Almetalbahn

This article describes the Almetalbahn in NRW. For the Lower Saxony Almetalbahn, see the Lemma Elze – Bodenburg railway line .

Paderborn – Brilon
former route
Route number (DB) :	2961
Course book section (DB) :	ex 174d, 198p, 198e, 298g, 238e, 345
Route length:	59.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4 (Thülen – Brilon Wald)
Top speed:	<60 km / h
Dual track :	-
Opening:	Oct. 20, 1899
Closure of passenger traffic:	May 30, 1981
State (D):	North Rhine-Westphalia
Legend Line from Warburg Sennebahn from Bielefeld 0 Paderborn central station ⊙ 117  m Route to Soest ⊙ 2.6 Alme ⊙ 4.4 Wewer ⊙ 6.9 Alme ⊙ 7.7 Borchen ⊙ 10.0 Alfen ⊙ 12.1 Alme ⊙ 12.7 Niederntudorf ⊙ 15.8 Alme ⊙ 16.2 Wewelsburg ⊙ 16.7 Alme ⊙ 16.9 Alme ⊙ 17.0 Wewelsburg Tunnel (143 m) ⊙ 18.1 Alme ⊙ 18.3 Ahden ⊙ 18.5 Ahden tunnel (118 m) ⊙ 20.0 Alme ⊙ 21.8 Brenken ⊙ 26.1 former route from Geseke ⊙ 26.6 Büren (Westf) ⊙ 227  m 27.4 (End of the route since 2007) ⊙ 27.5 Büren (Westf) -Weinberg ⊙ (museum railway)   30.0 Weiner Viaduct ⊙ 30.1 Wines ⊙ 32.3 Siddinghausen ⊙ 36.3 Ringelstein ⊙ (museum railway) 264  m 43.3 Alme ⊙ 329  m 44.1 Almequelle 44.2 Almer Tunnel (100 m) RWE - Brilon substation 47.5 Thülen (museum railway) 47.7 Thülen Rekostein (Anst) 391  m 50.0 Brilon Egger (institution) 52.0 former Möhnetalbahn from Soest 52.4 Brilon city 426  m 56.2 Gudenhagener Tunnel (280 m) 56.4 Gudenhagen 58.9 Upper Ruhr Valley Railway from Warburg 59.7 Brilon Forest ⊙ 448  m Upper Ruhr Valley Railway to Hagen Uplandbahn to Korbach

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

The Almetalbahn was an approximately 60 km long, mostly single-track branch line from Paderborn via Büren to Brilon . It is named after the alpine pasture through whose valley it leads in a north-south direction. The line between Paderborn and Büren-Weinberg has been shut down and dismantled, but not initially dismantled. For a long time, the remaining route between Büren-Weinberg and Brilon Wald was only used for freight traffic and by a museum railway ; regional trains have been running again on the section between Brilon Stadt and Brilon Wald since 2011.

history

Uerdingen rail bus on the route, April 2009

The route was laid out between 1898 and 1901. At the same time, the Geseke – Büren connection to the Hamm – Warburg line was planned and built.

Opening and operation

The northern section from Paderborn to Büren was opened on October 20, 1899; the section from Brilon Stadt to Brilon Wald was operational from July 1, 1900. On April 1, 1901, the remaining line between Büren and Brilon was put into operation. Passenger and goods traffic on the route initially took place with steam locomotives, later with diesel locomotives and railcars .

From 1936 to 1945, the large Harth air ammunition facility , which was connected to the railway line in the station , was hidden in the forest near Ringelstein . During the Second World War , the Almetalbahn was increasingly targeted by low-flying Allies from the beginning of 1945. On February 13, 1945 z. B. Alme station was shot at by low-flying aircraft with on-board weapons. Two locomotives remained unusable. Two buildings caught fire and several buildings were hit.

