The Nürtingen–Neuffen railway, also known as the Tälesbahn ('Valley's Railway'), is a branch line in the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

region of the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

. It is single-track and standard gauge, and is long. It links

Neuffen Neuffen () is a town in the district of Esslingen, in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Geography It is located 14 km northeast of Reutlingen, and 28 km southeast of Stuttgart. Its major attraction is a quite impressive castle w ...

with

Nürtingen Nürtingen (; ) is a town on the river Neckar in the district of Esslingen (district), Esslingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. History The following events occurred, by year: *1046: First mention of ''Niuritingin'' in ...

, where it connects to the Plochingen–Tübingen railway from

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

. The line was also opened for freight on 1 June 1900 and for passenger transport on 21 June 1900. It overcomes a height difference of 111 metres. The ''Tälesbahn'' is owned and operated by the Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WEG), a member of the

Veolia Transport Veolia Transport (formerly Connex and CGEA Transport) was the international transport services division of the French-based multinational company Veolia until the 2011 merger that gave rise to Veolia Transdev, later renamed Transdev. Veolia Tr ...

group. The line is the oldest surviving operation of the WEG. The WEG operated limestone trains between a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

near Neuffen and a cement works in Nürtingen until 1979. The trains were hauled by purpose-built railbuses of Class WEG T 23 and 24. Passenger services on the ''Tälesbahn'' use a fleet of 4

Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 The Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 is the first widely used, new-generation, diesel railcar in Germany and Czech Republic for local railway services. Its most characteristic feature is the trapezium-shaped window frames. The Regio-Shuttle is classified ...

units with a partial

low floor Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname) Low is an English language, English and Languages of Scotland, Scottish surname. It is also a common surname found among Overseas Chinese language, Chinese communities around the world. ...

. The typical service pattern consists of either one or two trains an hour, depending on the day and time of day, with each train taking 12 minutes for its journey. Except from regular historical train rides there was until 24 March 2013 no service on Sundays. Since then there is a test running with one train per hour between 10:00 and 20:00.

Inspiration for Model Railways

The Neuffen Station is reproduced as a 1:87 scale (H0) Model Railway plastic kit model by the Vollmer company http://www.vollmer-online.de/de/artikel/art_3510.html. The same company produces other scale versions of the Neuffen Station.

Gallery

File:WEG-RS1.jpg, RegioShuttle on the Tälesbahn

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nurtingen-Neuffen railway Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Railway lines opened in 1900 1900 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Esslingen (district)