The Celle–Wittingen Light Railway (german: Kleinbahn Celle–Wittingen) was founded on 21 June 1902 by the
Prussian state
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
, the town of
Celle and 33 municipalities. On 15 August 1904 it opened the 51 km long, standard gauge line from Celle Stadt (Nord) via
Beedenbostel and
Hankensbüttel to
Wittingen
Wittingen () is a town in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is about northeast of Gifhorn, and southeast of Uelzen.
Division of the town
Wittingen consists of 27 districts:
History
The earliest identified record of Wittin ...
West (now the
Celle–Wittingen railway). This line was also called the Lachte Valley Railway (''Lachtetalbahn'') because part of it ran along the river
Lachte
The Lachte is a right-hand tributary of the Aller in the Südheide Nature Park in the north German state of Lower Saxony.
Course
The Lachte rises in the northern part of the district of Gifhorn southwest of Sprakensehl. It flows initiall ...
. The journey time on the Celle–Wittingen line in 1906 was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. In 1908 the station at Wittingen West was moved to the east side of the state station in order to enable a common station to be created with the ''
Kleinbahn Wittingen-Oebisfelde'', opened in 1909, and the ''
Kleinbahn Bismark-Gardelegen-Wittingen'', later the ''
Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG''. The new route made the construction of embankments and a bridge over the state railway necessary.
From 22 July 1912 the 'Salt Railway' (''Salzbahn''), a 7 km long branch, ran from Beedenbostel in a northerly direction via Mariaglück to Habighorst, where potash and salt works had been established in two separate locations. But by 1924 Mariaglück had become the terminus for trains on the branch.
The Celle–Wittingen Light Railway had reached an agreement before 1914 to run operations jointly with the ''
Celle-Garßen-Bergen Light Railway''. From 1910 this company called itself the ''
Celle-Soltau, Celle-Munster Light Railway GmbH''.
On 8 November 1940 the Celle–Wittingen Light Railway became a public transport railway.
From 23 February 1940 it was renamed the Celle-Wittingen Railway (''Eisenbahn Celle-Wittingen AG''). On 27 March 1944 this firm took over the ''Kleinbahn Celle-Soltau, Celle-Munster GmbH'', with which it was already linked as part of the operating group of Celle Light Railways (''Celler Kleinbahnen'') and was renamed again into the Celle Railways (''Celler Eisenbahnen AG'').
On 10 July 1944 it was merged into the
East Hanoverian Railways (''Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen'' or ''OHE'') along with several other railway companies.
Sources
*Klaus-Peter Sebastian (Herausgeber): ''Die Geschichte der Kleinbahnen im Isenhagener Land; Der OHE-Bahnbetrieb im Landkreis Gifhorn''. Landkreis Gifhorn, Museumsverein Gifhorn e. V. und Heimatverein Brome e. V., Gifhorn 2001,
*Hans Wolfgang Rogl: ''Die Osthannoverschen Eisenbahnen''. alba-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Celle-Wittingen Light Railway
Defunct railway companies of Germany
Gifhorn (district)
Celle (district)
Wittingen