Neckarelz – Osterburken railway line

		Neckar Valley Railway from Heidelberg S 1 S 2
	50.380	Mosbach-Neckarelz (formerly Neckarelz) S 41	157.4 m
		former route to Meckesheim (until 1945)
		Neckar Valley Railway to Bad Friedrichshall S 41
	51.400	former connecting arch (1939 to approx. 1960)
	51.800	former Odenwaldbahn from Heidelberg (until 1895)
	52.456	Mosbach West (since 2003)
	53.150	Mosbach (Baden) (until 1997)	150.8 m
		former route to Mudau (until 1973)
	53.159	Mosbach (Baden) (since 1997) S 2 S 41
		former Mosbach – Mudau railway line (until 1973)
	56,800	Neckarburken	174.9 m
	58.989	Dallau	196.9 m
	60,492	Dallau Tunnel (370 m)
	62.375	Auerbach (b Mosbach)	235.9 m
	66.276	Schefflenz Tunnel (543 m)
		Former Schefflenz Valley Railway from Billigheim (until 1965)
	67.328	Oberschefflenz (formerly wedge station )	294.2 m
	69.410	Eicholzheim	304.1 m
	70.403	Eicholzheim tunnel (363 m)
	72.170	State road 583 (412 m)
		Madonnenlandbahn from Miltenberg
	73.915	Seckach	269.7 m
	75,441	Seckacher Tunnel (248 m)
	76.474	Zimmerer Tunnel (175 m)
	76,700	Rooms near Seckach	254 m
	78.660	Adelsheim North	238.6 m
	79.411	Adelsheimer Tunnel (258 m)
		Frankenbahn from Stuttgart
	81.287	Osterburken S 1
		Frankenbahn to Würzburg

Swell:

The Neckarelz – Osterburken railway line is a 30.9 kilometer long railway line in northern Baden-Württemberg , which connects the Neckar and the building land along the edge of the Odenwald . It was opened in 1866 as part of the Odenwaldbahn Heidelberg – Würzburg .

As the main line , the line has been expanded and electrified to consist of two tracks . Until 1945 it was an east-west axis in German long-distance traffic , since 2003 it has been served exclusively by the RheinNeckar S-Bahn , and since 2014 by the Heilbronn Stadtbahn in the Neckarelz – Mosbach section .

course

Elevation profile of the Neckarelz – Osterburken railway line

The line starts today at Mosbach-Neckarelz station (former name: Neckarelz ), where it branches off from the Neckar Valley Railway. She then took up the Mosbach connecting arch from Hochhausen until around 1960 . Before the Mosbach railway station, which was relocated in 1997, the old route of the Odenwaldbahn from Obrigheim reached the line by 1895 . Along the Elz and the Auerbach, the route leaves the Neckar valley to enter the building land. A loop of the Elz shortens the route over the Dallauer Tunnel.

After undergoing the watershed between Elz and Jagst in the Schefflenz tunnel, the route reaches the Schefflenz valley to reach the Seckach valley via the Eicholzheim tunnel , where in Seckach there is a connection to the Seckach – Miltenberg railway to Miltenberg . The route changes over the Adelsheim tunnel into the valley of the Kirnau , only to come across the Frankenbahn shortly afterwards in Osterburken .

To Oberschefflenz extending federal highway 292 , to the Auerbach with the road 27 is bundled, parallel to the route.

history

Prehistory, planning and construction

historical course of the Badische Odenwaldbahn

The Neckarelz – Osterburken line was built as part of the Badische Odenwaldbahn Heidelberg – Würzburg, which opened continuously on November 1, 1866 . Heidelberg had been connected to the railway network since 1840 by the Badische Hauptbahn , and Würzburg since 1854 by the Ludwigs-West-Bahn , which ran from Bamberg to the Kurhessian border at Kahl am Main . The motivation for the construction of a railway line between Heidelberg and Würzburg existed on both sides early on: The Baden government wanted to continue its main line in a north-easterly direction, and Bavarian interest under King Maximilian II was a line in the direction of the Bavarian Palatinate .

