The Hesper Valley Railway (German: ''Hespertalbahn'') is a German heritage line running

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

services between Kupferdreh Old Station and Haus Scheppen on the Baldeneysee lake in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

As a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...

it linked opened up Erzgruben in 1867, and the Pörtingsiepen mine in 1877. The upgrading of part of the line to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

followed in 1918. In 1973 the line was closed. In June 1975 the Hesper Valley Railway Preservation Society (''Verein zur Erhaltung der Hespertalbahn'') saved the route and has since operated it as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

. The top speed on the line is 15 km/h. The Hesper Valley Railway is part of the ''

Route der Industriekultur The Industrial Heritage Trail (german: Route der Industriekultur) links tourist attractions related to the industrial heritage in the Ruhr area in Germany. It is a part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The series of routes were devel ...

'', route 12 (The Ruhr — past and present) and route 15 (Railways in the area).

Photographs

File:Hespertalbahn2006.JPG, Hespertalbahn with diesel loco, 2006 File:Endstation_Hespertalbahn.JPG, Haus Scheppen terminus, 2007

Location

* Prinz-Friedrich-Straße 1, 45257 Essen-Kupferdeh

External links

Hesper Valley Railway (German)

Sources

*Leitsch, Joachim: Die Hespertalbahn. Eine Zechenbahn im Wandel der Zeiten. In: Der Anschnitt 1–2 (1995), S. 44–54 *Leitsch, Joachim: Kohle, Kalk und Erze. Die Geschichte der Hespertalbahn. Hrg.: Verein zur Erhaltung der Hespertalbahn e.V. Essen 1993. *Leitsch, Joachim / Dirk, Hagedorn: Kohle, Kalk und Erze. Die Geschichte der Hespertalbahn. Hrg.: Hespertalbahn e.V. Essen 2008 (erweiterte Auflage) {{Heritage railways in Germany Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Heritage railways in Germany