Heudeber-Danstedt – Bad Harzburg / Vienenburg railway line

Heudeber-Danstedt – Bad Harzburg (old building line)
Route number (DB) :	6425
Course book section (DB) :	330
Route length:	32.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed:	120 km / h
Legend from Halle 0.0 Heudeber - Danstedt 188 m to Vienenburg from Langenstein 4.8 Minsleben A 36 B 244 9.2 Wernigerode Hbf (until 2019 Wernigerode) Connection to Harzquerbahn 10.6 Wernigerode Elmowerk 13.5 Darlingerode 261 m 14.2 Drübeck 17.4 Wahrberg connection to the rolling mill 18.4 Ilsenburg 237 m Beginning of the new construction phase 22.4 Stapelburg State border between Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony 23.6 Eckertal from Braunschweig and Oker 32.2 Bad Harzburg 236 m
Ilsenburg – Vienenburg (new section)
Route number (DB) :	6393
Route length:	13.6 km
Dual track :	(formerly Vienenburg state border)
Legend from Ilsenburg to Bad Harzburg 22.3 Stapelburg A 36 from Halle 29.1 State border between Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony from Braunschweig A 36 Vienenburg Gbf 33.6 Vienenburg 137 m to Langelsheim to Bad Harzburg to Goslar

Today's Heudeber-Danstedt – Vienenburg railway is a 32-kilometer single-track main line that opens up the northern edge of the Harz Mountains . It is used in particular for tourist traffic on the northern edge of the Harz and to the Harz narrow-gauge railways , but also for goods traffic to and from the rolling mills in Ilsenburg .

The route originally led from Ilsenburg further south in the direction of Bad Harzburg . However, this section was interrupted by the division of Germany after 1945. In 1996, a new section of the line was built from Ilsenburg in the direction of Vienenburg , which also uses parts of the previously closed Halberstadt – Vienenburg line. At the same time, the runway was expanded to a speed of 120 km / h. Since then, the line has served as a direct connection between Halberstadt and Vienenburg.

history

Beginnings until 1945

Platform in Bad Harzburg

A direct connection between Halberstadt, Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg had existed since 1869. Although this took the shortest route, it left out the more densely populated edge of the Harz and thus cities like Wernigerode and Ilsenburg. Wernigerode, which was already an important tourist destination at the time, was able to enforce in Berlin that the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Railway Company was obliged to build an approximately nine-kilometer branch line from Heudeber - Danstedt . This was available from May 11, 1872.

Now demands increased from Ilsenburg with its then growing iron industry. There were long negotiations about a railway connection Wernigerode – Ilsenburg – Bad Harzburg with a possible extension towards Goslar, which according to the assessment at the time would not have been economical. In the end, the Prussian State Railroad was persuaded to build; on May 20, 1884, Ilsenburg and Wernigerode were combined. For a route of purely regional importance, a winding course was also accepted. The extension to Bad Harzburg was delayed further due to questions about the alignment and resistance from landowners. It was not until October 1, 1894 that traffic via Stapelburg and Eckertal was started, from the beginning with continuous passenger trains from Bad Harzburg to Halberstadt.

Even if this connection was mainly used to develop the region, there were a number of long-distance trains, including through through coaches Hamburg – Wernigerode – Berlin in the 1930s.

Separation in 1945

Although the line had not suffered any serious damage, it was interrupted in 1945 with the division of Germany into occupation zones between Stapelburg and Eckertal. The Deutsche Bundesbahn gave up passenger traffic from Bad Harzburg to Eckertal in 1958 and freight traffic in 1973.

The Deutsche Reichsbahn withdrew public transport from Stapelburg to Ilsenburg in 1961, as the line in the Stapelburg area was close to the border. However, the line remained here as a connecting line for military transports.

