Scherfede station is located in the

Warburg Warburg (; Westphalian: ''Warberich'' or ''Warborg'') is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is in Höxter distri ...

district of Rimbeck in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

. A busy locomotive workshop developed there up to the mid-20th century.

History

In 1872, the first locomotive ran on Hagen–

– Kassel line (

Upper Ruhr Valley Railway The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway (german: Obere Ruhrtalbahn) is a 138-kilometre-long, non-electrified line from Schwerte (Ruhr) station) through the Hochsauerland (high Sauerland) to Warburg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the m ...

) through Scherfede station. The Holzminden–Scherfede railway was opened four years later on 15 October 1876. Passenger traffic was abandoned on this line on 2 June 1984 and freight was abandoned on this line from Scherfede on 10 June 2001. The establishment of this line made Scherfede into a junction station, which led to the establishment of an independent railway workshop. West of the rollingstock depot, there was (until the closure of the workshop) a 17-road semicircular roundhouse furnished with workshop spaces. Before and during the Second World War, the importance of the station and the railway workshop rose. More than 100 trains ran on the east–west route each day and numerous trains were assembled in the station. Air raids during the war inflicted severe damage, while the roof of the roundhouse in the workshop was destroyed. On 22 February 1945, an air raid on Scherfede station completely destroyed a signal box and several buildings in the area were damaged by incendiary projectiles. Three people were killed. On 21 March 1945 there was another air raid. On 3 April 1945, the town and the station were occupied by American soldiers after the withdrawal of German troops. During the food shortage immediately after the war, the station was often used by urban women travelling to buy food (on ''Hamsterfahrten'', literally “hamster rides”) in the fertile ''Warburger Börde'' (the rolling country around

). The station, workshop and ''Bahnmeisterei'' (track maintenance supervisor’s office) included about 400 employees at this time. In subsequent years, its importance declined greatly. The workshop lost its independence and was operated from May 1950 for a short time as a branch of the Warburg workshop. Since the mid-1950s, the site has been privately operated. Roads 16 and 17 of the locomotive shed have remained, while the water tower was demolished in the early 1970s. The station building was demolished in 1983. There were two signal boxes at Scherfede station, which were taken into operation in 1915. The western signal box is no longer operational, but it is privately used, while the Eastern signal box is still operated. Scherfede station is not yet connected to an

electronic interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

Current operation

The

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

service between Hagen and Warburg/Kassel (RE 17: the ''

Sauerland-Express The Sauerland-Express (RE 17) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Hagen to Warburg (Westf). A few services run to or from Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. It is managed by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruh ...

'') stops in Scherfede. Buses also operate to

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* * {{cite web, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927050229/http://www.joergerkel.de/eisenbahn/holzminden-scherfede/ , access-date=8 August 2013 , language=de , url=http://www.joergerkel.de/eisenbahn/holzminden-scherfede/ , title=Die Eisenbahnstrecke Holzminden - Scherfede , postscript=(with numerous photos of Scherfede station) , archive-date=27 September 2007 Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1873 Buildings and structures in Höxter (district)