From 1950, the route was also connected to the long-distance network by the daily " Heckeneilzug " Bremen - Paderborn - Büren - Brilon - Marburg - Frankfurt am Main . With the start of the summer timetable in 1969, the pair of express trains Hamburg - Winterberg also ran over the Almetalbahn on Saturdays . In the following year, the wagons of this connection were added to the aforementioned rear end train as through wagons .

From May 27, 1963, a pair of express trains ran daily on the Almetalbahn Paderborn – Cologne: A V 100 brought the train consisting of three “ Silberlingen ” (with a control car) from Cologne via Dieringhausen , Olpe , Meschede and Brilon to Paderborn and back. The population called this train “Dom-Express” or “Kardinalsexpress” because of the two cathedrals or bishop's seats at the endpoints. Despite good connections to other routes, this pair of trains only existed for two years.

Closure, dismantling and residual traffic

Former station of the Almetalbahn in Brenken

Former station of the Almetalbahn in Ahden

South portal of the Wewelsburg tunnel with a length of 143 m

Surroundings at the south portal of the Ahden tunnel with a length of 118 m

On the section between Büren and Brilon, the regular passenger train service was stopped on September 29, 1974 due to defects in the superstructure. The course of the Heckeneilzug continued until the end of the winter timetable 1978/79 from Brilon-Wald via Warburg towards Northern Germany. On May 30, 1981, the remaining passenger traffic on the route was finally stopped. On the sections between Paderborn and Büren and between Brilon Stadt and Brilon Wald there was still regular passenger traffic up to this point. Passenger traffic was then completely handled by rail buses, which were increasingly replacing local trains in advance.

The operation in freight traffic was partly stopped earlier; on May 30, 1965 between Büren and Ringelstein it was over. Freight traffic between Ringelstein and Alme ended on April 14, 1975. Freight trains came to Alme until July 31, 1991, and to Thülen until May 30, 1992. North of Büren, the route was still used for goods traffic until the end of 1995. Then this was also discontinued. The 10 km long section between Brilon-Wald and the Egger company in Brilon is still regularly used by freight traffic today; Since the timetable change in December 2011, passenger trains have been running again between Brilon Wald and Brilon Stadt. The route between Brilon Egger and Büren-Weinberg was temporarily leased to the company RWE and, most recently, its subsidiary Amprion for transporting transformers to the Brilon substation and continued to be operated as a connecting railway . In 2016, Amprion returned this section to DB Netz AG. The substation continues to be operated sporadically by rail.

Attempted revitalization of the northern section

In 1999 the Westfälische Almetalbahn GmbH (WAB) took over the Paderborn – Büren section with the aim of reviving freight traffic and using it for excursions on a historic steam train. However, it remained with individual commodity and museum railroad trips and on June 30, 2006 this section of the route was shut down due to necessary renovation work and dismantled shortly afterwards. A declassification between Paderborn and Buren vineyard was, however, deferred here the possibility of reactivating and links of Paderborn / Lippstadt airport to check. This is north of Ahden about 1.3 km as the crow flies from the route; the difference in altitude is approx. 50 meters.

In a report from 2010 it could be proven that the reactivation of the Almetalbahn between Paderborn and Büren makes economic sense. During a guided tour along the historic route, the standardized rating was 1.2, the highest cost-benefit factor. The operating concept provided for an hourly service between Büren and Paderborn, with densities at half-hourly intervals during rush hour. The trains should be tied through in Paderborn to the Sennebahn in the direction of Bielefeld. Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport should be connected via a bus shuttle from Wewelsburg train station. The forecast utilization is 900 passengers per kilometer of operating length.

In 2011 the local transport association Paderborn-Höxter decided unanimously not to reopen the Almetalbahn between Paderborn and Büren. The reactivation of the route and thus the better connection of the airport to the rail traffic would cost almost 30 million euros. In addition, there would be annual operating costs of 3.8 million euros. These costs seemed too high to the neighboring municipalities and the district. Since the railway line was to be preserved and de-dedication prevented, the Paderborn district council decided at the end of June 2012 to purchase the line from the previous owner, WAB. In October 2013, the Paderborn district leased the northern four kilometers on Paderborner Grund up to the border of the Borchen municipality to the city of Paderborn. In the Borchen area, the cycle route should be changed by avoiding the town through the district road and instead using the former railway line.

