The Eisenbahn und Häfen GmbH (''literal'' "Railway and Port company Ltd.") (''abbr.'' : EH) is a service company providing rail transportation and associated storage as well as operating the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

ports of Schwelgern and Walsum-Süd. The company is owned by

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg a ...

and has its headquarters in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

Background - operations

Employing approximately 1,300 employees with around 100 million tons of freight is moved per yearFigures are from around 2006/7 i.e. before the

Financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

and its subsequent effects (~70 million tonnes by rail and ~25 million tonnes of bulk goods handled by the port), the company is responsible for both railway and port operations, management and maintenance.

Railways

With over 90 locomotives and about 2,000 freight cars Eisenbahn und Häfen GmbH operates in the Ruhr area providing rail transportation to its parent Thyssen Krupp as well as other industrial companies including Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann GmbH, Mannesmannröhren-Werke GmbH, Mittal Steel Ruhrort GmbH and TSTG Schienen Technik GmbH & Co. KG. The primary cargos are steel, coke, iron ore and other steel products such as steel slab and coil. Within the Ruhr area the network is over 500 km in length, with over a thousand

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

. As well as fully operating the railway the company carries out infrastructure maintenance and inspection. Within individual sites the company uses mainly shunting locomotives such as Krauss-Maffei Class MH 05 (522 kW power). The company also has higher powered MaK G 1205 (1,119 kW) and MaK G 1206 (1,500 kW) locomotives which are certified for use on Deutsche Bahn AG lines. Other services include the operation of private sidings, rolling stock maintenance, time-sensitive operations and, in association with other freight companies, supra-regional transportation. As part of the services offered EH implements various systems including centrally operated signalling and switches, central radio communications and control, and time-sensitive logistics planning. EH locomotives and some wagons carry a livery of primary yellow and red with blue numbering.

EH Güterverkehr GmbH

''EH Güterverkehr GmbH'' (''literally'' "EH freight", aka ''EHG'') is a subsidiary company operating as a private rail company on open access lines - in 2006 it transported approximately 7 million tons.

Ports

Together the ports help serve the inward and outward flows of material related to the steel industry the organisation primarily serves. Both ports stock control systems are computerised.

Schelwegern port

The main cargo is imported iron ore and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

brought from overseas via

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

and the Rhine. The iron ore and coal is transported in unpowered barges and unloaded by

Gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

s onto conveyor belts leading the coking plant at Duisburg via grinding and/or sizing equipment in the case of coal, and to blending equipment or storage in the case of iron ore, both ultimately destined for the steel furnaces of Thyssen Krupp. The unloading systems are monitored, assisted, or controlled by computer, with the bulk flows monitored on an IT system. Additionally there are loading facilities for granulated blast furnace slag. A total ~22million tonnes of material is handled by the port.

Walsum port

Walsum port handles steel products such as rolled steel. In an area of 260,000m² there are covered loading sheds for rain sensitive materials, as well as outdoor storage areas and access directly to the banks of the Rhine where two 26tonne cranes operate. Both facilities can be accessed by rail links. Approximately 2.5million tonnes of steel per year are handled by the port.

Additional facilities

An air controlled warehouse at Beeckerwerth with both road and rail links is operated for the storage of ThyssenKrupp steel products. For the railway workshops equipped for wheel turning as well as general overhaul are held.

History, industrial heritage trail and other recreations

The prehistory of the ''Eisenbahn und Häfen'' goes back to 1919, with the first port operations at Alsum and Schelwegern, major growth starting in 1926 with the creation of the ''Stahlwerke AG''. At this time the railway and ports were departments of the group itself. In the post war (WWII) era the steel operations were split up which negatively affected the operations of railway and ports as well. In 1953 Thyssen began to re-conglomerate. The ''Eisenbahn und Häfen'' forms part of "The Industrial Heritage Trail of the Ruhr" - a regional tourist project, as part of the

section.

Locomotives

Historically the ''Eisenbahn und Häfen'' operated dual power diesel / electrically operated locomotives. Two of these units are preserved one at the museum at ''

Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station was opened in 1847 and is located on the Duisburg–Dortmund railway, Arnhem-Oberhausen railway, Oberhausen–Duisburg-Ruhrort railway an ...

'' (Oberhausen Central station) another at ''Westfälischen Industriemuseum Henrichshütte'' (Westphalian Industrial Heritage Museum)Eisenbahn und Häfen
"Eisenbahn und Häfen" Route 15, Number 61. after being withdrawn. Since 2005 the lines are unelectrified. The ''Eisenbahn und Häfen'' uses shunters and light freight locomotives.
EH and EHG locomotives. ''privat-bahn.de''

References and notes

Primary sources

Rail and port operations, warehouse management and technology
Company brochure (English). ''eisenbahn-und-haefen-gmbh.de''
Eisenbahn- und Hafenlogistik aus einer Hand
Company website: "Rail and port logistics from one source" ''eisenbahn-und-haefen-gmbh.de''

External links

Images relating to Eisenbahn und Häfen GmbH ''bahnbilder.de'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenbahn Und Hafen Gmbh Rail freight transport in Germany Coal terminals Companies based in Duisburg Railway companies established in 1949 Railway companies established in 1998 Railway companies of Germany River ports of Germany