The shortest route between the two cities via Eberbach , Mudau and Miltenberg would have affected Hessian territory, which contradicted particularist interests at the time . Instead, after 45 alternatives had been assessed and lengthy negotiations, the decision was made to build a route via Meckesheim , Mosbach, Osterburken and Lauda . For Baden, this had the advantage that the line opened up building land in Baden and that it could operate it itself over its entire length, as it did not reach Bavarian territory until late. Disadvantages that had to be accepted, on the other hand, were a topographically unfavorable route and a 25 km longer route. A corresponding state treaty between the two states was signed on January 27, 1862. The Mosbach – Osterburken section was put into operation on August 25, 1866.

Period of the Baden State Railways (1866–1920)

Just four years after the start of operations, the line was exhausted to the limits of its capabilities during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 . When Baden entered the war on July 16, 1870, the route became part of the official deployment line. From July 28, 1870 to October 15, 1871 there was a military timetable that only provided for one pair of civilian passenger trains per day. All other means had to be made available to military traffic.

Development of the rail network around Mosbach

After Baden, Hesse and Württemberg were able to agree on the construction of the Neckar Valley Railway from Neckargemünd via Neckarelz to Jagstfeld, rail traffic between Heidelberg and Mosbach no longer had to take the route via the topographically unfavorable Odenwald Railway from May 24, 1879, but could follow the Neckar . It was therefore necessary to relocate the Neckarelz station: it was previously an extension of the Neckar Bridge of the Odenwaldbahn, the new station was built on the new route along the Neckar. Two connecting arches were built from the new train station to Mosbach and the line to Meckesheim. At first nothing changed on the course of the old Odenwaldbahn between the old station and Mosbach past the new Neckarelzer station, from 1879 on a new bridge led over the Neckar Valley Railway until the direct connection between the old Neckarelzer station and Mosbach was deemed unnecessary in 1895 and was abandoned.

Heavy trains in the direction of Neckarelz had to be pushed on the 15 ‰ slope between Osterburken and Eicholzheim.

As part of a “program to increase the efficiency of the route network”, the Neckarelz – Osterburken line was expanded to two tracks from 1904 together with the Neckar Valley Railway between Neckargemünd and Neckarelz. From April 29, 1906 onwards, it was continuously passable on two tracks.

Period of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (1920–1949)

Further expansions followed in the mid-1920s: the permissible axle load could be increased by strengthening the bridges . In addition, additional passing tracks were built. From a war strategy perspective, the Deutsche Reichsbahn opened the "Mosbacher connection arch" between the Neckar Valley Railway from the south and the Osterburken route in Neckarelz on December 20, 1939. With his help, the lower Jagstbahn , which was heavily used by the “Iko traffic” (Italy-coal traffic), could be relieved.

During the aerial warfare over Germany , the route, unlike the Neckarelz railway junction, was not a preferred target for Allied attacks. It was not until September 1944 that there were more frequent traffic disruptions. On November 30, 1944, the Seckach station was the target of an air raid, in which one person was injured and two locomotives were destroyed.

After the end of the war, the train service between Neckarelz and Osterburken was resumed as early as June 1945, as the route was of great importance for the US occupation as a supply route within the American occupation zone .

Period of the German Federal Railroad (1949–1993)

In the period after the Second World War, there was no longer any need for the Mosbach connecting arch , so that it was shut down around 1960.

South portal of the Dallauer Tunnel (Oct. 2007)

new train station in Mosbach (Oct. 2007)

Train of the S-Bahn Rhein-Neckar in Oberschefflenz (Aug. 2007)

When the Deutsche Bundesbahn electrified the Neckar Valley Railway and the Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld- Würzburg line with financial support from the State of Baden-Württemberg in the early 1970s , the decision was made to also close the gap between Neckarelz and Osterburken in order to provide continuous electrical traction for freight trains in the relation Rhine-Neckar - Franconia . In long-distance passenger transport, the line had lost its importance as an east-west mainline since the end of the war and the division of Germany . In the Dallau Tunnel, work began on November 1, 1971 with the lowering of the tunnel floor, which had to be lowered by 32 to 50 centimeters in all tunnels. Difficulties were caused by the composition of the red sandstone in the Dallau tunnel, which made it necessary to blast it, and the shell limestone in the other tunnels, which required special safeguards. In order not to restrict the performance of the line too much, both tracks were lowered offset and work was carried out in a maximum of two tunnels at the same time.