In 2016, the Paderborn district acquired the Paderborn - Büren section as part of an initiative by the German Railways Association and DB Netz in order to carry out a potential analysis for reactivating the local rail transport. However, it was then reported that the ownership structure did not allow such an analysis. As a result, the Paderborn district asked the Westphalia-Lippe local public transport association to prepare a feasibility study and a new standardized assessment to reactivate the route. At the same time, the city of Brilon asked its citizens via a platform on the Internet whether they would like a cycle path or a regional rail connection to Paderborn. Around two thirds of those who voted spoke in favor of reactivating local rail transport. A revised standardized assessment should be available with the completion of the new public transport requirement plan of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Revival of the Brilon Forest – Brilon City

The station Brilon City 2012

The city of Brilon had tried for a number of years to resume local rail transport to the city station near the center. In order to demonstrate the feasibility, continuous trains to Brilon City were offered during the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Willingen in individual years. In 2006 the Zweckverband Ruhr-Lippe (ZRL) published an opinion on the potential and costs of reactivation. Three operating scenarios were worked out, with which, depending on the variant, between 350 and 890 new customers are to be won over the long term. The variant with the strongest forecast demand was an extension of the RE 57 trains from Dortmund, which ended every two hours in Bestwig, and an hourly line to Korbach, which continued to Marburg every two hours. One-off investment costs of 630,000 euros and annual operating costs of 1.5 million euros were determined, one fifth of which should be covered by fare income.

After the report had been drawn up, the restart was put on hold, as the financing of the annual operating costs could not be secured. In 2007, the tracks between Brilon Wald and Brilon Egger were rehabilitated, as the Egger company has an increased need for service in freight traffic and the rehabilitation of the tracks was a condition for expanding the Brilon location. In 2008, tracks 1 and 4–8 were demolished in Brilon Stadt train station, and the Brilon Arkaden shopping center was built on the former track areas . There are only two tracks left in Brilon Stadt, which are required for freight traffic . Because of the missing platform, the end point of the museum railway was moved to Thülen.

At the end of 2008, the Ministry of Building and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia promised to include the Brilon Stadt train station in the infrastructure financing plan, on condition that the (ZRL) ordered the local rail passenger transport for the railway line from Brilon Wald to Brilon Stadt for twenty years. The ZRL then decided on June 23, 2009 to resume the regular local rail transport on this section for the timetable change in December 2011. The new platform was created north of the former Brilon Stadt train station. In addition to a Park & ​​Ride car park, a new central bus station was built next to the new platform. There are connections to the city bus routes as well as to the S 80 to Paderborn, R 91 to Marsberg and S 30 to Medebach.

On December 10, 2011, regular local traffic resumed operations on the section between Brilon Wald and Brilon Stadt. In the first year of operation (2012), passenger demand was 268 passengers per day. For the first time, individual trains to Thülen were tied through in 2013 in order to connect there to the trains of the Waldbahn Almetal to Büren-Weinberg. The tie-through was also offered on four Sundays in July and August in 2014.

Museum traffic

Former rail bus of the Westfälische Almetalbahn e. V. in re-use on a siding in Hagenow , October 2007

Museum tram 431 near Ringelstein in August 2000

Museum railway traffic has been taking place in the summer months on the Büren-Weinberg - Thülen section since 1981 . This was first used by Dortmund's railway friends under the name Westfälische Almetalbahn e. V. (WAB) carried out with the old Dortmund tram GT4 431 together with a generator car ; from 2001 the tram set was replaced by rail buses.

However, the club withdrew from the track a few years ago; since then the Waldbahn Almetal e. V. the museum railway operation on the lower Almetalbahn. Two 798 series rail buses were used for this purpose. The tram is now in the Mooskamp Tram Museum in Dortmund-Nette. Museum traffic has been inactive since November 2014, as the necessary general inspection was not carried out on both vehicles and the future of the route section used is unclear. The vehicles have since been sold to another club.

Transport offer

On the section from Brilon Wald via Brilon Stadt to Brilon Egger, DB Cargo Deutschland operates freight transport to the Egger company . The section between Thülen and Büren was leased for several years to Amprion GmbH , which used the route for transformer transport between the Nehden and Büren substations. This lease has now expired and the section is no longer passable.

With the timetable change in December 2016, the timetable for line RE 57 with through trains to Dortmund was reduced to a two-hourly service all day. Previously, there were only hourly continuous trains to and from Dortmund during rush hour during the week. In the remaining times there was an hourly shuttle service between Brilon Forest and Brilon City. With the establishment of a new crossing point in Viermünden in December 2017, trains on the RB 42 line run every two hours and every hour in the afternoon to Marburg (Lahn) . The cuts in the through trains on the RE 57 line from Dortmund were reversed in the afternoon, so that the RE 57 and RB 42 lines run between Brilon Wald and Brilon Stadt every half hour.

The transport offer between Brilon and Paderborn is now ensured by bus lines. The S 10 express bus runs, for example, which, due to its route via Bad Wünnenberg, only serves the towns of Thülen and Alme along the railway line. There is no longer a continuous bus service between the cities of Brilon and Büren, here you only have the option of crossing the district boundary by changing to Stadtverkehr Büren in Bad Wünnenberg. The Büren city traffic runs between Büren and Siddinghausen, some trips are extended to Alme for school trips. The section between Büren and Paderborn is served by two express bus routes and several regional bus routes. The most important connection here is the S 60 line, which runs via Paderborn / Lippstadt Airport .

future

In a second operating stage, the local transport plan of the NWL provides for a compression of the direct connections to Dortmund from two-hour to one-hour intervals. The trains on the RE 57 line are to be winged in Bestwig with the trains from Winterberg and run together to Dortmund. A date for the implementation of the second operating stage with an additional performance volume of 210,000 train kilometers per year is not yet known.

The reactivation of the Paderborn – Büren section is included as a medium-term option in the local traffic plan of Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe (NWL). A second stage is to close the gap to Brilon. The reactivation of the Almetalbahn on the Büren – Brilon section was proposed by the Arnsberg Regional Council in December 2015 for the 2017 public transport requirement plan of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia .

In 2018, the Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe announced the financing of an electronic interlocking for the section Brilon Stadt – Brilon Wald for the infrastructure financing plan of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. By changing the operating procedure, the currently used technically supported train control operation can be dispensed with. The NWL hopes that this will give it the opportunity to further expand the offer in the future and make it more flexible.

In 2019, the city of Brilon joined the vote of the Paderborn / Höxter local transport network for a feasibility study on the possible reactivation of the 60 km long Almetalbahn Brilon – Büren – Paderborn, writes the WAZ . The annual operating costs are estimated at 8 to 10 million euros. On May 25, 2020, the association assembly of the Paderborn / Höxter local transport network decided to commission a feasibility study for reactivating the Almetalbahn. The investigation is divided into the two investigation sections Paderborn – Büren and Büren – Brilon. The local transport association Paderborn / Höxter bears 75% of the investigation costs and the Zweckverband Ruhr-Lippe 25%.

literature

• Wilhelm Grabe (Ed.): Under steam and diesel by day and night. Living history of the Almetalbahn. Book accompanying the special exhibition September 9 - December 30, 2007 in the Wewelsburg district museum. Bonifatius, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022097-5 ( Series of publications of the District Museum Wewelsburg 6).
• Josef Högemann: Paderborn - Brilon Forest. In: Wolf-Dietger Machel (ed.): Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany. Once & now. From Rügen to Rosenheim, from Aachen to Zwickau. Loose-leaf edition. GeraNova Zeitschriftenverlag, Munich 2002, ISSN  0949-2143 , pp. 1–12.
• Josef Högemann: The railway in the old district of Brilon. Verlag Uhle & Kleimann 1988, ISBN 3-922657-70-2 .
• Martin & Stephan Zöllner, Heinz Rüschenbaum: The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway and its branch lines 1990-2000 . Podszun 2002, ISBN 3-86133-296-5 .

