Düren – Heimbach railway line

		Line from Jülich
		SFS and S-Bahn route from Cologne
		Bördebahn from Euskirchen (same level)
		Range from Distelrath
	0.0	Düren
		DKB tram Düren - Kreuzau

		SFS to Aachen
	1.8	Düren Annakirmesplatz
		DKB tram Düren - Rölsdorf
	3.0	Düren Neumühl ( Anst )
	3.6	Düren cow bridge
	4.6	Lendersdorf
	5.0	Düren Renkerstrasse
	5.8	Niederau -Tuchmühle
	6.4	Friedenau (Anst)
		DKB tram Düren - Kreuzau
	7.3	Kreuzau
	8.2	Kreuzau Eifelstrasse
	10.2	Üdingen
	12.0	Untermaubach- Schlagstein
	13.9	Obermaubach
	18.7	Zerkall
		Rur
	19.7	Nideggen - Brück
	22.7	Evenings
		Rur
	25.3	Blens
	26.8	Hausen (b Düren)
	30.0	Heimbach (Eifel)

Swell:

The railway Düren Heimbach (regional and Rurtalbahn or Rurtal route called) from Düren to Heimbach opens up the Rureifel . In addition to its importance for local public transport (ÖPNV), this route (especially on weekends and public holidays) is of great relevance for tourism.

history

First plans

Shortly after the construction of the Cologne - Düren - Aachen railway line by the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft , a railway committee was founded in Düren in 1846. The aim was to build a line from Düren to Trier . The route should follow the Rur valley to Heimbach and continue via Schleiden towards the Eifel . At the time, the connection between the Eifel line and the Düren-Schleidener Bahn was the main issue. There were also concerns on the part of the Cologne Chamber of Commerce regarding a route for the Eifel route via Düren and Schleiden; a direct connection via Euskirchen was preferred here. Finally, the Eifel route of the Rhenish Railway was built via Euskirchen instead of Heimbach and Schleiden.

Construction of the route

In the 1880s, local industry, trade, handicrafts and agriculture increasingly called for the construction of a railway line in the Rur Valley. Finally, in 1889, permission was given to build a railway line from Düren to Kreuzau . On June 1, 1892, passenger traffic to Kreuzau was started by the Prussian State Railways . The only way to go further up was on foot or by horse and cart.

The industrial companies in the upper Rurtal, but also the Eifelverein , pushed for an extension of the route to Heimbach, which was approved by the Prussian House of Representatives in 1896. However, further construction dragged on for years. Work began in 1902 at the energetic insistence of the city council and district council of Düren. Two bridges over the Rur at Zerkall and Abenden were particularly complex . But also the sometimes very narrow width of the Rur valley between Kreuzau and Üdingen as well as in the further course to Heimbach made larger earth movements necessary. On August 1, 1903, the section to Blens was put into operation. Since larger masses of rock had to be blasted away in front of Heimbach station, the last section from Blens to Heimbach was opened a month later on September 1, 1903. From the beginning, the railway line was also important for tourism in the Rur Valley.

Although Heimbach is a terminal station , the station building was not located in front of the site, but was built next to the tracks. The reason is that the option of a later extension along the Rur to Monschau (connection to the Vennbahn ) should not be built in when the line is being built. The construction of the Rurtalsperre in the 1930s did not fundamentally prevent this option: on the almost 5 kilometers from Heimbach station to the dam wall, the railway could have increased continuously at around 15 per thousand to the top of the dam, a rather moderate value for branch lines in mountainous areas. Even if the dam wall had been raised by 16 meters in the 1950s, it would only have required a gradient of 3.5 per thousand. However, the alignment along the Rursee and over the heights to Monschau would have been very time-consuming and costly, so that it was clear after 1945 at the latest that this project would never be implemented given the low demand.

Reconstruction and rationalization

Series 515 battery-powered railcar in Heimbach station

Special train for a school, made up of locomotive 215 034-0 and over 10 express train cars, on the way to Düren shortly before Kreuzau, around 1978

Heimbach station with 9-car special train (left), local train leaving (center) and battery-powered railcar (rear), 1984

After the Second World War , the route was in a rather desolate condition. In the final battle for the Rur crossing, the two large Rur bridges at Zerkall and Abenden were blown up. The reconstruction proceeded only gradually, so from November 1945 the route from Düren to Friedenau could be used again shortly before Kreuzau. From 1947 the trains reached the Zerkall stop, which was newly established at that time. A further journey in the direction of Nideggen was not yet possible due to the destroyed Rur bridge. After the bridge had been rebuilt with funds from the government's Grenzlandfonds, the train service could be extended in May 1950 via Nideggen to evenings. Heimbach was finally reached again in October 1950 after the second Rur bridge had also been repaired.

