Waiblingen–Schwäbisch Hall railway
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The Waiblingen–Schwäbisch Hall railway (also known in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
as the Murrbahn—Murr Railway—or the Murrtalbahn—Murr Valley Railway) is a major railway in the German state of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
and the shortest rail link between Stuttgart and
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
. It starts at
Waiblingen Waiblingen (; Swabian: ''Woeblinge'') is a town in the southwest of Germany, located in the center of the densely populated Stuttgart region, directly neighboring Stuttgart. It is the capital and largest city of the Rems-Murr district. , Waib ...
and runs between Backnang and Fornsbach through the upper valley of the Murr. The
Backnang–Ludwigsburg railway The Backnang–Ludwigsburg railway is a line on the northern edge of the Stuttgart region in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, linking Backnang and Ludwigsburg. The Backnang–Bietigheim line was opened in 1879 as a branch of the Murr Vall ...
, known as the ''Kleine Murrbahn'' ("Little Murr Railway"), runs through the lower part of the Murr valley. The Murr Railway continues to Gaildorf on the Rot river, then to
Schwäbisch Hall Schwäbisch Hall (; "Swabian Hall"; from 1802 until 1934 and colloquially: ''Hall'' ) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg located in the valley of the Kocher river, the longest tributary (together with its headwater Lein) of the ...
on the Kocher. There it connects with the
Hohenlohe Railway The House of Hohenlohe () is a German princely dynasty. It ruled an immediate territory within the Holy Roman Empire which was divided between several branches. The Hohenlohes became imperial counts in 1450. The county was divided numerous time ...
from
Crailsheim Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of Schwäbisch Hall and southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The city's main attractions include two Evangelical churches, ...
to Heilbronn. The first section of the Murr Railway to Backnang is integrated with the Stuttgart S-Bahn as line S3. The section to Backnang is double track and the remaining line to Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental is single track.


History

The
Royal Württemberg State Railways The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Please ...
built the Murr Valley Railway (''Murrtalbahn'') and the Gäu Railway (''Gäubahn'') from Stuttgart to
Freudenstadt Freudenstadt (Swabian: ''Fraidestadt'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is capital of the district Freudenstadt. The closest population centres are Offenburg to the west (approx. 36 km away) and Tübingen to the eas ...
simultaneously, creating a diagonal line through
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
. Construction supervisor (''Oberbaurat'') Carl Julius Abel was responsible for planning and construction of the line. With it, the existing routes between Nuremberg and Stuttgart via Aalen or Heilbronn were shortened. On 26 October 1876, the Waiblingen–Backnang section was opened, followed by the section Backnang–Murrhardt section on 11 April 1878 and the Hessental–Gaildorf section on 1 December 1879. On 15 May 1880, the gap between Murrhardt and Gaildorf was closed, which required the construction of two tunnels. The original station in Waiblingen on the Murr line was closed and replaced by one just to the west as a junction station. The chosen route had a disadvantage for the city of Schwäbisch Hall, since the connection for the line between Stuttgart and Nuremberg had to be made at Hessental, now a suburb of Schwäbisch Hall, on the Hessental–Crailsheim section of the Hohenlohe Railway (then called the ''Kocherbahn''), which opened in 1867. The majority of trains running from Crailsheim to Hessental proceed to Backnang and Stuttgart, missing the lower part of the Hohenlohe line through Schwäbisch Hall. A branch line was built from Backnang via Marbach to Bietigheim in 1879 in order to provide a bypass of the Stuttgart node for long-distance transport. It is sometimes called the Little Murr Railway (''Kleine Murrbahn''). The line was single track and after the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
France prohibited its duplication for strategic reasons under the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
. On the Rems Railway, in contrast, the line had been duplicated by 1910 to Gmünd. In 1926, its duplication was completed to Aalen and Goldshöfe. Trains on the Murr line were mainly hauled after the First World War, with the establishment of
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
, until 1975, by the famous
Prussian P 8 The Prussian Class P 8 of the Prussian state railways (DRG Class 38.10-40 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn) was a 4-6-0 steam locomotive built from 1906 to 1923 by the Berliner Maschinenbau (previously Schwartzkopff) and twelve other German factories. Th ...
locomotives, which had replaced the Royal Württemberg State Railways's class 38 locomotives. On 22 December 1934 there was a major accident caused by a signalling error between Murrhardt and Sulzbach on the ridge at Schleißweiler. Two trains collided on the single track and ten people died. In 1937 the Flying Stuttgart (''Fliegende Stuttgarter''), which was similar to the
Flying Hamburger The DRG Class SVT 877 Hamburg Flyer – sometimes also Flying Hamburger or in German ''Fliegender Hamburger'' – was Germany's first fast diesel train, and is credited with establishing the fastest regular railway connection in the world in its t ...
, ran on the line. At the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
the SS intended to blow up the Schanz Tunnel between Fornsbach and Fichtenberg. This plan was prevented just before its execution, however, by the courageous intervention of the mayor of Gaildorf, who feared the economic isolation of his region. The Waiblingen–Backnang section was electrified and duplicated from 1962 to 1965. This included the duplication of the viaduct over the Rems. A new two-way tunnel was built next to the old single-track Schwaikheim Tunnel. This was lined completely with concrete rather than brick and was the first tunnel in Germany to be built this way. At first electrification only benefited local trains, which were mainly operated as push-pull trains, hauled by class 141 locomotives. Long-distance trains and most regional trains to Stuttgart continued to be hauled by steam and later diesel locomotives, since a change of locomotive in Backnang would have largely negated any saving in travel time. In 1976 the era of steam ended on the line and diesel locomotives were used, with class 211/212 hauling local services. In the case of long-distance and regional services, class 220, later class 221 were used for long-distance trains and class 215 for regional trains. Later class 218 locomotives were used both for long-distance and regional trains, sometimes using double header operation before long trains. In the 1970s, various restoration measures began to be carried out on the Murr line, as on other German lines. Sidings for freight were built at several stations on the section between Backnang and Crailsheim. At the same time local services were thinned out, so that it was served almost exclusively by regional trains. With the electrification of the line from Goldshöfe via Crailsheim to
Ansbach Ansbach (; ; East Franconian: ''Anschba'') is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränkische Rezat, ...
in 1985, the Murr line also lost all of its long-distance services, which now ran via the longer Rems line via Aalen. In the autumn of 1981, Stuttgart S-Bahn services on line S3 began between Backnang and Stuttgart. This was accompanied by the introduction of a regular interval service to Backnang and extra services. In 1996, the Marbach–Backnang line, the Backnang–Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental section of the Murr line and the Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental–Crailsheim section of the Hohenlohe line were electrified. Subsequently, all platforms at Fornsbach station were renovated. Since the upgrading of the line for regional services, long-distance services occasionally operate on the line.


