick and was the first tunnel in Germany to be built this way. At first electrification only benefited local trains, which were mainly operated as push-pull train
Push-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
s, hauled by class 141 locomotives
DB Class E 41
The Baureihe E 41 is the first class of German Einheits-Elektrolokomotive commissioned by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1956.-Development and first years of service:...
. Long-distance trains and most express trains to Stuttgart continued to be hauled by steam and later diesel locomotives, since a change of locomotive in Backnang would have largely negated any saving in travel time.
In 1976 the era of steam ended on the line and diesel locomotives were used, with class 211/212
DB Class V 100
These DB Class V 100 diesel locomotives were produced in the late 1950s by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for non-electrified branch lines as a replacement for steam locomotives...
hauling regional services. In the case of long distance services, class 220
DB class V 200
DB Class V 200.0 was one of the first diesel-hydraulic express locomotives of the German Deutsche Bundesbahn and - as Am 4/4 - of the SBB-CFF-FFS in Switzerland.-DB Service:...
were used initially. Later trains were hauled by class 215
DB Class 215
The DB Class 215 is a 4 axle diesel locomotive of the V 160 type. They were built for the German Federal Railways for passenger and freight service on secondary and primary routes, and later passed to the Deutsche Bahn AG....
and 218
DB Class 218
The DB Class 218 are a class of 4 axle, diesel hydraulic locomotives acquired by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for use on main and secondary lines for both passenger and freight trains....
locomotives, the latter sometimes using double header operation
Multiple-unit train control
Multiple-unit train control, sometimes abbreviated to multiple-unit or MU, is a method of simultaneously controlling all the traction equipment in a train from a single location, whether it is a Multiple unit comprising a number of self-powered passenger cars or a set of locomotives.A set of...
before long trains.
In the 1970s, various restoration measures began to be carried out on the Murr line, as on other German lines. Sidings for freight were built at several stations on the section between Backnang and Crailsheim. At the same time regional services were thinned out, so that it was served almost exclusively by express trains. With the electrification of the line from Goldshöfe via Crailsheim to Ansbach
Ansbach
Ansbach, originally Onolzbach, is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is situated southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the Fränkische Rezat, a tributary of the Main river. As of 2004, its population was 40,723.Ansbach...
in 1985, the Murr line also lost all of its long-distance services, which now ran via the longer Rems line via Aalen.
In the autumn of 1981, Stuttgart S-Bahn services on line S3 began between Backnang and Stuttgart. This was accompanied by the introduction of a regular interval service to Backnang and extra services.
In 1996, the Marbach–Backnang line, the Backnang–Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental section of the Murr line and the Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental–Crailsheim section of the Hohenlohe line were electrified. Subsequently, all platforms at Fornsbach station were renovated. Since the upgrading of the line for regional services, long-distance services occasionally operate on the line.
Upgrades
In 2004, Deutsche BahnDeutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
announced that there would be further upgrading of the line with an additional track on the Oppenweiler–Sulzbach section, a section of double track at Fornsbach and the upgrading of signalling. This would have shortened the travel time between Schwäbisch Hall and Stuttgart by 10 minutes (especially by eliminating waiting time in Murrhardt). As a result of the reduction in funding for regional rail services in response to the Koch
Roland Koch
Roland Koch is a German jurist and former conservative politician. He was Minister-President of Hesse from April 7, 1999, immediately becoming President of the Bundesrat, completing the term begun by his predecessor as Minister President, Hans Eichel, until his resignation on August 31, 2010...
-Steinbrück
Peer Steinbrück
Peer Steinbrück is a German social democratic politician. From 2005 to 2009 he served as German Federal Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.- Early political career, Minister President :...
Report, the proposed upgrade between Oppenweiler and Sulzbach was withdrawn at the end of 2004.
The Verband Region Stuttgart, which coordinates public transport investment in the Stuttgart regions, is examining the idea of extending S-Bahn operations to Murrhardt
Murrhardt
Murrhardt is a town in the Rems-Murr district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located 12 km east of Backnang, and 18 km southwest of Schwäbisch Hall. The source of the Murr is situated in Murrhardt....
. This proposal is in competition with a proposal to improve Regional-Express and Regionalbahn
RegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
services on this route.