Closing the gap in 1996

Platform in Vienenburg

In the euphoria after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Ilsenburg – Stapelburg section was reopened in December 1989 and in the following years one or more gaps between Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in the northern Harz region were discussed intensively. It soon turned out that the federal government and the railways would finance a maximum of one connection in a timely manner. However, the old freight line was unsuitable for regional traffic, the inclines at and the change of direction in Bad Harzburg station were too great obstacles for traffic. Therefore, a new variant was considered, which starts from Ilsenburg in front of Stapelburg and ends in Saxony-Anhalt on the route to Vienenburg. In terms of planning law, the structure in Lower Saxony could thus be defined as the renovation of an existing route, which enabled the establishment of level crossings . On December 28, 1993, the plan approval decision was issued as the last “sovereign act” of the Deutsche Bundesbahn before the conversion into a stock corporation. On April 12, 1995 the Ilsenburg – Stapelburg line was shut down again and the new connection went into operation on June 2, 1996; With the new stop on the bypass road, Stapelburg received a rail connection for the third time. Three old natural stone vault bridges from the year of construction 1869 could be preserved.

Interregio trains were initially used on the route, but they soon disappeared from the timetable.

In 2007 the route was closed for construction work, it received new electronic signal boxes and was equipped for the use of tilting technology. From December 2007 it will be completely passable again. In the course of the renovation, almost all of the old signal boxes and the Ströbeck station, which is a listed building, were demolished. The monument protection authorities filed a complaint. However, Deutsche Bahn could not prove intent.

Since the timetable change in 2008, travel times have been further reduced due to the completed renovation measures.

Current operation

The current operating concept consists of two regional express lines, Magdeburg – Goslar and Halle (Saale) –Goslar, each running every two hours , which overlap between Halberstadt and Goslar at one hour intervals. New class 648 diesel multiple units are used . Both lines have been operated by Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland since the timetable change in December 2018 . On weekends, a pair of trains in the direction of Magdeburg is extended to Berlin as the Harz-Berlin-Express without changing trains.

In addition, steel is exchanged between the steelworks in Salzgitter and Ilsenburg via rail .

Until the timetable change in December 2014, the trains of the Regional Express Halle (Saale) –Goslar ran to Hanover via Hildesheim. Until the timetable change in December 2015, DB Regio used tilting technology multiple units of the 612 series on this route . DB Regio used class 642 multiple units on the former Halle (Saale) –Halberstadt – Vienenburg regional train line until the timetable change in December 2005 . The Transdev Sachsen-Anhalt operated the northern Harz network from 2005 to 2018 , which also included the regional express Magdeburg – Goslar. Between 2015 and 2018 it also operated the Halle – Goslar regional express.

Accidents

On January 28, 2011 there was an accident at a level crossing with half barriers between Wernigerode and Ilsenburg. A truck loaded with cast iron collided with a regional express train. Four people were slightly injured and two cars were damaged by the truck trailer being thrown away. Railway systems and the locomotive head were partly badly damaged. The amount of damage was around 417,000 euros.

Train stations

• 

  Wernigerode Central Station (DB)

• 

  Wernigerode railway station (HSB)

• 

  Ilsenburg station

• 

  Bad Harzburg train station

• 

  Vienenburg train station

literature

• Dirk Endisch: The Halberstadt – Vienenburg line . Verlag Dirk Endisch, Stendal 2009, ISBN 978-3-936893-36-6 .
• Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Return to the rail. Reactivated and new routes in passenger traffic 1980–2001 . transpress, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-71185-0 .
• Josef Högemann: Railways in the Harz (I). Volume 1: The State Railways . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1995, ISBN 3-927587-43-5 .
• Helmut R. Sülldorf: Closing the gap in a spontaneous way . In: railway magazine . No. 7 , 2016, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 40-43 .

Web links

Commons : Heudeber-Danstedt – Bad Harzburg / Vienenburg railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tradition on the Heudeber-Danstedt – Bad Harzburg railway line in the holdings of the Magdeburg Reich Railway Directorate in the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives, Dessau Department

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut R. Sülldorf: Closing the gap in a spontaneous way . In: railway magazine . No. 7 , 2016, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 40 .
2. ↑ North Harz route released for tilting technology traffic
3. ↑ Holger Hadinga, Kerstin Beier: Truck is caught by regional train . Ed .: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. Wernigerode January 29, 2011 ( mz-web.de [accessed February 4, 2011]).