From 1956, the entire route was operated in train control operations after all intermediate stations had been equipped with fallback switches . At that time the train manager was the dispatcher of the Lendersdorf station . This meant that the dispatchers could be omitted at the other stations, only in Kreuzau there was still a gatekeeper . The train line was later relocated to Kreuzau station.

Also at the end of the 1950s were by slowly accelerating steam locomotives pulled trains on modern diesel traction with Uerdinger rail buses , later also Akkumulatortriebwagen the Series 515 changed. In school, business and excursion traffic, locomotive-hauled trains with diesel locomotives of the V 100 series also drove . These pulled local transport cars , initially type B3yge conversion cars , later so-called silver coins .

Until the end of the 1960s, so-called Sunday excursion trains ran at special rates continuously from Aachen , Mönchengladbach (via Jülich ) and Düsseldorf (via Grevenbroich ) to and from Heimbach; a change in Düren was not necessary. The trains reached Heimbach on Sunday morning between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and left Heimbach again between 6.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. Most recently, these trains were driven with battery-powered railcars. But until the 1980s, there were also trains on weekdays at certain times that ran between Heimbach and Jülich or Düsseldorf (via Bedburg) without having to change trains. Direct connections with Cologne, on the other hand, were practically never available and neither were there on weekdays with Aachen. The only exception in the 1965 summer timetable was a single Sunday afternoon train from Cologne to Heimbach without a return train.

However, there were often special trains, some of which were ordered by travel companies, some of which were organized by the Federal Railroad itself, with which day-trippers, especially from the conurbations of North Rhine-Westphalia, were brought directly to Heimbach and back in the evening. In addition, from 1981 to 1996 the rail bus special trips of the Railway Amateur Club Jülich (EAKJ) and from 1994 the steam trains of the steam railway Rur-Wurm-Inde (DRWI) for several years .

The Düren – Heimbach line was, like the Jülich – Düren railway line , a test line for testing the train radio B. It was commissioned on August 5, 1974.

Decline

Passenger train with a DB class 212 locomotive and two n-type cars in 1990 in Untermaubach

With increasing motorization, the Düren – Heimbach line was also increasingly exposed to competition in passenger and freight transport. For the summer schedule on June 1, 1975, scheduled train traffic was severely restricted. In addition to a general thinning, the early trains from Düren to Heimbach and most direct connections to and from Jülich and Neuss were no longer available . Only a few of the canceled trips were shifted to the parallel Düren – Heimbach bus line .

Due to the discussions about the closure of the Rurtalbahn, the affected communities decided to offer the school bus service until the summer of 1977 by rail again. The resulting rush led to an increased use of locomotive-hauled trains. With the timetable change in May 1978, the class 795 rail buses were finally taken out of service and replaced by trains hauled by class 211/212 diesel locomotives, some with control cars . In addition, individual pairs of trains operated with accumulator railcars.

The anniversary of the 75th anniversary of the railway line in 1978 was marked by the impending closure, which was even mentioned in the greeting of the then Aachen general representative of the Cologne Federal Railway Directorate in the anniversary publication.

Regionalization and expansion

Rurtalbahn railcar in Heimbach

In order to avoid the closure of the Rurtalbahn, the Düren district conducted lengthy negotiations with the Deutsche Bundesbahn , which were ultimately successful. In June 1992 , the Dürener Kreisbahn (DKB) was the first railway company in North Rhine-Westphalia to acquire a railway line from the Federal Railway for a symbolic price of DM 1. This made the Düren district a pioneer in the regionalization of local rail transport , even before the 1994 rail reform .

On March 25, 1993, trial operation began on the line with modernized Uerdingen rail buses from DKB. On May 23, 1993, operations were officially transferred from the Federal Railroad to the DKB, with the DKB introducing an hourly service. In 1995 the rail buses were replaced by new RegioSprinter from Siemens / DUEWAG . The initial operation was difficult, so in 1993 many trains were late because some of the aging rail buses were not always up to the requirements. Gradually, however, the modernization of the route and train stations, the regular timetable and the new railcars increased punctuality and acceptance among the population and attracted more passengers. The DKB managed to increase the number of passengers on the Deutsche Bundesbahn by over 500%. Therefore, the DKB or the Rurtalbahn is considered a precedent example for successful regionalized rail traffic.

