Finnentrop – Wennemen railway line

Finnentrop – Wennemen railway line
Route number :	2861
Course book section (DB) :	239c
Route length:	35.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Legend Ruhr-Sieg route from Siegen 0.0 Finnentrop 233 m Flyover structure to the Lenhauser Tunnel Ruhr-Sieg route to Hagen 1.0 Lenhauser Tunnel (195 m) 3.7 Schönholthausen (previously Müllen) 6.1 Deutmecke in Frettermühle 9.3 Fretter 300 m 12.9 Serkenrode 350 m 15.7 Fehrenbracht 415 m 16.2 Kückelheim Tunnel (689 m) 18.9 Kückelheim 370 m 22.1 Eslohe 320 m Wenne from Altenhundem 26.4 Wenholthausen 286 m 32.3 Mountains (Kr Meschede) Dysentery from Schwerte 35.5 Wennemen 241 m to Bestwig

The Finnentrop – Wennemen line was a 35.5 km long, single-track, non-electrified branch line . It was shut down for passenger traffic in 1966 and freight traffic in 1996 and then dismantled. Today part of the Sauerland cycle ring runs along it .

history

Wenholthausen railway bridge is a listed building

Eslohe station, 2007

The line went into operation on January 16, 1911, although construction had already been approved by law on May 25, 1900. Guest workers from Italy were deployed to a large extent for him . Five people were killed during the construction work. The construction of the railway line and the Altenhundem – Wenholthausen railway initiated an economic upswing in the region. Tourists first came to the Eslohe area by train .

From the timetable change on May 26, 1963, a Heckeneilzug ran on the Finnentrop – Wennemen line from Cologne via the former Overath – Olpe section of the Siegburg – Olpe and Meschede railway to Paderborn . This connection was known to the population as the "Cardinal Express", since the endpoints are the seats of archbishopric . A year later there was another express train connection on the route: Cologne – Holzminden . Because ticket sales in the smaller train stations were no longer profitable, it was stopped in 1965.

On May 21, 1966, the last passenger train ran on the route. In order to still be able to operate the Anton Linneborn dolomite lime works in Fretter by rail, the Finnentrop – Serkenrode section initially remained in operation, while the section between Serkenrode and Eslohe was closed at the same time. On October 31, 1984, freight traffic between Finnentrop and Serkenrode was also stopped. After the entire line was shut down for freight traffic between June 12, 1992 (Wenholthausen – Eslohe) and September 16, 1996 (Wennemen – Bergerhammer), the tracks were dismantled from August 2004. In 2012, the last rails of the former railway line were removed in the area between Eslohe station and Wennebrücke.

East portal of the Kückelheim tunnel ("Fledermaustunnel") with a tourist bike route

On March 31, 2007, the then North Rhine-Westphalian Transport Minister Oliver Wittke and local politicians opened a cycle path that runs from Fehrenbracht to Eslohe as part of the Sauerland Cycle Ring on the former railway line through the Kückelheim tunnel (also known as the "Fledermaustunnel"). This tunnel is closed in winter because of the bats that hibernate there.

As part of the “ Regionale 2013 ”, the Lenhauser tunnel was also to be made passable for bicycle traffic and further parts of the old route were expanded into a cycle path. However, the city of Finnentrop was subject to the current tenant in a legal dispute and the opening is expected to be delayed until 2027. In 2014 the SauerlandRadring was integrated into the state-wide cycling network of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Besides the two tunnels at the track nor the steps are on larger buildings monument standing railway bridge Wenholthausen on Wenne received and the stone Bright bridge.

Hellebrücke

Hellebrücke 2013

The Hellebrücke was built in 1911 for agricultural traffic in order to bridge the cut in the terrain for the railway between Eslohe and Sallinghausen (towards Wenholthausen) without detours, so that the agricultural and forestry areas north of the railway line remained accessible. The bridge has a span of approx. 40 m and a height of 16.50 m. It was built as a three-field arch bridge from Sauerland quarry stones . There has been a political controversy about its preservation since 2011. Due to the renovation costs of 165,000 euros (2008 estimate), according to the decision of the Esloh Council of March 2, 2011, the 100 m long and up to 18 m deep cut in the railway line as well as the bridge piers, abutments and retaining walls should be filled without demolition. The responsible monument protection office of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association did not classify the bridge as a monument in 2011. In order to preserve the bridge, the Friends of the Helle Bridge Association was founded at the end of the same year . The incision is now being filled in over a period of several years.

literature

• Jürgen Kalitzki, Dieter Tröps: People, trains, train stations. Railways in the Sauerland. Volume 1: The Ruhr-Sieg route with the railway locations Altenhundem, Grevenbrück, Meggen, Kirchhundem and Finnentrop. Kalitzki, Lennestadt 1995, ISBN 3-923483-20-1 , p. 157ff.
• Franz-Josef Keite (Red.): Departure 1911. A journey by train in the Sauerland. 100 years opening of the Finnentrop – Eslohe – Wennemen and Fredeburg – Wenholthausen lines. Book accompanying the exhibition 100 years of secondary railway lines Finnentrop – Eslohe – Wennemen and section Fredeburg – Wenholthausen in the machine and local history museum Esohe / Sauerland. Machine and Local History Museum, Eslohe 2011, ISBN 978-3-930264-87-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Brief information on the SauerlandRadring - Radroutenplaner NRW ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ministry for Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on May 24, 2014.  
2. ↑ Finnentrop is defeated in the tunnel dispute . Westfalenpost, September 16, 2014. Accessed April 2018.
3. ↑ Hans Dürr: Stone Bridge on the Helle - Foundation Stone in the Mosaic of Local Development , Sauerland 2012 45/1: 24–26.
4. ↑ https://www.derwesten.de/staedte/nachrichten-aus-meschede-eslohe-bestwig-und-schmallenberg/das-ende-der-hellebruecke-ist-gekommen-id8027131.html?keepUrlContext=true

Web links

Commons : Finnentrop – Wennemen railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Timetable 1944
• Route info
• Images of the tunnel portals