Since the clear height of the bridge of the Mosbach – Mudau narrow-gauge railway was insufficient for the projected overhead line, this meant the end of the branch line, which was already threatened with closure. A road bridge, which also represented an obstacle to electrification, required renovation from the start, so that only one bridge at Auerbach had to be rebuilt. The contractor for the electrification work was AEG-Telefunken , the total costs amounted to 24 million DM . Since June 1, 1975, the route can be driven with electric traction.

Since the rail reform of 1994

In the 1990s, the face of the line changed fundamentally with the RheinNeckar S-Bahn . A preparatory step was the construction of the new Mosbach train station , the situation of which had been unsatisfactory for a long time. On the one hand, the train station was far from the city center, and on the other, there was a barrier post that often caused backlogs on the B27. After disagreements between the city of Mosbach and Deutsche Bahn , which was supposed to give up the site of the old station for the expansion of the B 27, an agreement was reached in 1994 because the railway no longer needed the facilities. The new train station, opened on March 24, 1997 together with the State Garden Show 100 m away , is located 300 m north of the old train station. Two direction platforms can be reached via ramps . The length of the platforms only allows trains with a maximum length of five cars, which means that they can only be operated in regional traffic . The platform height of 76 cm made it possible to operate the S-Bahn multiple units from the start. The costs for the new station building and the relocation of the surrounding roads amounting to 53.1 million DM were borne jointly by Deutsche Bahn and the city of Mosbach. The old station was then dismantled.

On November 23, 1996, the last form signals along the route were taken out of service. Since then, the Neckarelz – Osterburken section has been remote-controlled by the new SpDr signal box in Neckarelz .

The planning for the network of the Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn initially only provided for a 30-minute cycle along the Neckar Valley Railway to Eberbach . An extension to Neckarelz or further to Osterburken with a thinner cycle was part of the tender as an extension option . Together with the Speyer – Germersheim route, the option to extend the S-Bahn to Neckarelz was initially redeemed for € 75 million . With regionalization funds from the state of Baden-Württemberg and funds from the Municipal Financing Act, an extension of the S 1 to Osterburken could be implemented, which has been served every hour since December 14, 2003. As part of the expansion of the S-Bahn, all stations were made accessible to the disabled and provided with weather shelters. 140 meter long and 76 centimeter high platforms enable level entry into the S-Bahn trains. The Mosbach West stop was also put into operation .

For the 2014/2015 schedule change on December 14, 2014, line S41 of the Heilbronn city railway was opened, which complements the S-Bahn lines S1 and S2 of the Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn in the Mosbach-Neckarelz - Mosbach (Baden) section.

business

passenger traffic

Time of the Baden State Railways

With the continuous opening of the Badische Odenwaldbahn, the Baden State Railways offered three pairs of passenger trains and one “ express train ” from Heidelberg to Würzburg every day . The express train stopped at 26 stations and took four hours and 45 minutes to complete. In 1889 the era of long-distance traffic began on the Neckarelz – Osterburken line . From this year there was a continuous pair of trains from Heidelberg to Berlin , the travel time of which in 1892 was twelve and a half hours. In 1897, the connection was supplemented by through coaches to and from Metz and Saarbrücken , and through coaches to and from Bad Kissingen and Dresden were added up to the First World War . In 1902 the long-distance service consisted of three pairs of express trains a day, one of the pairs ran between Mannheim and Hof with a Paris - Karlsbad through car . In 1905 a pair of express trains was added. Six pairs of passenger trains served local traffic this year.

Locomotive series used primarily by the Baden State Railways were initially the old Baden X c , the old Baden XII (later III), the old Baden XIV (later IV a) and the old Baden IV . They were gradually replaced from 1877 by the Baden IV c , which was also based in Lauda from 1885 , from 1884 by the Baden IV b , from 1893 by the Baden II a express train locomotive and from 1894 by the Baden III a express train locomotive .

Other carriers of passenger transport were the Baden IV d from 1895 to 1897 , from 1898 the Baden IV e , which was constructed for use in the Black Forest and then also based in Lauda , from 1900 the Baden VI b (later class 75.1-3) and from 1902 the Baden II b . By 1910, all five Baden IV g type express locomotives were in the Lauda depot and were in use on the line.