Upgrades

In 2004, Deutsche Bahn announced that there would be further upgrading of the line with an additional track on the Oppenweiler–Sulzbach section, a section of double track at Fornsbach and the upgrading of signalling. This would have shortened the travel time between Schwäbisch Hall and Stuttgart by 10 minutes (especially by eliminating waiting time in Murrhardt). As a result of the reduction in funding for regional rail services in response to the Koch- Steinbrück Report, the proposed upgrade between Oppenweiler and Sulzbach was withdrawn at the end of 2004. The Verband Region Stuttgart, which coordinates public transport investment in the Stuttgart regions, is examining the idea of extending S-Bahn operations to Murrhardt. This proposal is in competition with a proposal to improve
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 ...
and Regionalbahn services on this route. The upgrade at Fornsbach station to improve passing opportunity involves a shift in the location of the platform 120 m closer to the town, two new platforms outside the tracks with an underpass and the installation of a passing track. The aim is that the single track line from Backnang to Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental with passing places at Murrhardt and Fornsbach would save about 10 minutes of waiting time and allow a coordinated timetable. The hearing procedures for the planning approval has been completed and construction of the €12 million project began in the summer of 2011. The project was commissioned on 9 December 2012, as expected.


Structures

*Rems Viaduct at Neustadt *Schwaikheim Tunnel at Schwaikheim: built for the duplication and the electrification of the Waiblingen–Backnang section for the S-Bahn, replacing a single-track tunnel. It was built between 1963 and 1964 and was the first application of the
New Austrian Tunnelling method The New Austrian tunneling method (NATM), also known as the sequential excavation method (SEM) or sprayed concrete lining method (SCL), is a method of modern tunnel design and construction employing sophisticated monitoring to optimize various wa ...
on a railway in Germany. The old tunnel still exists and is walled up. *Viaduct over the Weißach in Backnang *Schanz Tunnel at Fichtenberg, 860 m long. The Schanz tunnel was the third longest tunnel in the network of the Royal Württemberg State Railways after the Hochdorf Tunnel on the Nagold Valley Railway and the Weinberg Tunnel on the
Hohenlohe Railway The House of Hohenlohe () is a German princely dynasty. It ruled an immediate territory within the Holy Roman Empire which was divided between several branches. The Hohenlohes became imperial counts in 1450. The county was divided numerous time ...
. Because the inside of the mountain is composed of Gipskeuper rock containing
anhydrite Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the ...
, which swells strongly when in contact with water, the tunnel floor has lifted by about four metres. *Kappelesberg Tunnel at Gaildorf *Viaduct over the Bühler at
Vellberg Vellberg is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located 10 km east of Schwäbisch Hall, and 15 km southwest of Crailsheim Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württember ...


Operations

The following types of rail services currently operate on the Murr Railway on working days: *
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 c ...
services on line S3 from Stuttgart Airport via Stuttgart and Waiblingen to Backnang *hourly
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 ...
(RE) services from Stuttgart to Backnang, stopping only at Bad Cannstatt, Waiblingen and Winnenden. Their final destination alternates between Hessental or Nuremberg via Crailsheim. *a pair of Interregio-Express (IRE) services between Stuttgart and Crailsheim via Backnang The IRE and RE services use
Silberling Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 5,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981. Nearly all of the coaches have undergone extensive modernisation †...
carriages, exclusively of the oldest build. On the weekend Regionalbahn traffic between Backnang and Schwäbisch Hall is operated with class ET 425 electrical multiple units. On 9 December 2006 the last long-distance train ran on the Murr line (with the exception of diverted traffic): an express from Nuremberg to Stuttgart (with coaches from
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
and
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
).


References


External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waiblingen-Schwabisch Hall railway Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Railway lines opened in 1876 1876 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Schwäbisch Hall (district) Buildings and structures in Rems-Murr-Kreis Stuttgart S-Bahn