Düsseldorf–Elberfeld Railway on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway is a 27 km long main line railway in
The
The biggest challenge in the construction of the line was dealing with the climb between Erkrath and Hochdahl. The line has a gradient of 3.33% and rises 82 m in about 2.5 km. For more than one hundred years, this was the steepest main line in Europe. For many years trains had to be hauled by cable, originally driven by a stationary steam engine. A few months later haulage by cable attached to a stationary steam engine was changed to haulage by cable attached via pulleys to a locomotive running downhill on an additional track. With the duplication of the remainder of the line in 1865, the steep section of line became three-track, until the electrification of the line in 1963. The third track was rebuilt in 1985, as part of the additional third track built for the planned S-Bahn line. In 1926, cable haulage on the incline was replaced by
Between Gruiten junction and the
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, originally built by the Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company
The Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company (German: ''Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', DEE) was founded in October 1835 and officially recognised by a Prussian government statute on 23 September 1837. This gave the company a conces ...
, connecting Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
and Elberfeld (now Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
) via Erkrath
Erkrath () is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Erkrath is situated on the river Düssel, directly east of Düsseldorf and west of Wuppertal, close to the famous Neandertal. It has two stations, E ...
, Hochdahl and Vohwinkel. It is served by Regional Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban- suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble co ...
trains.
History
The Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway was built from 1838 to 1841 by the ''Düsseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Company'' (''Düsseldorf-Elberfelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', DEE), which had been established for this purpose. It was taken over by theBergisch-Märkische Railway Company
The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (german: Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), also referred to as the Berg-Mark Railway Company or, more rarely, as the Bergisch-Markische Railway Company, was a German railway company that togethe ...
(''Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', BME) in 1857 and a continuous second track was built by 1865.
Realignment of lines in Düsseldorf
The Düsseldorf Central Station
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
opened on 1 October 1891 replaced the three stations of the recently nationalised, formerly (nominally) private railway companies. The new line from the Düsseldorf station ran north along the existing route of the trunk line
In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each clie ...
of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
to Wehrhahn CME junction. It then swung east and followed the Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd line of the Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company (German language, German: ''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (BME) one of the railway companies that in the m ...
. East of the intersection with the Troisdorf–Mülheim-Speldorf freight line it rejoined it original route. The Düsseldorf Valley Railway separates at the same place and runs to the northeast.
Erkrath-Hochdahl incline
The biggest challenge in the construction of the line was dealing with the climb between Erkrath and Hochdahl. The line has a gradient of 3.33% and rises 82 m in about 2.5 km. For more than one hundred years, this was the steepest main line in Europe. For many years trains had to be hauled by cable, originally driven by a stationary steam engine. A few months later haulage by cable attached to a stationary steam engine was changed to haulage by cable attached via pulleys to a locomotive running downhill on an additional track. With the duplication of the remainder of the line in 1865, the steep section of line became three-track, until the electrification of the line in 1963. The third track was rebuilt in 1985, as part of the additional third track built for the planned S-Bahn line. In 1926, cable haulage on the incline was replaced by bank engine
A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a gradi ...
s.
Current situation
Between Gruiten junction and the Düsseldorf-Gerresheim station
Düsseldorf-Gerresheim station is a through station in the district of Gerresheim in the city of Düsseldorf in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station was opened along with the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway from Düsseldorf to ...
the long distance line is only single track. Regional Express lines RE 4 ''Wupper-Express
The Wupper-Express (RE 4) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) running from Aachen via Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Hagen to Dortmund. The service is operated every hour by DB Regio NRW. It ...
'' and RE 13 ''Maas-Wupper-Express
The Maas-Wupper-Express (RE 13) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from the Dutch border town of Venlo to Hamm in Westphalia.
Route
Together with the Wupper-Express (RE 4) and Rhine-Ruhr S ...
'' run on this line, stopping only at Düsseldorf, Vohwinkel and Wuppertal. S-Bahn line S 8 services runs on the parallel two-track S-Bahn line.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dusseldorf-Elberfeld Railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway lines opened in 1838 1838 establishments in Prussia Buildings and structures in Wuppertal Buildings and structures in Mettmann (district) Transport in Düsseldorf