In addition, the infrastructure was renovated and modernized. This allowed the permissible line speed to be increased from 50 to 70 km / h. The fallback switches at the crossing stations have been replaced by electrically remote-controlled switches. At the same time, the line was secured with main signals . The train line was moved from Kreuzau to the central control center of the DKB in the Distelrath station, from where the entire train traffic on the Düren – Heimbach and Düren – Jülich – Linnich lines was controlled. These measures, in addition to the use of faster RegioSprinters, also had a positive impact on travel times. In 1993, the journey from Düren to Heimbach took around an hour, but the trains now reach their destination in around 46 minutes.

The rail department of the Düren district railway was finally spun off as an independent company Rurtalbahn GmbH on January 1, 2003 , the district of Düren still holds significant shares in this railway company and remains owner of the infrastructure via the Düren district railway - since 2009 via the holding company of the district of Düren - owner of the infrastructure.

Two Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 (VT742 + VT740) of the Rurtalbahn in Heimbach station

By April 2012 five new vehicles of the type Regio-Shuttle RS1 had been procured for the Rurtalbahn , which represent a significant improvement in quality compared to the RegioSprinters. The air-conditioned vehicles are equipped with a disabled toilet. Entrance height and vehicle length roughly correspond to the dimensions of the RegioSprinter, so that no modifications were necessary on the already modernized platforms.

From 2004 to 2015 the Euregiobahn also ran between April and October on Sundays and public holidays directly from Heerlen and Alsdorf via Aachen and Düren to Heimbach and back.

Route description

The line meets the Rur shortly after Düren station . The Rureifel and the scenic Eifel National Park begin south of Düren ; here the railway line follows the winding river that gives it its name.

Dueren train station

Regional Express at Düren station

Düren and its station have been connected to the railway network via the Cologne – Aachen line since September 6, 1841. In the meantime, the Düren island station was on five railway lines: In addition to the line in the direction of Aachen or Cologne and the Jülich – Düren railway line, there is also the Bördebahn in the direction of Euskirchen , which is regularly used on weekends for passenger traffic and for freight traffic to Zülpich . The entrance to the Rurtalbahn workshop in Distelrath also runs from the neighboring junction at Düren station . The former Düren – Neuss railway line was shut down and dismantled in 1995 between Düren and Bedburg because of the Hambach opencast mine . For through trains from this route to the Bördebahn and vice versa, there were butt tracks with a turntable directly at the station building . Today these tracks have been removed and the area is fenced off.

The trains of the Rurtalbahn from Heimbach reached the Düren station using the continuous main track of the line from Aachen. The trains usually used track 21 on the north side or what was then track 5 on the south side of the station. Continuous trains to and from Jülich departed from the north side, usually from platform 21.

As part of the expansion of the Cologne – Aachen line for high-speed and S-Bahn traffic, Düren station was heavily rebuilt in the early 2000s. In the southern section, the platforms were completely rebuilt, and since then the Rurtalbahn trains can reach Düren station (usually on platform 4a) without having to cross the main line from Aachen. Today the Düren train station is the operational center of the Düren district railway, after it took over the handling of goods from DB Cargo on April 1, 2000 . The north side of the station can no longer be reached directly from Heimbach since the northern connecting tracks were dismantled.

Annakirmesplatz stop

The demand stop at Annakirmesplatz at kilometer 1.9 is at the Annakirmes , so that there is a high number of passengers here during the fair. Until 1995 the stop was called Düren Süd. The Düren - Rölsdorf tram crossed the railway line here until around 1958. The platforms were originally located north and south of Aachener Strasse. After the takeover, it was converted by the Rurtalbahn like all other stops on the route and today has the typical standard equipment, with only the northern platform in operation. The freight terminal for the Kanzan and Zanders paper mills has been located a few hundred meters to the south since March 2003 . The corresponding siding is at the level of the street An der Garnbleiche .

Kuhbrücke stop

This demand stop, which was created in 1993 and expanded in 1997, is located at 3.6 km at a level crossing at which the street An der Kuhbrücke crosses the line.

Lendersdorf train station

The Lendersdorf station (km 4.6), which has existed since the line was created, is also the current terminus for goods traffic on the Rur Valley Railway. In Lendersdorf, the former station building with the neighboring goods shed and the old signal box are still preserved. The signal box is no longer in operation today and, like the former goods shed, now houses a photo studio.

The passenger traffic is handled with the regional sprinters on an island platform, they can cross here every half hour. In addition to the two platform tracks, there are two more tracks for shunting goods traffic in the area of the station. There are two access tracks for the freight traffic of the Schoellershammer paper mill directly opposite the stop . The company is supplied with lignite on weekdays . The aim is to also serve Akzo-Chemie in the immediate vicinity by rail.

Renkerstrasse / hospital stop

This demand breakpoint, which only emerged in 2000, is also a typical standard building. It is located in Niederau at kilometer 5.0.

Stop at Tuchmühle

Since 1892 the people of Niederau could use the railway, which stopped at the Lendersdorf train station in Krauthausen. At the same time there was an electric tram from Düren to Kreuzau until the Second World War , which was replaced in 1945 by a bus line on the same route. With the commissioning of the Tuchmühle stop in 1994, there is again rail traffic in Niederau with the Rur Valley Railway. This demand stop is on the western outskirts of Niederau on the Tuchmühle road at km 5.8. This stop, which was set up in 1993, is also a standard construction.

Kreuzau train station

The Rurtalbahn runs right through the municipality of Kreuzau . The station building from the 1950s, which was rebuilt after the destruction of the first station building in World War II, still exists at Kreuzau station today. Until the mid-1990s, this was where the line's train line was located, as the level crossing directly north of the station had to be operated by a local gatekeeper. Today the building is used as a restaurant. The freight shed of the train station, which today serves as a youth center after extensive renovations, has also been preserved. The new station (km 7.3) of the Rurtalbahn, redesigned in 1997, now has two tracks and a central platform, so that train crossings are possible there. The Hoesch company temporarily had a siding at the level of the Friedenau road.

Eifelstrasse stop

In the area of the Eifelstraße there is the demand stop of the same name at kilometer 8.0. It is only stopped here on request.

Uedingen stop

The place Üdingen has a demand stop at route kilometer 10.2 parallel to the Dechant-Offermanns-Weg. This stop has existed since the line opened in 1903 and was fundamentally rebuilt in 1993 after it was taken over by the Rurtalbahn. The old waiting hall from the days of the Federal Railroad was preserved and renovated.

Untermaubach-Schlagstein station

The Untermaubach -Schlagstein train station has existed since 1903 at kilometer point 12.0. Until 1999 the station was called Untermaubach. In addition to the reception building with catering, there was an attached timber-framed goods shed. The station facilities were destroyed during the Second World War. The station building was not rebuilt, instead a small waiting hall was set up as a replacement, which is still a few steps away from the stop. This little house was a toilet block of the old train station until 1948 . Today the station has an island platform and two tracks, so that train crossings are also possible here. The train station is the end point for every half hour, while trains beyond Untermaubach-Schlagstein only run every hour. There are plans to connect the nearby Metsä Tissue paper mill to the rail. For this, however, a new Rur bridge would be required.

Obermaubach stop

The Obermaubach demand stop is right next to an excursion restaurant on the edge of the Obermaubach reservoir and the Hürtgen Forest . He has the route kilometrage 13.9. The route is separated from the village by the reservoir. A dam bridge connects the breakpoint with the place. As in Zerkall, it is also a standard construction of the Rur Valley Railway.

Zerkall stop

The Zerkall demand stop (km 18.7) was set up in 1947 and was the end point of the line until May 1950. It is located on the eastern outskirts of Zerkall am Gut Laach in the area of the city of Nideggen (although Zerkall belongs to the municipality of Hürtgenwald ). Again, this is a standard Rurtalbahn construction.

Nideggen-Brück train station

Nideggen-Brück train station with biological station

The Nideggen-Brück train station (km 19.7) is located in the village of Brück and still has a renovated old reception building that houses the Düren district's biological station . The former freight shed of the station, which was also renovated, is attached to the station building. Until 1995 the station was called Nideggen.

The new platform was designed as an island platform. In addition to the main track, there is an alternative track and a butt track with a buffer stop. As at almost all stations along the route, a small park-and-ride car park has been built here.

Stop evenings

The Abenden stop, which was opened with the line, is located on the Commweg at kilometer point 22.7 and its structure differs from the standard construction of the Rur Valley Railway. Nothing new was built here after the takeover by the Bundesbahn. Instead of the usual plexiglass waiting shelters, there has been a bricked-up shelters that have been refurbished and bricked up in the evenings since the route went into operation in the middle of a small, park-like green area.

Blens stop

Since August 1, 1903, Blens has had a stop on the Düren - Heimbach route at kilometer 25.3, which was also the end point of the route for about a month. It was renovated in 1993 after it was taken over by the Dürener Kreisbahn. The Blens stop is the standard construction typical of the route.

Stop at Hausen (near Düren)

The Hausen demand stop (km 26.8) has been located on Hausener Strasse on the northern outskirts of the village near the campsite since 1903. It was renovated in 1993 after it was taken over by the DKB. This stop is also a standard construction of the Rurtalbahn.

