Friedberg – Mücke railway line

Friedberg – Mücke
Trains in Beienheim station
Route number :	3740
Course book section (DB) :	632
Route length:	49.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Frankfurt (Main) from Friedrichsdorf from Hanau 0.00 Friedberg (Hess) after casting Rose Valley Viaduct ( Usa ) Weather 3.80 Dorheim (Wetterau) 6.20 Beienheim to Nidda 9.10 Melbach 11.20 Wölfersheim - Södel (previously train station) 11.20 Maintenance limit DB Netz / non-operator part 11.30 Heyenheimer Weg in Wölfersheim 12.60 Horse trail in Geisenheim Lignite railway from the Wölfersheim power station 12.90 Geisenheimer Strasse Level crossing over B 455 14.20 B 455 14.70 A 45 15.70 Berstadt - Wohnbach 15.70 L 3136 Lignite railway to the Bellersheim opencast mine Mine track swivel dismantled 18.50 Obbornhofen - Bellersheim 21.10 Pagans 21.10 B 489 21.40 B 457 21.40 Maintenance limit operator-less part / DB network from Gelnhausen 22.7 Obertorstrasse in Hungen 23.37 Hunger after casting 29.39 0.00 Villingen (Oberhess) 3.10 Ruppertsburg 4.10 Friedrichshütte 33.91 Weather field 36.13 Laubach 39.52 Laubacher forest Freienseener Tunnel (146 m) / Galgenberg Tunnel (196 m) 42.67 Open lakes 45.29 Weickartshain 46.64 Stockhausen (Upper Hesse) from Giessen 49.20 Mücke (Hess) Inselbahnhof to Fulda

The Friedberg – Mücke railway line (also called Horlofftalbahn and Seentalbahn in sections ) is a railway line opened in 1890/97 in the Wetterau and Vogelsberg regions in Hesse. It originally connected three main lines emanating from Gießen , namely

• the Main-Weser-Bahn (Frankfurt – Gießen – Kassel),
• the Lahn-Kinzig-Bahn (Gießen – Gelnhausen),
• and the Vogelsbergbahn (Gießen – Fulda).

Today only the eleven-kilometer section to Wölfersheim is still in operation, as a feeder line to the Friedberg regional junction, where there is a connection to the other rail network and Frankfurt's main train station, which is important for Wetterau commuters .

The Beienheim – Schotten railway branching off in Beienheim, opened on the same day and still in operation today to Nidda , is also known as the “Horlofftalbahn”.

Subsections

The route is divided into four sections and a branch track:

section	Opened	Shut down	length	annotation
Friedberg -Wölfersheim-Södel	1897	in operation	11.2 km	Line RB47 in the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund , operated by the Hessische Landesbahn .
Wölfersheim-Södel– Hungen	1897	2003	12.2 km	The passenger traffic was stopped on April 4, 2003, the freight traffic had already ended on December 31, 1997. The decommissioning process started in spring 2004 was interrupted by an infrastructure security contract. This secured the route, but for the time being without a network operator and without an operating license. Reactivation planned (see section #Future ).
Hungen-Laubach	1890	1959	12.7 km	Freight traffic ceased on December 31, 1997. Closed in 1999, the tracks were torn down around 2007. In the spring of 2010, a cycle path was built on the railway line in the Hungen district.
Laubach – mosquito	1903	1958/59	13.1 km	On May 31, 1958, traffic between Freienseen and Mücke was suspended, and in 1959 passenger traffic between Hungen and Freienseen and goods traffic between Laubach and Freienseen were also suspended. The Laubach – Mücke section, also known as the Seental Railway , was then shut down and demolished.
Branch line Villingen – Friedrichshütte	1896	1959	4.1 km	Originally a narrow-gauge connecting railway, mainly for freight traffic to the Friedrichshütte iron foundry . Connection to the main line in Villingen, on the Hungen – Laubach section.

For the Friedberg – Beienheim – Nidda –Schotten branch established together with this line, see the article Beienheim – Schotten railway line .

history

The route was originally planned and operated by the Grand Ducal Hessian State Railways , which merged into the Prussian-Hessian Railway Community. The Hungen – Laubach section was opened on June 1, 1890, and the Friedberg – Hungen section on October 1, 1897. The route could be used continuously from November 1, 1903.

Former route before Laubach

From 1936, the line was to be expanded to double as the main line. However, this was not done because of the war events. A second tunnel with a length of 196 meters has already been built in the immediate vicinity of the existing Freiensee tunnel (146 meters), and the steel truss bridge over the USA directly north of the Friedberg train station was replaced by a wider brick arch bridge that was commissioned in 1937.

In 1968, the line between Inheiden and Berstadt - Wohnbach had to be relocated to a new route as a result of lignite mining. This also affected the Obbornhofen-Bellersheim stop, which was relocated on June 9, 1968. The old route has now been dismantled, but can still be seen from the air.

In 2018 a new, barrier-free platform was built in Wölfersheim-Södel. This has a length of 140 meters and a height of 55 centimeters. At the end of 2019, the Melbach stop was expanded.

Branch line Villingen – Ruppertsburg – Friedrichshütte

The branch line to Ruppertsburg was also built by the Grand Ducal Hessian State Railway, initially from Villingen (Upper Hesse) station as a narrow-gauge connection with horse-drawn railway operation to the Friedrichshütte iron foundry and later converted to standard gauge under Prussian direction . This conversion went into operation on April 1, 1896. On the Ruppertsburg – Friedrichshütte section, only goods traffic for the Friedrichshütte and also the transport of employees took place, but never public passenger traffic. The branch line was closed in 1959.

course

Hp Obbornhofen-Bellersheim has not been served since 1993 on the section of the route that was closed in 2003

Today the line is only in operation from Friedberg to Wölfersheim - Södel . The trains continued to Hungen until 2003, and until 1958/59 also to Mücke through the Vogelsberg . In Beienheim you can change to the route to Nidda .

