Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd Railway
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Düsseldorf-Derendorf–Dortmund Süd railway is a partially closed line in the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
state of
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
from Düsseldorf-Derendorf station (formerly ''Düsseldorf RhE'' station) to Dortmund South station (formerly ''Dortmund RhE'' station). Parts of it are still busy, including two sections used for the
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn () is a polycentric S-bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and cities such as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen), the B ...
. Regionally, it is also called the ''Wuppertaler Nordbahn'' (Wuppertal Northern Railway), ''Düsseltalbahn'' (Düssel Valley railway) or simply the ''Rheinische Strecke'' (Rhenish line).


History

The route was built by 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 ...
(, RhE) between 1873 and 1879 as a rival to the Elberfeld–Dortmund trunk line built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (''Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', BME). In order to compete in the few untapped areas of the
Wupper The Wupper () is a right tributary of the Rhine in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Rising near Marienheide in western Sauerland it runs through the mountainous region of the Bergisches Land in Berg County and enters the Rhine at Le ...
valley (
Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...
), the new line went via Mettmann, the northern Wupper valley, Schwelm, Gevelsberg, western
Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...
and
Herdecke Herdecke () is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located south of Dortmund in the Ruhr Area. Its location between the two Ruhr (river), Ruhr reservoirs Hengsteysee and Harkortsee has earned it t ...
.


Dortmund

The RhE had already opened the last part of its Ruhr line on 19 November 1874. This route meant that the Dortmund RhE station could not be built near the joint Dortmund station of the BME and CME station, which had originally been opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', CME) in 1847 and is now called
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city cen ...
. Therefore, it built its station next to the ''Dortmund KWE'' station, which was built at the same time by the
Royal Westphalian Railway Company The Royal Westphalian Railway (, KWE) was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways. The network eventually extended about 315 km from Rheine v ...
(''Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn'', KWE), southeast of central Dortmund on a then undeveloped area between the streets of Märkischen Straße and Voßkuhle. This joint station later became Dortmund South Station (''Bahnhof Dortmund Süd''). The RhE built a new line from its station in Dortmund to the south in order to serve the local mines. On 12 November 1875, the first freight train ran to ''Hörde RhE'' station (later ''Hörde-Hacheney''). On 28 December 1878, the line was extended to Löttringhausen, which was connected two years to the Dortmund-Löttringhausen–Bochum-Langendreer railway (known as the ''Rheinischer Esel'', Rhenish Ass).


Düsseldorf

Also on 19 November 1874, the RhE opened the Troisdorf–Mülheim-Speldorf railway, connecting its Ruhr line with its East Rhine Railway. As with many of its other lines, the RhE chose a very direct route, which bypassed central
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
.


Wuppertal

The route was very difficult between Vohwinkel and Hagen, particularly in the densely populated Wuppertal area, because the easiest route through the centre of the valleys of the Wupper and Ennepe was already occupied by the trunk section of the BME. Therefore, the railway was built on a slope, requiring complex engineering structures such as viaducts and tunnels, which still influence much the city in the northern districts of Wuppertal. The most famous structure is the imposing Ruhr Viaduct in Herdecke. Several other lines branched off this railway: in Wuppertal-
Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...
the line to Hatzfeld and the line to Hattingen branched off, in Gevelsberg the Elbsche Valley Railway branched off to
Witten Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. Geography Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area. Bordering municipalities * Bochum ...
and in Dortmund-Löttringhausen the former line to Langendreer branched off to Witten Ost. In Neu-Dornap/Vohwinkel, the line crossed the Wuppertal-Vohwinkel–Essen-Überruhr railway (the so-called Prince William Railway), in Hagen-Haspe the line connected with the Ennepe Valley Railway and in Hagen-Vorhalle it crossed the BME trunk line. Economically, it could not compete in the following years with the more centrally located main line of the BME despite good gradients–the steep Erkrath-Hochdahl incline on the competing BME line could not initially be climbed by the locomotives under their own power and trains had to be hauled by a cable system. After the nationalisation of the line in 1880 the Wuppertal Northern Railway therefore was used only for a modest regional passenger services and as relief line to the main route and as a detour when required. For this purpose various connection lines were built between the Wuppertal Northern Railway and the adjacent lines: *On 1 June 1890, the Royal Railway Division at Elberfeld opened the line between Oberbarmen and Wichlinghausen ( line (VzG) number 2710), connecting with the Wuppertal-Wichlinghausen–Hattingen railway opened six years earlier. *On 1 November 1894, a direct connection from Haspe RhE (now Hagen-Heubing) to
Hagen Hauptbahnhof Hagen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station serving the city of Hagen in western Germany. It is an important rail hub for the southeastern Ruhr area, offering regional and long distance connections. The station was opened in 1848 as part of the Berg ...
(line 2804) was opened. *On 1 April 1896, a connection was opened from Varresbeck and Lüntenbeck to Vohwinkel (line 2722) initially for freight; a month later the first passenger train ran on it *On 2 January 1912, passenger traffic was discontinued between Herdecke and Hagen-Eckesey (formerly Hagen RhE) and a new connection (line 2821) was opened between Herdecke and Hagen-Vorhalle Yo junction (on the BME trunk line) to Hagen Hbf. *In 1913, a branch line (line 2712) was opened from Schwelm-Loh (formerly Schwelm RhE) to the old Wuppertal-Langerfeld freight yard. *On 2 June 1957, the route to Dortmund South station was finally closed and instead a connecting curve was opened with the Dortmund–Soest railway to provide direct access to Dortmund Hauptbahnhof. On 27 September 1991, most passenger traffic on the Wuppertal Northern Railway—which had most recently operated with class 515 battery-powered railbuses—was closed. After that there were only a few special trips. On 17 December 1999, the last freight train ran on the line.