Heimbach train station (Eifel)

Reception building of Heimbach train station with national park gate

Alstom Coradia iLINT at Heimbach (Eifel) train station in February 2020

Heimbach train station is located directly on the northern outskirts and - in addition to providing a good link in local transport between Linnich, Düren and Heimbach - is also of touristic importance as a national park and information center for hikers and tourists. Since 2009, the reception building has housed the DKB-Zeitreise , a small museum of the Düren Kreisbahn and Rurtalbahn, whose exhibits were transferred to the Düren City Museum in June 2018 . In connection with the renovation and renovation work carried out in the station building in 2004/2005, the half-timbered goods shed attached to the main building was demolished and replaced by a modern extension.

The end point of the Rurtalbahn is right next to the former station building at 30.0 km. This also has the usual waiting and shelters of the Rurtalbahn. In the course of time, the three tracks on the goods shed, loading ramp and loading lane were dismantled from what used to be six station tracks. In contrast to most of the other stations on the route, the platforms in Heimbach are still long enough for special trains, for example, at the end of the 1990s, the trains of the Rur-Wurm-Inde (DRWI) steam train arrived regularly on the 13/14. September 2008 the historic Rheingold train including observation car to Heimbach.

service

The route is used daily by the RB 21 (Rurtalbahn) train from Düren to Heimbach for local rail passenger transport. On weekdays during the day, trains run to Untermaubach every half hour.

line	Line course	Tact
RB 21	Rur Valley Railway : Düren - Annakirmesplatz - Kuhbrücke - Lendersdorf - Renkerstr / Hospital - Tuchmühle - Kreuzau - Kreuzau, Eifelstraße - Üdingen - Untermaubach-Schlagstein - Obermaubach - Zerkall - Nideggen-Brück - Evenings - Blens - Hausen - Heimbach Status: timetable change December 2015	30/60 ( SVZ ) min (Düren - Untermaubach) 60 min (Untermaubach - Heimbach)

Trivia

Model of the Zerkall stop, exhibited in Bonn on March 30, 2014

Obermaubach stop as a model, exhibited in Linnich-Tetz on October 7, 2018

A model of the route, which is strongly oriented towards the reality of the landscape and which shows the most prominent points and stations from Lendersdorf to Heimbach in the state around the time it was taken over by the DKB in 1993, has now been incorporated into the Kerpen-Düren model railway community. V. model railway friends Düren, which was dissolved, was built as a modular system on a scale of 1: 160 ( nominal size N ) . These modules are often publicly exhibited and model railroad trains drive on, the models of which were actually used on the route.

literature

Railway Amateur Club Jülich e. V. (Hrsg.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line. Jülich 1978.

Web links

Commons : Düren – Heimbach railway line - collection of images, videos and audio files

Description of route 2584 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
Model Railway Association Kerpen-Düren eV

Individual evidence

↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register

↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .

↑ Rail network conditions of use of the Rurtalbahn GmbH - special section (SNB-BT). (PDF; 73 kB) Accessed February 10, 2012 . | Tracks in service facilities - KDN. (PDF; 184 kB) Retrieved February 25, 2012 .

↑ Wolfgang Kreckler: railway history of the place Jünkerath; Eisenbahnfreunde Jünkerath e. V., 1995, pp. 17/18

↑ ^a ^b Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 8.

↑ Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 10.

↑ Photo receipts for the use of the 212 series on the Rurtalbahn:
- 212 068-1 at the reservoir of Obermaubach ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
- 212 101-0 in Zerkall ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
- 212 252-1, 212 324-8 and 212 075-6 in Heimbach ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
- 212 324-8 on the red rocks of Hausen ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Deutsche Bundesbahn (Ed.): Official Course Book, Summer 1962. P. 165.
↑ ^a ^b Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 13.
↑ Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 2.
^ Rurtalbahn: News. Retrieved August 13, 2012 .

[1] DB Netze - Infrastructure Register

[2] Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .

[3] Rail network conditions of use of the Rurtalbahn GmbH - special section (SNB-BT). (PDF; 73 kB) Accessed February 10, 2012 . | Tracks in service facilities - KDN. (PDF; 184 kB) Retrieved February 25, 2012 .

[4] Wolfgang Kreckler: railway history of the place Jünkerath; Eisenbahnfreunde Jünkerath e. V., 1995, pp. 17/18

[75heimbach8-5] Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 8.

[75heimbach10-6] Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich e. V. (Ed.): 75 years Düren - Heimbach - history of a railway line; Jülich, 1978, p. 10.