Osterath–Dortmund Süd railway

Osterath–Dortmund Süd railway
	Network of the former Rhenish Railway Company
Overview
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Line number	2610 (Osterath – Lohbruch); 2504 (Lohbruch – DU-Rheinhausen); 2505 (DU-Rheinhausen – BO Nord); 2151 (BO Nord – DO-Dorstfeld); 2126 (DO-Dorstfeld – DO Süd); Connecting lines:; 2312 (DU-Hochfeld Süd – DU Hbf); 2326 (DU Hbf – DU-Hochfeld Süd Vorbf);
Technical
Line length	76 km (47 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	120 km/h (74.6 mph) or 80 km/h (49.7 mph)
Route number	425 (KR-Oppum – DU Hbf); 450.4 (DO-Lüttgendortmund – DO Süd);
Route map
	Dortmund Süd
	(former Dortmund RhE/KWE)
	Dortmund West
	(interchange station planned)**
	Dortmund-Dorstfeld
	(interchange station, high level) *
	Dortmund-Somborn crossover
	(single track from here)
	Former line to Essen-Altenessen
	and Essen-Bergeborbeck
	Essen-Altendorf junction
	(formerly Altendorf station)
	Mülheim (Ruhr)-Heißen
	(depot; former station)
	Mülheim (Ruhr) Hbf
	(former Keilbahnhof)
	Former Lower Ruhr Valley Railway
	MH-Styrum–E-Kettwig
	Former Lower Ruhr Valley Railway
	from Essen-Kettwig
	(former course via
	Hohenbudberg marshalling yard)
	current Lower Left Rhine Railway
	from Krefeld
	-0.1
	49.2
	original Rhenish route to Krefeld
	(only freight)
	original Lower Left Rhine Railway
	from Krefeld
	Source: German railway atlas[1] ; Right: RhE kilometrage, left new S-Bahn kilometrage ; * Dortmund–Bochum S 1 ; ** Dortmund–Hagen S 5

The Osterath–Dortmund-Süd railway is a historically significant line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Parts of it are closed, much of it is now used for freight only, but several sections are still used for Regional-Express, Regionalbahn or Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn services.

The nearly 76 kilometre long line was built in three stages between 1866 and 1874 by the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE), creating a third major east-west line through the Ruhr area. It was intended to compete effectively with the established and profitable lines of its competitors—the Duisburg–Dortmund line of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Ruhr line of Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company, but it was not successful.

History

The Rhenish Railway concentrated for a long time left on the territories next to the Rhine, leaving the Ruhr area with its coal mines and emerging industries to be opened up by the Cologne-Minden and the Bergisch-Märkische railway companies. The RhE wanted to penetrate this lucrative market and began building the Rurh line from its Osterath station on its Lower Left Rhine line.

Between the port of Mülheim and Essen's Graf Beust colliery, the line used the route of a horse-hauled railway operated by the colliery from 1853 to 1865.[2]

Rhenish Railway Company
23 August 1866	(2610)	Osterath – Lohbruch
1 September 1866	(2505)	Osterath – Essen RhE
	including Rheinhausen-Hochfeld train ferry (now Kultushafen)
1 January 1868	(2505)	Essen RhE – Wattenscheid RhE
15 February 1870	(2312)	Hochfeld Süd – Duisburg RhE
	branch line, beginning of line to Quakenbrück
1 June 1872	(2168)	Essen-Kray Nord – Gelsenkirchen RhE
15 October 1874	(2505)	Wattenscheid RhE – Bochum RhE
19 November 1874	(2151)	Bochum RhE – Dortmund-Dorstfeld (old)
19 November 1874	(2126)	Dortmund-Dorstfeld (old) – Dortmund RhE
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn
3 July 1984	(2213)	Dortmund-Germania – Dortmund-Dorstfeld
23 May 1993	(2213)	Dortmund-Lütgendortmund – Dortmund-Germania

Current situation

Little passenger traffic developed on the line due to the parallel railway of the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company. Passenger services were abandoned on the section between Mülheim-Heißen and Essen-Kray-Nord in 1959, between Essen-Kray Nord and Bochum Präsident in 1965 and between Bochum Präsident and Bochum-Langendreer in 1979.

Until 30 May 1986, accumulator railcars of class 515 ran between Duisburg-Rheinhausen and Hohenbudberg Siedlung. Then the Rhenish line from Krefeld-Linn to the former Hohenbudberg marshalling yard was completely dismantled along with the yard. Instead, the line now uses the parallel route of the Ruhrort-Crefeld District Gladbach Railway Company (Ruhrort–Crefeld−Kreis Gladbach Eisenbahngesellschaft).

Four services operate each hour on the RhE line between Duisburg and Rheinhausen: the line from Mönchengladbach is served by the Niers-Haard-Express (RE 42), the Rhein-Niers-Bahn (RB 33) and the Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn (RB 35) services and the Der Niederrheiner (RB 31) service connects with the Lower Rhine Railway. After crossing over the Rhine on the Duisburg-Hochfeld Railway Bridge, which was destroyed in the Second World War and then rebuilt, all passenger trains leave the main line and continue on the branch line built in 1870 to Duisburg Hauptbahnhof.

The section of the Rhenish line from Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd to Mülheim (Ruhr) Hauptbahnhof was closed down in several stages and where it is still open it is used mainly for freight operations. As part of the merger that created the University of Duisburg-Essen there were brief but inconclusive discussions on creating a direct transport link on the route from Duisburg-Neudorf via Speldorf, Mülheim Hauptbahnhof andHeißen to Essen Nord, connecting the two campuses. Meanwhile, the overall line between Speldorf and Mülheim Hauptbahnhof was dismantled.

In Essen, the line has been interrupted several times, the bridges over Segeroth-Strasse and Hans-Böckler-Strasse were demolished and the new Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard was built on the line’s embankment. The Essen-Nord station and its two signal boxes have been decommissioned and demolished and in its place the new university district has been built. The main line from Essen-Nord to Essen-Kray Nord has been closed along with Essen-Nord station and signals have been removed from the station platforms at Essen-Kray Nord station.[3] Essen-Kray Nord and the Goldschmidt plant can still be accessed via Essen-Nord.

The Rhenish line east of Essen-Kray station running towards Bochum has also been demolished. Thus the railway bridge of the Rhenish line over the A40 in Bochum-Stahlhausen has already been removed during the upgrading of the autobahn.

The easternmost section of the line between Dortmund Dorstfeld (high level) and Dortmund Süd station has been upgraded for the S-Bahn S 4 and extended to Dortmund Lütgendortmund and is served by the S-Bahn at 20-minute intervals. From Dortmund Süd, the S 4 uses the line to Welver of the former Royal Westphalian Railway Company (Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn, KWE) to Unna-Königsborn and then the Fröndenberg–Kamen railway to Unna station.

The low level of Dortmund-Dorstfeld station is connected by S-Bahn services from Dortmund Hauptbahnhof: line S 1 runs to Essen Hauptbahnhof on the Bergisch-Märkische line and line S 2 runs to Herne station on the line to Dortmund-Mengede.

Freight train in Gelsenkirchen-Wattenscheid in 1993
Bochum-Nord station in 1995

Notes

Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. pp. 136–40. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
"Der frühe Bergbau an der Ruhr" (in German). Michael Tiedt. Retrieved 18 October 2011 (with maps)
"Track plan of Essen-Nord" (PDF) (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

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External links

NRW rail archive of André Joost:

Original line:
- "Line 2610: Osterath ↔ Lohbruch junction". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2504: Lohbruch junction ↔ Duisburg-Rheinhausen". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2505: Duisburg-Rheinhausen ↔ Bochum Nord". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2151: Bochum Nord ↔ Dortmund-Dorstfeld". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2126: Dortmund-Dorstfeld ↔ Dortmund Süd". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
Connecting line to the CME trunk line:
- "Line 2312: Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd ↔ Duisburg Hbf". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2326: Duisburg Hbf ↔ Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd Vorbf". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2181: Mülheim-Heißen ↔ Essen West". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- "Line 2168: Essen-Kray Nord ↔ Gelsenkirchen RhE". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (new):
- "Line 2213: Dortmund-Lütgendortmund ↔ Dortmund-Dorstfeld". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
Other sites:
- "Photographs of operations at Gelsenkirchen-Wattenscheid" (in German). Retrieved 18 October 2011.

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[Eisenbahnatlas-1] Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. pp. 136–40. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.

[2] "Der frühe Bergbau an der Ruhr" (in German). Michael Tiedt. Retrieved 18 October 2011 (with maps)

[3] "Track plan of Essen-Nord" (PDF) (in German). Deutsche Bahn. Retrieved 18 October 2011.