The upgrade at Fornsbach station to improve passing opportunity involves a shift in the location of the platform 120 m closer to the town, two new platforms outside the tracks with an underpass and the installation of a passing track. The aim is that the single track line from Backnang to Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental with passing places at Murrhardt and Fornsbach would save about 10 minutes of waiting time and allow a coordinated timetable. The hearing procedures for the planning approval has been completed and construction of the €12 million project should begin in the summer of 2011. Commissioning of the project is expected in 2012.
Structures
- Rems Viaduct at Neustadt
- Schwaikheim Tunnel at SchwaikheimSchwaikheimSchwaikheim is a town in the district of Rems-Murr in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
: built for the duplication and the electrification of the Waiblingen–Backnang section for the S-Bahn, replacing a single-track tunnel. It was built between 1963 to 1964 and was the first application of the New Austrian Tunnelling methodNew Austrian Tunnelling methodThe New Austrian Tunnelling method was developed between 1957 and 1965 in Austria. It was given its name in Salzburg in 1962 to distinguish it from old Austrian tunnelling approach. The main contributors to the development of NATM were Ladislaus von Rabcewicz, Leopold Müller and Franz Pacher...
on a railway in Germany. The old tunnel still exists and is walled up. - Viaduct over the Weißach in Backnang
- Schanz Tunnel at FichtenbergFichtenberg (Württemberg)Fichtenberg is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
, 860 m long. The Schanz tunnel was the third longest tunnel in the network of the Royal Württemberg State Railways after the Hochdorf Tunnel on the Nagold Valley RailwayNagold Valley RailwayThe Nagold Valley Railway is a railway line in the northern part of the Black Forest in Germany which links Pforzheim with Horb am Neckar and, for most of its route, follows the valley of the River Nagold....
and the Weinberg Tunnel on the Hohenlohe RailwayHohenlohe RailwayThe Hohenlohe Railway is a double-tracked, main line railway in southwest Germany that runs from Heilbronn, crossing the Hohenlohe region.-History:...
. Because the inside of the mountain is composed of GipskeuperKeuperThe Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolostone, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Late Triassic epochs...
rock containing anhydriteAnhydriteAnhydrite is a mineral – anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium and strontium sulfates, as might be expected from the...
, which swells strongly when in contact with water, the tunnel floor has lifted by about four metres. - Kappelesberg Tunnel at Gaildorf
- Viaduct over the Bühler at VellbergVellbergVellberg is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located 10 km east of Schwäbisch Hall, and 15 km southwest of Crailsheim....
Operations
The following types of rail services currently operate on the Murr Railway on working days:- S-BahnStuttgart S-BahnThe Stuttgart S-Bahn is a suburban railway system serving the Stuttgart Region, an agglomeration of around 2.6 million people, consisting of the city of Stuttgart and the adjacent districts of Esslingen, Böblingen, Ludwigsburg and Rems-Murr. It consists of seven lines numbered S1 through S6 and...
services on line S3 from Stuttgart AirportStuttgart Flughafen/Messe stationStuttgart Flughafen/Messe station is a station on the network of the Stuttgart S-Bahn. Despite its name the station is not in the city of Stuttgart, rather it is in Leinfelden-Echterdingen.-History :...
via Stuttgart and Waiblingen to Backnang - hourly Regional-Express (RE) services from Stuttgart to Backnang, stopping only at Bad Cannstatt, Waiblingen and Winnenden. Their final destination alternates between Hessental or Nuremberg via Crailsheim.
- a pair of Interregio-ExpressInterregio-ExpressThe Interregio-Express is a local public transport railway service operated by the Deutsche Bahn which is only available in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin as well as in Switzerland...
(IRE) services between Stuttgart and Crailsheim via Backnang
The IRE and RE services use Silberling
Silberling
Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 7,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981...
carriages, exclusively of the oldest build.
On the weekend Regionalbahn
RegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
traffic between Backnang and Schwäbisch Hall is operated with class ET 425
DBAG Class 425
The Classes 425 and 426 EMUs are a class of electric multiple units built by a consortium of Siemens, Bombardier and DWA and operated by DB Regio in Germany...
electrical multiple units.
On 9 December 2006 the last long-distance train ran on the Murr line (with the exception of diverted traffic): an express from Nuremberg to Stuttgart (with coaches from Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
).