In 1912, the Baden State Railways between Neckarelz and Seckach carried out test runs with a Kittel steam powered rail car in order to determine their profitability in comparison to locomotive-hauled trains.

Time of the Deutsche Reichsbahn

The route maintained its importance between the two world wars: the Heidelberg – Berlin connection served a day and a night through coach connection, which was split off in Osterburken from express trains on the Stuttgart – Berlin route . There were also a pair of express trains from Dresden to Saarbrücken and a pair of express trains from Ludwigshafen am Rhein to Würzburg. From 1939 there was also a through car connection between Saarbrücken and Vienna .

The most important series in passenger transport of all train types was the Prussian P 8 , which was based in Heidelberg from 1919 and also in Lauda and Neckarelz from 1921 , which completely replaced the Baden IV e around 1920 and the Baden VI c by the mid-1920s. The Baden VI b also carried light passenger trains.

Time of the German Federal Railroad

220 002 with an express train from Würzburg at the entrance to Neckarelz station (April 1970)

Class 455 multiple units in Osterburken (April 1984)

Class 456 multiple units in Neckarelz (May 1986)

After the end of the Second World War, the Neckarelz – Osterburken line lost its role as an important traffic axis due to the division of Germany: From 1946 there was again a pair of express trains, but with the restricted train route Saarbrücken – Würzburg, which was later converted into an express train. Between 1952 and 1969 only express trains ran on the long-distance route, only after that there was a pair of express trains from Saarbrücken to Hof again, which from 1970 went under the name "Frankenland". With the introduction of the DC system in 1973, the connection was canceled again. With an express train connection between Kaiserslautern and Hof, which was offered from 1982 to 1988, the time of long-distance traffic between Neckarelz and Osterburken ended.

In 1989, a regular schedule was introduced : express trains ran from Heidelberg to Osterburken every two hours, one of the train pairs was tied to Würzburg, otherwise there was a connection. Local trains ran alternately every two hours. In 1992, the route of the express trains was extended to Homburg- Ostburken.

From the mid-1950s to 1961, the express trains were hauled by Würzburg class 01 steam locomotives as the successors to the class 38 (P 8) until they were replaced by Würzburg diesel locomotives of the class V 200.0 . Local transport initially continued to be served by the Baden IV b and the Prussian T 5 (series 72), which was followed by the Prussian T 12 (series 74) and the series 50 .

From 1952 Uerdinger rail buses of the VT 95 and VT 98 series gradually replaced the steam traction. Passenger trains were still hauled by the 023 series until the 1974/1975 winter timetable , which was most recently at the Crailsheim depot. After the start of electrical operation, the rail buses, eventually converted to one-man operation as the 796 series, were still in use occasionally until the early 1990s.

In 1975 the "electric egg heads" of the 456 series found their way into local traffic under contact wire, supplemented by class 455 railcars from 1981 to 1984 . The last trips of the 456 series between Heidelberg and Osterburken were also the last missions of this series at all.

Between 1975 and 1984 Würzburg machines of the 118 series hauled express trains on the route, and the old locomotives of the 144 and 194 series were also used in front of locomotive-hauled trains, followed by the 140 and 141 series standard locomotives .

A special feature from 1972 to 1985 was the occasional use of the class 202 diesel three-phase test locomotive stationed in the Mannheim railway depot .

Time of the Deutsche Bahn AG

With the start of tilting technology traffic on the Neckar Valley Railway in September 1996, the range of services was expanded to include an hourly connecting shuttle train Neckarelz – Mosbach. From 2000 onwards, the successor to express trains, now known as Regional Express , only operated the Neckarelz – Osterburken route outside of rush hour traffic, so that almost no connections to or from Heidelberg and Mannheim were available.

Class 425.2 S-Bahn trains have been serving the route every hour since December 2003 . As part of the S1 and S2 lines of the RheinNeckar S-Bahn, trains run from Osterburken via Neckarelz to Heidelberg, Mannheim and on through the Rhineland-Palatinate area to Homburg (Saar).

ET 2010 type dual-system light rail vehicles have been used on the S41 line since December 2014 .