Web links

Commons : Almetalbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of route 2961 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
• Pictures of the tunnel portals on www.eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de by Lothar Brill
• Waldbahn Almetal e. V.
• Pictures with the current state of the route between Paderborn and Büren
• Hedge cable train Bremen – Frankfurt
• Vehicle list
• Excerpt from the course book 1944
• Comprehensive website for reactivating the Almetalbahn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany 2007/2008 . 6th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9 .
2. ↑ Impressions of the Almetal forest railway: Büren-Weinberg. In: bahn-markt.de. Retrieved on December 20, 2015 (Büren-Weinberg stop). 
3. ↑ Klemens Wiesemann: A railway “over or next to Brilon” or the traffic situation in the Brilon and Olsberg area in the previous century . Ed .: Briloner Heimatbund eV Heimatbund der Stadt Olsberg eV LkB, Brilon 1999, p. 32 .
4. ^ Hugo Cramer: The district of Brilon in the Second World War 1939-1945 . Josefs-Druckerei, Bigge 1955, p. 59-61 .
5. ↑ Submission for the association meeting on September 27, 2010. (PDF) TOP 1 Standardized assessment of the Almetalbahn. Local transport association Paderborn / Höxter, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 20, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Almetalbahn never runs again. Reactivation costs too high. In: New Westphalian . December 2, 2011, archived from the original on September 4, 2012 ; Retrieved December 20, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Almetalbahn for 1 euro. District buys route, municipalities contribute to maintenance costs. In: The Patriot, Lippstädter Zeitung. June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Leased railway line for bike path. In: New Westphalian. October 21, 2013, accessed December 20, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Leased railway line. In: Westfalen-Blatt . November 12, 2013, archived from the original on April 24, 2014 ; Retrieved November 15, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Local transport association Paderborn / Höxter, Item 6: Status report on the electrification of the Sennebahn and reactivation of the Almetalbahn, February 11, 2019
11. ↑ Jutta Klute: reactivation of the Almetalbahn: determine costs and benefits. In: Westfalenpost. April 3, 2019, accessed April 18, 2019 . 
12. ↑ NRW: reactivation of the railway line from Brilon to Brilon-Wald too risky from an economic point of view. In: Briloner Anzeiger. Retrieved December 20, 2015 (brilon-wald.de). 
13. ↑ NRW: Train traffic between Brilon-Stadt and Brilon-Wald is started. June 26, 2009, accessed on November 15, 2013 (report on eurailpress.de). 
14. ↑ "Gold worth for Brilon". In: Sauerlandkurier. December 10, 2011, accessed December 20, 2015 . 
15. ↑ http://www.zrl.de/aktuelles/verbandsversammlungen/VV-83.zip
16. ↑ http://www.zrl.de/about/publikationen/zrl-info-66.pdf
17. ↑ Local traffic plan Westphalia-Lippe. (PDF) NWL, October 2011, accessed on June 18, 2020 . 
18. ^ Resolution from the 6th meeting of the regional council on Tuesday, December 8th, 2015. (PDF) TOP December 5th, 2015, archived from the original on December 22nd, 2015 ; Retrieved December 20, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, documents for the 51st association meeting, item 6 registration for the state's infrastructure financing plan, October 4, 2018, ZIP file
20. ↑ Opinion on the possible reactivation April 15, 2019
21. ↑ Local transport association Paderborn / Höxter, Association Assembly, Item 6, Almetalbahn feasibility study, May 25, 2020