Alsternordbahn

Alsternordbahn
Route number (DB) :	9122
Course book section (DB) :	138
Route length:	formerly 11.938 km today 7.783 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	(U-Bahn Norderstedt Mitte - Ochsenzoll) side busbar 750 V  =
Dual track :	Ulzburg – Moorbekhalle
Legend from Kaltenkirchen 11,938 Start of the route 11.720 Ulzburg South 11.014 to Eidelstedt / von Tanneneck Gbf 9.525 Meeschensee platform towards Ulzburg Süd 9.465 Elfenhagen 9.405 Meeschensee platform towards Norderstedt 8.512 K113 8,292 Haslohfurth 8.253 Substation 7.620 Industrial track to Harkshörn (NIB) 7.124 Quickborner Strasse 7,068 Quickborner Strasse 6.502 Friedrichsgabe (since 1992) 6.383 Friedrichsgabe (until 1992) 5.723 Oadby and Wigston Street (since 2015) 5,642 Harckesheyde 5.603 Friedrichsgaber Weg (until 2015) 5.170 Moorbekhalle 4.681 Friedrichsgabe Waldstrasse 4.676 Forest road 4.155 Norderstedt Mitte since 1996 from here 3,979 Heidberg 3,936 Harkseichen-Falkenberg (until 1979) 3,198 Buchenweg 2.738 Garstedt Richtweg 1,976 Marommer Street 1.630 Garstedt Birkenweg (until 1969) 1.515 Garstedt from 1969 (above ground until 1996) 1.070 Garstedt (until 1967) 1.068 Ochsenzoller Strasse 0.735 Hempberg 0.577 Ohechaussee 0.472 State border Schleswig-Holstein - Hamburg 0.000 Ochsenzoll (until 1967) Langenhorner Chaussee Ochsenzoll (formerly Gbf) to Ohlsdorf

The Alsternordbahn (ANB) is a branch line . It originally connected the Ochsenzoll stations in Hamburg-Langenhorn and Ulzburg Süd in the Segeberg district in Schleswig-Holstein and several stops set up in between.

The northern part of the route between Henstedt-Ulzburg and Norderstedt Mitte is now served by the AKN railway (line A2), is largely double-track and not electrified. The southern section between Norderstedt Mitte and Ochsenzoll is now part of the Hamburg subway network ( line U1 ), has two tracks throughout and is electrified with 750 V direct current via a conductor rail .

The name Alsternordbahn is still in use colloquially for this route.

history

The Alsternordbahn comes from an idea of ​​the civil engineer Heinrich Lönnies ("The Lion of Norderstedt") to implement the axis concept that the architect and Hamburg chief construction director Fritz Schumacher presented in the 1920s. This provided for a development axis in the form of a railway line for the Langenhorn - Kaltenkirchen area. At this point in time there was already the route of the Hamburger Hochbahn to Ochsenzoll, while there was no rail connection to Ulzburg and Henstedt, as there was a rather sparse settlement north of Ohlsdorf (see history of the Langenhorn Railway ).

Accumulator railcar from MaK in Ochsenzoll, in operation from 1953 to 1967

MAN rail bus used on the Alsternordbahn in the 1960s and 1970s

South head of the Ulzburg Süd station with a train to Norderstedt , on the siding a similar diesel-electric double multiple unit type LHB VT 2E , to the right the line to Hamburg-Eidelstedt

The Alsternordbahn was opened on May 17, 1953. Although it was initially planned as a simple tram-like connection, it was built as a standard-gauge small railway according to the railway construction and operating regulations and thus the first newly built railway line in the Federal Republic of Germany . The tracks come from the demolition of a 13 km long railway system of the former German Wehrmacht in the Aurich area and run south of the Ulzburg Süd stop into the AKN's Altona-Kaltenkirchen-Neumünster railway line . In Ochsenzoll there was no connection with the track of the Deutsche Bundesbahn's freight bypass line to Ohlsdorf , which was disused and dismantled in 2008 , and there was no direct connection with the underground line.

The management was from the beginning the AKN; it also provided the staff, some of which were officially employed by the ANB and were paid by it.

Initially (until 1967) new accumulator railcars from MaK were used , and from 1956 MAN rail buses . Right from the start, the railcars were equipped with VHF intercom systems. The train radio - the first in Germany - was carried out with the train registration office . The few passing points (station Meeschensee-Alsterquelle, Friedrichsgabe-Dorf, Friedrichgabe-Waldstrasse, Garstedt-Richtweg) on ​​the single-track line at that time were equipped with fallback switches, so that a cost-effective train control operation could be carried out with few staff.

The ANB sold their vehicle inventory in 1977, which was then provided by the AKN. In 1981, the ANB and the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloer Eisenbahn (EBOE) were completely taken over by AKN and have since been run as part of the ANB or EBO. The route designated as A2 in the Hamburg transport association was shortened as part of the gradual extension of the U1 underground line in 1967 to Garstedt and in 1996 to Norderstedt Mitte . The line was expanded to two tracks between 1992 and 1996, including the main track of the Norderstedter Industriebahn (NIB), which has been parallel between Ulzburg Süd and Friedrichsgabe since 1973 . The line ends on a single track in the Norderstedt Mitte station, which opened in 1996, where it is possible to change to the underground at the same platform.

In 1992 the infrastructure was handed over to Verkehrsgesellschaft Norderstedt (VGN), a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Norderstedt. The AKN continues to operate the traffic on the A2 route with diesel-electric double railcars ( LHB VTA ), with four railcars owned by VGN. The southern section of the Alsternordbahn from Norderstedt Mitte to Garstedt, which is also owned by VGN, has been operated as the U1 subway line by the Hamburger Hochbahn (HHA) since 1996 after lowering and double-track expansion , with some DT4 railcars belonging to VGN.

Freight traffic had only existed since October 20, 1971, and only on the northern part of the route, when the connection to the HEW was put into operation. It has been carried out by DB Cargo since January 1, 2004 .

Stops

From south to north, abandoned stops in italics :

• Ochsenzoll , opened in 1953 to the west of Langenhorner Chaussee (single-track, platform on the south side) at the level of the then terminus of the underground railway and the freight yard on the eastern side of the street , closed in 1967 due to the construction of the underground railway to Garstedt
• Garstedt , opened in 1953 north of Ochsenzoller Straße (single-track, platform on the west side), closed in 1967, opened further north in 1969 above the subway station of the same name next to the “Herold Center” shopping center, which opened here shortly afterwards, as a new end point (single-track with rear siding, platform on the west side), abandoned in 1996 (replaced by an extended subway)
• Garstedt-Birkenweg , opened in 1953 north of the Birkenweg (single track, platform on the west side), provisional end point 1967–1969, then abandoned and dismantled, roughly at this point was the back siding of the new Garstedt end point
• Richtweg (until 1979: Garstedt-Richtweg ), opened in 1953 south of Richtweg (double-track with central platform), abandoned in 1996 and replaced by an underground station
• Norderstedt Mitte (until 1979: Harkseichen-Falkenberg ), opened in 1953 south of Heidbergstrasse (single-track, platform on the east side), relocated several times further north in the early / mid-1990s (most recently single-track north of Rathausallee, platform on the west side), terminus since 1996 in the open cut (single-track between the subway tracks), with a direct transition on the same platform to the extended subway line U1 in the direction of Garstedt - Ochsenzoll - Hamburg
• Waldstraße , (until 1979: Friedrichsgabe-Waldstraße ), opened in 1953, platform in front of the Waldstraße intersection (two-track), abandoned and dismantled in 1992 (replacement by the new Moorbekhalle stop further north)
• Moorbekhalle (north school center) , opened in 1992 (double-track with side platforms)
• Harckesheyde , (until 1979: Friedrichsgabe-Heidberg ), opened in 1953 (single-track, platform on the west side), abandoned and dismantled in 1992 (replacement by the new Moorbekhalle stop further south)
• Friedrichsgabe (until 1979: Friedrichsgabe-Mitte ), opened in May 1957 (single-track, platform on the east side, now double-track with side platforms)
• Quickborner Straße (until 1979: Friedrichsgabe-Dorf ), opened in 1953 north of Quickborner Straße (double-track with central platform)
• Haslohfurth (until 1979: Haslohfurt-Kampmoor ), opened in 1953 as Haslohfurth (single-track, platform on the east side, after construction of the Norderstedter Industriebahn (NIB) on the west side, now double-track with side platforms)
• Meeschensee (until 1979: Meeschensee- Alsterquelle ), opened in 1953 (double-track with the respective side platform on the west side and back track on the south side, now double-track with side platforms)
• Ulzburg Süd , opened in 1953 on the Eidelstedt - Kaltenkirchen - Neumünster route of the AKN (today A1 line)

With the exception of Ulzburg Süd, all today's stops are in the city of Norderstedt. After expansion in the 1990s, the line is double-tracked throughout, with the exception of the end sections in the Norderstedt Mitte and Ulzburg Süd stations, and is operated at 10-minute intervals during rush hour .

In the 1950s and 1960s, a number of trips via Ulzburg Süd were continued on the AKN route via Ulzburg to Kaltenkirchen - the company workshop is located here. This has been the case again since 2000, and Ulzburg station is now called Henstedt-Ulzburg . In particular, this was necessary because the accumulators of the accumulator railcars used first had to be charged at the ANB's battery charging station.

The zero point of the route kilometers has not been changed and is still in Ochsenzoll .

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  Ulzburg Süd train station , change at the same platform on both sides between A2 and A1 (+ A3)

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  Haslohfurth stop (A2)

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  Quickborner Straße station in Friedrichsgabe (A2)

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  Norderstedt Mitte station , on the middle platform the A2, with trains from the U1 on both sides

Today's operation

Today the passenger traffic on the (northern) Alsternordbahn is carried out as line A2 by the AKN. The trains generally run daily between 5 a.m. and 1 a.m. with a basic cycle of 20 minutes, which is thinned out to 40 minutes after 11 p.m. and on Sundays. During the rush hour Monday to Friday between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. there is a 10-minute cycle. The trains run every 20 minutes on the AKN main line to Kaltenkirchen.

Service facilities at stations

All today's stations on the A2 line have ticket machines and emergency telephones and are video-monitored. Electronic destination displays have been installed in Norderstedt Mitte and Ulzburg Süd, the other stops only have loudspeakers for current passenger information. Free WiFi has been available at all stations since May 2015.

literature

• Hans-Jürgen Kielmann: The Alsternordbahn - Idea and Reality . VVM, Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-923999-07-0
• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways, part 1: Schleswig-Holstein / Hamburg . Zeunert, Gifhorn 1972, ISBN 3-921237-14-9
• Emil Ehrhorn: 25 years of the Alster Nordbahn, Hamburg booklets on railway history; Episode 2 (1977), Hamburger Museumsverein, Dept. Railway

Web links

• History of the Alsternordbahn (private website)