Bremervörde – Walsrode railway line
The Bremervörde – Walsrode railway was a railway line of regional importance in Lower Saxony . It connected Bremervörde to Walsrode via Zeven , Rotenburg (Wümme) and Visselhövede . Passenger traffic was divided in Rotenburg. Originally, the connection was designed as part of a long-distance Hanover - Geestemünde line. Long-distance traffic never took place on the route; but around 1953 there were continuous express trains between Bremervörde and Hanover.
history
First years
The first section between Walsrode and Visselhövede was opened on July 1, 1890 for goods traffic and on August 25, 1890 for passenger traffic. This section initially represented the continuation of the southern section of the Heidebahn from Hanover to Walsrode and was built primarily on the basis of guarantees from Wolff & Co. in Bomlitz , which required a connection to the North Sea ports via the Cordingen station . The extension from Visselhövede via Brockel , Rotenburg and Zeven to Bremervörde was opened gradually from 1906. From July 11, 1906, the trains ran to Rotenburg, from October 3, 1906 to Zeven, and from May 16, 1908 finally to Bremervörde. Another continuation via Bederkesa to Cuxhaven was discussed in the 1920s, but never realized.
The entire route played an important role in the development of the region, in the transport of agricultural goods, in school traffic and for excursion tourism. During the National Socialist rule, the southern section between Cordingen and Walsrode was part of a one-way ring traffic via the Wolff factory railway and the Heidebahn in order to cope with the volume of traffic caused by the newly established Bomlitz armaments industry. In April 1945, evacuation transports with Neuengamme concentration camp prisoners from the satellite camps in Bremen and Wilhelmshaven to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and to the reception camp in the Stalag XB Sandbostel also operated on the railway line .
Partial cessation of traffic
Passenger traffic on the Rotenburg – Visselhövede section was discontinued on June 1, 1958, after only one pair of trains a day had traveled the route in the form of a rail bus . Before that there was still a continuous connection from Stade , the seat of the administrative district at that time, via this section to Walsrode. Large parts of the line between Brockel and Visselhövede were dismantled after the final closure in 1963. This initially affected the Brockel – Wittorf section, on which there is now a cycle path . In 1979 the section from Wittorf to Visselhövede was also dismantled. On the southern section Visselhövede – Cordingen, the last of the three sections, passenger traffic was discontinued on June 1, 1980. Passenger trains continued to run from Walsrode via Cordingen to Bomlitz until May 31, 1991. The section Visselhövede – Cordingen was given up on September 28, 1984 for freight traffic; the tracks are now removed.
Takeover by the evb
Freight traffic is still brisk between Bremervörde and Rotenburg after passenger traffic was stopped here on September 29, 1968. The remaining tracks between Bremervörde, Rotenburg and Brockel were transferred from the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1991 to the ownership of the railways and transport company Elbe-Weser (evb). It serves the route between Bremervörde and Rotenburg in freight traffic, traffic on the Rotenburg – Brockel section was discontinued on December 31, 2002, and in the last few years only potatoes were left here. After the derailment of a freight train at the level of the branch in Rotenburg, the connection point was expanded so that the Brockeler branch was no longer accessible. The tracks were dismantled here in July 2008.
In the local transport plan 2013–2017 of the Rotenburg (Wümme) district, the LNVG is asked to reactivate the Bremervörde – Zeven – Rotenburg (Wümme) section for local rail passenger transport. However, this measure is given low priority in the paper.
The state of Lower Saxony is also discussing electrification of the Rotenburg - Bremervörde section.
Route
Bremervörde - Rotenburg (Wümme) section
The railway line, on which the legendary Heini steam locomotive used to run in the surrounding villages , still exists today, but is only used for freight traffic. After it branches off from the railway line, which is now used by passenger traffic on the Bremerhaven - Hamburg route, to the south into an extensive Geest area with many pine forests, it runs parallel to federal highway 71 through Bevern, Deinstedt, Selsingen, Seedorf and Godenstedt to Zeven. The Wilstedt – Tostedt railway line is crossed under on the northern outskirts of the city . Directly south of the Zeven (Han) train station there is a connecting switch to the Zeven Süd train station on the same former small train, which today, like the route described here, belongs to evb . To the south of Zeven, an industrial track branched off to Aspe until it was dismantled at the end of 2007 , before the journey continues through the Geest area. Via Elsdorf with its dairy , Gyhum, Mulmshorn, Bötersen, where a track branches off to the Rotenburg barracks , and via Waffensen, the bridge over the main line from Bremen ("taxiway") is reached.