Current use

Passenger services are now operated by Regiobahn GmbH as line S 28 of the
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn () is a polycentric S-bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and cities such as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen), the B ...
on the section of the line from Düsseldorf through Mettmann, continuing to Wuppertal-Vohwinkel, via the Wuppertal-Vohwinkel–Essen-Überruhr railway. This section is now also used for freight trains running to Dornaper-Hahnenfurth and the nearby limestone quarry. The tracks have been removed from Hahnenfurth to Wuppertal-Lüntenbeck, but a track still exists from Lüntenbeck to Wuppertal-Mirk and Wuppertal-Heubruch. The line between Wuppertal-Vohwinkel and Lüntenbeck and Wuppertal-Wichlinghausen (the connecting line opened in 1896) has been closed since December 1999. The ''Wuppertal Bewegung e. V.'' association maintains the line’s structure and the conversion of the Wuppertal Northern Railway into a cycle path. Early work began with reconstruction between Rott and Osterbaum in April 2009. In the area of Loh station curbs were installed and the first 2 km of the route was levelled on 9 May 2010. The cycle path was opened on 5 June 2010 by the North Rhine-Westphalian Economics Minister, Christa Thoben, the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Works and Transport, Lutz Lienenkämper and the Mayor of Wuppertal, Peter Jung. Northeast of Wuppertal Wichlinghausen the line to closed and dismantled through Schwelm. During the widening of the A 1 autobahn to six lanes, the rail overbridge on the outskirts of Wuppertal and Schwelm was demolished and therefore the route of the line was broken. From Wuppertal to Hagen to the route is used by line S 8 and S 9 of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn. The section from
Hagen Hauptbahnhof Hagen Hauptbahnhof is a railway station serving the city of Hagen in western Germany. It is an important rail hub for the southeastern Ruhr area, offering regional and long distance connections. The station was opened in 1848 as part of the Berg ...
to Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park is used by the ''Volmetal-Bahn'' (RB 52)
Regionalbahn The ''Regionalbahn'' (; lit. Regional train; abbreviated ''RB'') is a train categories in Europe, type of Regional rail, local passenger train (stopping train) in Germany. It is similar to the Regionalzug (R) and Regio (Swiss railway train), R ...
trains running to and from
Lüdenscheid Lüdenscheid () is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Sauerland region. Geography Lüdenscheid is located on the saddle of the watershed between the Lenne and Volme rivers whic ...
on the Volme Valley Railway.


Gallery

File:Wuppertal Eulenkopfweg 040.jpg, Western entrance to the abandoned Dorp tunnel File:Wuppertal Eulenkopfweg 113.jpg, Eskesberg bridge File:Ender Tunnel02.jpg, Southern portal of Ender Tunnel File:Bf-w-ostersbaum.jpg, Former Wuppertal-Ostersbaum station


Notes


External links

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dusseldorf-Derendorf-Dortmund Sud Railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Closed railway lines in Germany Railway lines opened in 1875 1875 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Wuppertal Transport in Dortmund Ruhr Buildings and structures in Hagen Transport in Düsseldorf Buildings and structures in Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis