Welver–Sterkrade railway
Encyclopedia
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Left column: chainage according to KWE
Right column: modern S-Bahn chainage
* Dortmund–Bochum
** Dortmund–Hagen
Elberfeld–Dortmund railway
The Elberfeld–Dortmund railway is a major German railway. It is part of a major axis for long distance and regional rail services between Wuppertal and Cologne, and is served by Intercity Express, InterCity, Regional Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains....
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The Welver–Sterkrade railway is a former through railway line from the Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
n town of Welver
Welver
Welver is a municipality in the district of Soest, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-History:The town was once known as Villinghausen or Vellinghausen. The Seven Year's War Battle of Villinghausen was fought nearby.-Geography:Welver is situated approx...
to Sterkrade
Oberhausen
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
in the western Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
region, which is now broken into four disconnected sections. Because its route ran along the Emscher
Emscher
The Emscher is a relatively small river and tributary of the Rhine, flowing through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its total length is 84km with an average discharge near the mouth into the lower Rhine of 16 m³/s .The Emscher has its source in Holzwickede, east of the...
river it was known as the Westphalian Emscher Valley Railway.
The sections from Unna-Königsborn to the former Dortmund South station and from Dortmund-Dorstfeld to Dortmund-Mengede is now an entirely two-track electrified railway and is served by the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (lines S 2 and S 4). There are two sections, each of only a few kilometres, in Gelsenkirchen and in Bottrop and Oberhausen, which have traditionally been used exclusively for freight.
History
The line was built by the Royal Westphalian Railway CompanyRoyal Westphalian Railway Company
The Royal Westphalian Railway , was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways...
to connect its network, which at that time mostly ran through northern and eastern Westphalia, to the Ruhr area in the west in order to serve the lucrative traffic from its coal mines and factories.
Welver–Dortmund
As early as 1847 the Cologne-Minden Railway CompanyCologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th century built the first railways in the Ruhr and large parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia.-Founding :The founding of the...
(Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) had opened the Dortmund-Hamm leg of its trunk line
Cologne-Minden trunk line
The Cologne-Minden trunk line is a railway built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company . The line is the westernmost part of the railway line from Berlin to the Rhine that was proposed by Friedrich List in his Concept for a railway network in Germany, published in 1833...
. To its south the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) opened the parallel Dortmund–Soest line in 1855.
The KWE built its own line from Welver on its Hamm–Warburg line between the two existing routes and on 15 May 1876 it opened the first section to Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
. The Westphalian station in Dortmund was next to the Rhenish station, built two years earlier by the Rhenish Railway Company
Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th century built the first railways in the Ruhr and large parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia.-Foundation :The...
(Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) at the end of its line along the Wupper from Düsseldorf and its line along the Ruhr from Osterath. After the nationalisation of the railway companies in the early 1880s, the KWE and RhE stations were amalgamated as Dortmund South Station, which was largely destroyed in 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...
and is now abandoned.
Dortmund–Mengede
On 19 November 1874, the RhE opened the last part of its Ruhr line from Dorstfeld for passengers. On 1 September 1878, the KWE opened a freight line, initially running parallel to the RhE line from the joint Dortmund station to Dorstfeld and then continuing via Huckarde KWE (renamed Dortmund-Huckarde Sud station in 1920) and Bodelschwingh KWE (later renamed Dortmund-Bodelschwingh and now demolished) to Mengede (now Dortmund-Mengede).The KWE built the connection to Mengede station, which had been built by the CME as part of the Duisburg–Dortmund section of its trunk line in 1848, as a branch line to connect with the CME network, adding to the connection already established at Hamm
Hamm
Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway...
.
Bodelschwingh–Sterkrade
A further extension was opened as follows:- Route "16": 20 August 1879 (freight) Bodelschwingh–Crange
(route shared with of the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company line—now route 2153—from Crange to Bismarck)
- Route 2246: 12 February 1879 (freight) Bismarck–Hugo
- Route 2246: 20 August 1879 (freight) Hugo–Horst Nord
- Route 2246: 12 November 1879 (freight) Horst Nord–Osterfeld KWE
- Route "18": 15 March 1880 (freight) Osterfeld KWE–Sterkrade KWE
Closures
Several sections of the line were closed shortly after the acquisition of the nominally private railway companies by the Prussian state railwaysPrussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
.