Laubach station

Originally, the tracks of the Laubach station were on the northern side of the station building, the later side of the street. During the construction of the line to Mücke, the track systems were relocated to the southern side of the station, only a loading track remained on the northern side.

The station had a two-story entrance building with a goods shed attached to the side. The reception building is currently (as of 2011) used by a youth center.

business

The route is part of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV). Until the 2004/2005 timetable change, the two branches of the local transport route were served by the Butzbach-Licher-Eisenbahngesellschaft , and since the 2005/2006 timetable change by the Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) , the parent company. During the rush hour, there are continuous trains to and from Friedberg. In the 2012 annual timetable, seven pairs of trains run between Beienheim and Wölfersheim-Södel and nine pairs of trains between Friedberg and Wölfersheim-Södel from Monday to Friday.

There are hardly any services left in freight transport.

future

Buffer stop in Wölfersheim-Södel

There are plans to reactivate the disused Wölfersheim – Hungen section. The tracks are completely in place and, apart from minor weathering, are still in relatively good condition. Despite the blockage at the end points, the signaling technology was still in operation; For example, the Wölfersheim form signals were still actively lit until Wölfersheim was dismantled to the stop in 2008. Nevertheless, safety technology and tracks have to be fundamentally renewed or relocated at many of the already neglected level crossings.

In July 2010 the takeover negotiations for the Wölfersheim – Hungen section started between the neighboring communities and Deutsche Bahn, which ended in March 2011 with the purchase. The process means a kind of remunicipalisation . Since then, a professionally suitable subcontractor has been commissioned with the duties of securing traffic routes. In the winter of 2011/2012, the green vegetation was largely removed from the section of the route that has not been maintained since 2003, and the respective municipalities have been taking on this task since then.

The station Hungen retained in 2017 three platforms, of which the main platform to be used by the Horlofftalbahn future in its renovation in. Before operations can be resumed, Beienheim station is also to be modernized on the signaling side in order to enable wings . In addition, following the four-track expansion of the Main-Weser Railway between Frankfurt and Friedberg, direct connections to Frankfurt am Main will be possible during rush hour .

After a study commissioned jointly by the municipalities of Hungen and Wölfersheim, the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund and the Zweckverband Oberhessische Vertriebsbetriebe (ZOV, umbrella association for the Verkehrsgesellschaft Oberhessen ) as an interim status - still without a more intensive investigation of the investment requirements for the renovation of the infrastructure - the Route promised a "favorable result in terms of the eligibility of the route reactivation" , the association announced in January 2017 that it would be financially involved in the preliminary planning for the reactivation. It is planned to conclude a cooperation agreement with the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund as public transport authority and then to hand over the planning to an engineering office. The costs are estimated at 20.7 million euros. The plans for resuming operations had "entered a concrete phase" in summer 2018. The recommissioning should take place in 2023. A crossing station is to be built in Berstadt-Wohnbach.

literature

• Railway Atlas Germany - Edition 2005/2006, Vlg. Schweers + Wall, o. O. 2005, ISBN 3-89494-134-0
• Railway in Hessen. Cultural monuments in Hessen. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, ed. from the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, 3 volumes in a slipcase, vol. 2.2, p. 787ff (route 070). ISBN 3-8062-1917-6
• Stephan Kannwischer: Horlofftalbahn. Perspectives for the resumption of rail operations on the Wölfersheim-Hungen section , Horlofftalbahn working group, November 2015

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andreas Christopher: Butzbach-Licher Railway . Cologne 2004, p. 158 (route data DB routes)
2. ↑ The platform is barrier-free. In: Wetterauer Zeitung. August 13, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018 . 
3. ↑ www.vergessene-bahnen.de
4. ↑ Wölfersheim and Hungen want to buy a railway line. (No longer available online.) In: Gießener Anzeiger. January 24, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 3, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
5. ↑ ^{a b} municipalities and BI for reactivation of the Horlofftalbahn. In: Wetterauer Zeitung. September 9, 2015, accessed March 27, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Claudia Isabel Rittel: Commitment to the Horlofftalbahn. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. November 10, 2015, accessed March 27, 2016 . 
7. ^ Hungen / Wölfersheim railway line: negotiation with railway before breakthrough? In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung. July 23, 2010, accessed January 26, 2011 . 
8. ↑ Next step towards reactivation , report in the Wetterauer Zeitung, issue 24 of January 28, 2017, page 28
9. ↑ Stefan Schaal: That is why the costs for the Horlofftalbahn have doubled. In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung. June 10, 2018, accessed July 25, 2018 . 
10. ↑ schr: reactivation plans in Hessen . In. Eisenbahn-Revue International 10/2018, p. 506.
11. ↑ In 2023 at the earliest, the Horlofftalbahn is to run again between Hungen and Wölfersheim. In: Gießener Anzeiger. September 12, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Fast train connection from Hungen to Frankfurt. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . October 11, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 . 

Web links

• www.vergöse-bahnen.de Detailed description with many pictures of the disused sections from Hungen
• Photo documentation of the route (2013)
• Photos of the old and new Freiensee tunnels
• Friedberg - Hungen - Nidda (Horlofftalbahn). Railway lines in Hessen. (As of April 15, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Hung - mosquito. Railway lines in Hessen. (As of April 15, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Description of the cycle path on the Hungen-Mücke section, accessed on April 7, 2016