Winterswijk – Bocholt railway line

Winterswijk - Bocholt
Route number (DB) :	2264
Course book section (DB) :	last 235a
Route length:	17.47 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed:	last 20  km / h
Legend Route from Zutphen 0.00 Winterswijk Route to Zevenaar former route to Burlo-Borken 6.90 Bocholt border   Netherlands / Germany 10.78 Barlo (b Bocholt) (old) former route from Borken-Rhede 15.90 Barlo Anst Bocholter Aa 17.47 Bocholt Sidings,   former line to Empel-Rees Route to Wesel Swell:

The Winterswijk - Bocholt railway line is a former cross-border railway line between the Dutch province of Gelderland and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The approximately 17-kilometer branch line was one of three routes operated by the Dutch-Westphalian Railway Company ( Dutch : Nederlandsch Westfaalsche Spoorweg Maatschappij , or NWE / NWSM for short). The line, which opened in 1880, was gradually shut down between 1931 and 1989 and is now completely dismantled. Cross-border passenger traffic is handled by taxi buses.

course

The line has a length of around 17.5 kilometers and was classified as a branch line . In the VzG route directory , the railway is listed under number 2264. The route ran mostly in a straight line in a north-east-south-west direction and had no major engineering structures .

The line began at Winterswijk station , where there was a connection to the lines from Zutphen and in the direction of Borken-Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck of the NWE. It ran together with the connection to Bismarck in a south-easterly direction and separated from this about 1.2 kilometers south of Winterswijk. Then the train turned in a long curve towards Bocholt.

The state border between the Netherlands and Germany was reached at  6.9 kilometers . At kilometer 10.8 the train passed the town and today's Bocholt district of Barlo , this was the only stop on the way. Before reaching the Bocholter train station , the railway line from Münster was added and the Bocholter Aa was crossed. In Bocholt, the railway went directly to the Wesel - Bocholt line . There was also a connection to the branch line Empel-Rees - Münster (Westf) Hbf .

history

The Dutch-Westphalian Railway Company (NWE) won the concession to build a railway line that the on June 26, 1878 the Ruhr area in the most direct way with the route network of the Hollandsche Maatschappij IJzeren Spoorweg- should link (HIJSM). In addition to this line, the NWE applied for approval to build a branch line from Winterswijk to Bocholt , where there was a connection to the line to Wesel of the Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (CME), which was opened in the same year .

The Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (BME) was supposed to take over the management of the railway and secured a connection to the North Sea in this way. The provisional company leasing agreement came about on June 7, 1875.

After the necessary state treaty between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the German Empire was signed on July 31, 1875, the NWE received the provisional concession to build both lines on December 1, 1875. After meeting other requirements, the Prussian Minister for Public Works granted the final license on February 11, 1877.

After a little more than three and a half years, the line went into operation together with the railway from Winterswijk to Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck on June 21, 1880, according to other sources, the opening took place two months after the Borkener Bahn on August 25, 1880.

With effect from January 1, 1882, the BME was nationalized and its routes were transferred to the Royal Railway Direction Elberfeld . The line, which still belongs to the NWE, was initially unaffected by the measure. Nevertheless, Prussia tried to acquire the facilities and on April 8, 1889, the NWE-owned lines were nationalized on July 1, 1889. The line thus also fell under the responsibility of KED Elberfeld.

The connection route to Wesel, on the other hand, was under the control of KED Cöln on the right bank of the Rhine. Since the network structure of the individual Prussian railway directorates was still based on the private railway network, the Ministry of Public Works initiated the restructuring of the administrations. On April 1, 1890, the routes from Bocholt to Wesel and Winterswijk temporarily moved to the area of ​​responsibility of KED Cöln on the right bank of the Rhine, and from April 1, 1895, the newly created Royal Railway Direction Münster was responsible.

The two routes starting from Bocholt were practically an exclave of the KED Münster after the administrative reform. In addition, the assignment did not correspond to the pursued goal of assigning the routes diametrically to the respective headquarters. So on April 1, 1899, he switched to the Royal Railway Direction in Essen . With the gradual commissioning of the branch line Empel - Bocholt - Borken - Coesfeld (Westf) - Münster (Westf) Hbf , there was again a connection to Münster, which resulted in a renewed correction of the direction boundaries.

The entire Bocholt node, including the route to Winterswijk, changed responsibility again on April 1, 1905. As a result of the traffic directed towards Wesel, the border was again adjusted on April 1, 1910. From that day onwards, the route was again exclusively under the control of the Bocholt train station, but the Bocholt train station remained in the area of ​​the KED Münster.

Former route to Winterswijk

With the beginning of the First World War on August 1, 1914, international traffic came to a standstill, and from then on the trains commuted between Bocholt and Barlo. Passenger traffic was also interrupted after the end of the war. In the 1920s, occasional freight trains again ran on the route and connected Wesel with the Dutch region of Twente , but their number was comparatively small.

On October 5, 1931, the cessation of goods traffic followed, preceded by the global economic crisis. Five years after the cessation of traffic, the shutdown followed. In 1942 the section between Winterswijk and Barlo was dismantled and the rails for the armaments industry melted down. Two years later, the line was to be rebuilt as a bypass of the important railway junction in Borken , but the project did not materialize.

Passenger traffic on the section between Bocholt and Barlo was probably stopped in 1952. From then on, Barlo was only served by freight trains, and the track to the station was later converted into a junction . On September 24, 1989, the section was also closed and the tracks were dismantled until 1996. A hiking trail called Oude Bocholtsebaan ( German : Old Bocholter Bahn ) commemorates the Dutch section .

Web links

• Description of route 2264 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
2. ↑ https://www.rvm-online.de/fahrt-planen/linienfahrplaene.php?single_linie=737
3. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Railway Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck - Winterswijk . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1993, ISBN 3-927587-11-7 , p. 4-7 .
4. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Railway Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck - Winterswijk . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1993, ISBN 3-927587-11-7 , p. 7-9 .
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Martin van Vulpen: NWS - Spoorlijn Zutphen - Winterswijk - Gelsenkirchen. In: martinvanvulpen.nl. Retrieved December 18, 2015 (Dutch). 
6. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Railway Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck - Winterswijk . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1993, ISBN 3-927587-11-7 , p. 10-11 .
7. ^ ^{A b} André Joost: Route archive 2263 - Wesel - Bocholt. In: NRWbahnarchiv. Retrieved May 25, 2015 . 
8. ^ ^{A b c} André Joost: Route archive 2264 - Bocholt (border) - Bocholt. In: NRWbahnarchiv. Retrieved May 25, 2015 . 
9. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Venlo Railway. Haltern - Wesel - Venlo . VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941712-04-1 , p. 77-78 .
10. ^ André Joost: Route archive 2265 - Empel-Rees - Münster (Westf). In: NRWbahnarchiv. Retrieved May 25, 2015 . 
11. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Venlo Railway. Haltern - Wesel - Venlo . VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941712-04-1 , p. 185-186 .
12. ^ Rolf Swoboda: Railway Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck - Winterswijk . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1993, ISBN 3-927587-11-7 , p. 45-47 .
13. ↑ Sporen naar Duitsland