Bodelschwingh–Bismarck
The section in between Bodelschwingh and Crange was closed on 1 July 1882.The tracks between Castrop-Pöppinghausen and Herne initially continued to be used as a connection to the former Frederick the Great colliery, as well as a connection to the lines to the colliery’s no. 3, 4 and 6 pits and the line to no. 1 and 2 pits.
This section was not fully dismantled until 1892. In 1906, the branch canal of the Dortmund–Ems Canal was built on the route. The northern part of it is now part of the Rhine–Herne Canal, while the southern part has been filled in and its route was used for the construction of the A 42 autobahn
Bundesautobahn 42
is an autobahn in western Germany. It connects Kamp-Lintfort with Castrop-Rauxel, linking several large cities in the Ruhr area, such as Dortmund, Duisburg, the North of Essen and Gelsenkirchen. It is colloquially known as Emscherschnellweg, after the river Emscher, which it roughly follows...
.
Horst–Sterkrade
The section between Horst (Nord) and Sterkrade was closed on 15 October 1884 and completely dismantled by 1892.The Hamm-Osterfeld line was built on the section between Horst and Osterfeld from 1 October in 1901 and later put into operation. A section near Bottrop Hauptbahnhof was closed in 1968 and 1983 and partly sold, and the Bottrop freight yard was closed.
The route between the Oberhausen districts of Osterfeld and Sterkrade was along the Westfälischen Straße and the Richard-Wagner-Allee.
Welver–Königsborn
The eastern section from Welver to Königsborn was closed on 29 September 1968 and dismantled. Its western section was converted into a trail. A kindergarten was set up in the renovated entrance hall of Lenningsen station.Current situation
The sections between Unna-Königsborn and Dortmund South station and between Dortmund-Dorstfeld and Dortmund-Mengede, together with the RhE section between Dortmund South station and Dortmund-Dorstfeld were completely redeveloped in the 1990s for the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn.Today, line S 4 runs on the stretch from Unna-Königsborn to Dortmund Dorstfeld, and line S 2 on the stretch from Dortmund-Dorstfeld to Dortmund-Mengede. Both lines run every 20 minutes in normal hours.
The Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck–Hugo junction–Gelsenkirchen-Horst section is now a single-track non-electrified freight line and connects to the network of RBH Logistics GmbH (now part of DB Schenker Rail).
The section between Bottrop Hbf and Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd freight yard is now part of the Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd–Hamm line, a two-track electrified mainline freight railway.
Planning
According to the plans of the Arnsberg regionArnsberg (region)
Arnsberg is one of the five Regierungsbezirke of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the south-east of the country. It covers the Sauerland hills as well as the east part of the Ruhr area....
an S-Bahn station is to be built on the Dortmund–Hagen S-Bahn line
Elberfeld–Dortmund railway
The Elberfeld–Dortmund railway is a major German railway. It is part of a major axis for long distance and regional rail services between Wuppertal and Cologne, and is served by Intercity Express, InterCity, Regional Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains....
(line S 5) at Dortmund West to provide interchange with the existing S 4 station on the Welver–Sterkrade line.
Fares
Passenger transport on the sections that are still in operation sections are included in the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-RuhrVerkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr
The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr is the public transport association covering the area of the Rhine-Ruhr megalopolis in Germany...
("Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association", VRR).
External links
NRW rail archive of André Joost:Royal Westphalian Railway Company:
- [strecken/2112.htm Description of route 2112]: Welver ↔ Dortmund Süd
- [strecken/2136.htm Description of route 2136]: Dortmund Süd ↔ Dortmund-Bodelschwingh
- [strecken/2135.htm Description of route 2135]: Dortmund-Bodelschwingh ↔ Dortmund-Mengede
- [strecken/16.htm Description of former route 16]: (Dortmund-)Bodelschwingh ↔ (Gelsenkirchen-)Bismarck
- [strecken/2246.htm Description of route 2246]: Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck ↔ Oberhausen-Osterfeld
- [strecken/18.htm Description of former route 18]: (Oberhausen-)Osterfeld ↔ (Oberhausen-)Sterkrade
Rhenish Railway Company:
- [strecken/2126.htm Description of route 2126]: Dortmund Süd ↔ Dortmund-Dorstfeld
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn:
- [strecken/2191.htm Description of route 2191]: Dortmund-Dorstfeld ↔ Dortmund-Mengede
Other links: