Altenhundem – Wenholthausen railway line

Lennestadt-Altenhundem-Wenholthausen
Route number (DB) :	2862
Course book section (DB) :	239a
Route length:	41.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	approx. 15  ‰
Legend Ruhr-Sieg route to Siegen 0.0 Lennestadt-Altenhundem (formerly Altenhundem) 276  m Ruhr-Sieg route to Hagen 2.8 Kickenbach 3.9 Long egg 6.1 Gleierbrück 8.4 Saalhausen 12.3 Lenne (Kr Olpe) 15.2 Fleckenberg 18.3 Schmallenberg 20.9 Gleidorf 410  m 23.1 Vertex 450  m 23.7 Fredeburg 440  m 29.0 Heiminghausen 31.9 Dorlar (Kr Meschede) 34.2 Frielinghausen 36.3 Bremke 38.8 Wenne former route from Finnentrop 41.1 Wenholthausen 286  m former route to Wennemen

The Altenhundem – Wenholthausen railway line was a single-track, non-electrified railway line between Altenhundem, now part of Lennestadt , and Wenholthausen, which is now part of the Eslohe community .

meaning

The course book route 239a was intended as a connection between the Ruhr-Sieg route and the Upper Ruhr Valley Railway and was initially only intended to lead from Altenhundem to Schmallenberg . As early as 1872, the construction of a direct connection from Cologne to Kassel , for which the new connection was necessary, was considered. A hoped-for upswing in the slate industry near Fredeburg and the textile industry in Schmallenberg were named as the advantages of the 45-kilometer route . The road connection was above average expensive to maintain, which is why a rail route was also preferred.

In addition, the Cologne – Kassel line would have been of great military importance. The conditions for the construction of the route were favorable as there were no steep inclines to deal with. Only one tunnel was necessary.

history

Schmallenberg train station 1890

Course of the route in Altenhundem

Schmallenberg station in 1986

A railway construction committee, which was founded in June 1881 and made up of around 300 people, campaigned for the construction of the line to begin.

Before the construction of the line began, the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft set the conditions to prove the profitability of the line, to be allowed to use the existing road from Altenhundem to Schmallenberg and, finally, for the neighboring communities to participate in the financing.

In April 1885, construction of the line began. On May 3, 1886, the first section from Altenhundem to Langenei was opened, the section from Langenei to Saalhausen followed on November 1, and on May 1, 1887 the last section from Saalhausen to Schmallenberg was finally put into operation.

An extension to Fredeburg was soon requested. Construction began in April 1888 and this extension was opened on November 15, 1889. In September 1911, another extension of the line, namely to Wenholthausen , was opened. The trains required a travel time of around 93 minutes for the entire route.

Altenhundem station gained great importance with the opening and construction of the line to Birkelbach, and Altenhundem advanced to become a railway village .

The last passenger train journey on the route took place on May 28, 1964. In 1967/1968 the line between Schmallenberg and Altenhundem was demolished, the remaining line remained in scheduled freight traffic until 1994. The last freight train was accompanied by many railway fans. Noteworthy here was the trumpeter who said goodbye to the procession with Mussi for the town hall . The first procession in 1888 was greeted with a full band. The route was initially retained for special trips.

From 2004 the dismantling of the line began from Schmallenberg. In July 2006, the dismantling of the route between Schmallenberg and Wenholthausen was completed. In 2010 there is nothing left of the line, and the tracks between Wennemen and Wenholthausen have also been removed. Today a large part of the former railway line has been converted into a cycle path, which is integrated into the state-wide cycle network of North Rhine-Westphalia as the SauerlandRadring .

literature

• Alfred Bruns: The Altenhundem – Schmallenberg branch line. In: Alfred Bruns (Red.): The railway in the Sauerland. Slate mining and local history museum, Schmallenberg-Holthausen 1989, ISBN 3-922659-63-2 , p. 180 ff. ( Out of print).

Web links

Commons : Altenhundem – Wenholthausen railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of route 2862 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
• Excerpt from the course book from 1944

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brief information on the SauerlandRadring - Cycle Route Planner NRW ( Memento from November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Ministry for Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on November 20, 2015.