Directly behind this bridge, the line, together with the Verden – Rotenburg railway line coming from the south, merges into the Rotenburg track system, which can be reached from the west. Nowadays the Bremervörde – Rotenburg (Wümme) route is mainly used for freight traffic: container trains operated by evb from Bremerhaven to Hamburg and vice versa, trains for transporting building materials to Zeven and Bremervörde, and wooden trains from the East Hanoverian Railway to Stendal use this route.
Section Rotenburg (Wümme) - Visselhövede
Until the use of rail busses , a passenger train set known in the surrounding villages as Fidi , usually hauled by a T 11 and popularly known as “Donnerbüchsen” , drove here . The Rotenburg station is left to the east. The line to Visselhövede branched off after the Wümmebrücke to the southeast from the main line to Hamburg. A siding to the Rotenburger Stadtwerke used to branch off to the right, which has now been dismantled. Today there is a famila store in front of the level crossing on Harburger Strasse near the Catholic Church . Up until the 1990s there was a freight yard operated by a local agricultural cooperative and the former stop at Rotenburg Harburger Strasse , which existed for a short time in the 1950s.
The route continued in a straight line to the southeast through natural geest and forest landscape. The Hemsbünde stop used to be in front of a level crossing on Bundesstrasse 71 . To the south of the level crossing there was a siding to the window and door manufacturer HBI . After a further three kilometers, the route turned south. Brockel station was on this curve between the towns of Bothel and Brockel . It was the end point of the line for a long time after the continuing tracks were dismantled. In addition to the old station building, there were several loading tracks for an agricultural cooperative, a wooden toy manufacturer and a former train station. The tracks ended in front of a former bridge over the Wiedau brook .
From here on, a cycle path runs along the old route that continues south past Bothel. In the area of the Trochel state forest , the route is crossed by an old bridge over which a field and forest path runs. Furthermore, several small streams and further field and forest paths are crossed at former level crossings. In the area of the village of Bretel there is an old railway keeper's house at a former level crossing. An old platform edge, now with a picnic area, bears witness to the former Bretel stop . The route continues south until Wittorf is reached. The cycle path ends here at the former Wittorf Ost demand stop. The following Wittorf train station after about one kilometer is now a residential building; Until 1979 there were loading tracks here - similar to Brockel.
The old railway line has now been built over to the south of the former station. The route crossed the federal highway 440 before it ran on a dam that was comparatively high for the area west of the village of Nindorf . A brief stop was also operated here parallel to Rotenburg Harburger Strasse . The route described met the Uelzen – Langwedel railway line almost vertically , which was crossed under . This was followed by a sharp left turn, so that the Visselhövede train station was reached from the west along with the “Amerikalinie”.
Section Visselhövede - Walsrode
This section was in operation for the longest in passenger traffic. The Visselhövede station was left together with the American line to the east. The route to Walsrode turned south in a sharp curve. After the route ran through wooded area, the train station in the small village of Jarlingen was reached. The station was away from the village, here was a level crossing on a dirt road. Today the route is built on. The route continued south until the Cordingen station was reached. This station was at times still served by passenger traffic on the Bomlitz – Walsrode line. Today there are still tracks here, the station exit to Visselhövede is also still there, but the tracks end bluntly after 100 meters. To the south of Cordingen, the route runs through a slightly hilly area in the area of the Walsrode bird park . From the east from encounters Bad Fallingbostel coming Heidebahn added, with the route described in common from the north, the station Walsrode reached.
Web links
- Railway around Bremervörde
- Today's route from Rotenburg to Brockel
- Today's route condition Visselhövede - Walsrode
Individual evidence
- ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 10th edition. Schweers + Wall, Cologne 2017, ISBN 3-921679-13-3 .
- ↑ Hans-Wolfgang Harden, Wolfgang Rawiel von Rönn: 100 years of the Bremerhaven - Cuxhaven railway with a branch to Bederkesa . Ed .: Landesstube Alten Landes Wursten, Museumsbahn Bremerhaven-Bederkesa eV 1996, p. 148 ff .
- ↑ Local transport plan of the Rotenburg (Wümme) district ( Memento from February 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Report from the Rotenburger Kreiszeitung on the planned electrification