Freight transport

While the Baden State Railways initially only operated the Odenwaldbahn with mixed trains, in 1868 through freight trains were introduced between Heidelberg and Würzburg. From 1899 onwards there was a weekly cattle train from Osterburken to Mannheim. Main types of locomotives of the countries train track time were from the beginning the old Baden X d (later than VII a designated), from 1869, the old Baden XI (later referred to as V a), from 1879, the original of the Black Forest Railway developed Baden VIII a , from 1892 the Baden VIII b and from 1893 the Baden VII b and the Baden VII c . In 1900 the Baden VIII c was used for the first time , and from 1908 the Baden VIII e was used on the line from Lauda. Starting in 1918, the Baden G 12 replaced the type VII b, VII c and VIII e locomotives and played a key role in shaping freight traffic between Neckarelz and Osterburken for the next 30 years.

At the time of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Neckarelz – Osterburken railway line served as a route for through freight trains (Dg) from Würzburg, Nuremberg or Regensburg to Mannheim or on to Saarbrücken- Einsiedlerhof . In addition, from 1935 coal block trains came from the Saar area to Northern Bavaria and on to Linz and Vienna, and after the opening of the Mosbach connecting arc, the trains of the Italy-coal traffic. The Baden locomotives were followed by the Prussian G 7.2 on the Deutsche Reichsbahn from 1921 and later the Prussian G 10 for light freight trains and from 1922 the Prussian G 12 . From 1941 to 1950, broke einheitsdampflokomotive the series 50 G 12 gradually decreases.

At the time of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, steam locomotives of the 55.25–56 series, which were based in Lauda, preferred light freight trains and the 50 series of heavy goods trains. Heavy steam locomotives of the 42 and 44 series were also used .

Since the Mannheim- Darmstadt - Aschaffenburg- Würzburg line was continuously electrified, the supraregional freight traffic shifted away from the Neckarelz-Osterburken line. This was the situation after the line was under contact wire from 1975 onwards. The hauling of freight trains was mostly done by machines of the series 144 and 194, which were based in Mannheim and Würzburg until 1983 and 1986 respectively. The last scheduled supraregional pair of freight trains, an express freight train (Sg) Heidelberg – Würzburg, used the route until the end of the 1980s.

Local freight trains were used to operate the local sidings in the mid-1990s with a class 365 locomotive from Neckarelz. The train stations in Mosbach, Oberschefflenz, Eicholzheim and Seckach were used, from where the Madonnenlandbahn was served. As of December 31, 2001, as part of “ MORA C ” ( market-oriented cargo service ), Deutsche Bahn AG discontinued the service of the last freight train stations Neckarelz and Mosbach. At first only the siding of the locomotive manufacturer Gmeinder in Mosbach, which was used to transfer rail vehicles, remained . Since May 2008, the Neckarelz station has been served by DB Cargo again, after a loading platform was reactivated on the initiative of the Neckar-Odenwald district and is now to be used for the handling of around 60,000 tons of wood annually.

Accidents

On February 8, 1917, at two o'clock in the morning, an accident occurred when a type VIII e locomotive was assembling a milk train destined for Heidelberg at Mosbach station. The locomotive drove through an incorrectly set point onto a stump track , broke through an adjoining pile of stones and came to a standstill on the ground floor of an adjoining railway keeper's house , in whose basement the locomotive sagged. The railman's four daughters, who slept on the first floor, got away with the horror. After the locomotive was recovered, the house collapsed and had to be demolished.

literature

Wolfgang Bleiweis: Railway from Neckar to Mainfranken . Home and local railways. Lead white and REIJU photo publ. Jungels, Schweinfurt and Schaafheim 1991, ISBN 3-928735-01-2 .
Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 1 : Historical development and railway construction . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-766-4 .
Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railways between Neckar, Tauber and Main . tape 2 : Design, operation and machine service . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-88255-768-0 .

Web links

Excerpt from the course book from 1944: p. 1 , p. 2

Individual evidence

↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
↑ According to sources, the closure is not documented in official documents of the Deutsche Bundesbahn , so the exact date is not known.
^ According to Josef Högemann: Narrow-gauge railway Mosbach – Mudau ( ISBN 3-927587-15-X ) and Wolff / Menges: German small and private railways. Volume 2: Baden ( ISBN 3-88255-653-6 ). Scharf, citing DB employees involved in the electrification , suggests that electrification could not have been the cause, as the bridge could be taken into account in the planning.
^ Board at the new Mosbach train station on the occasion of its inauguration
↑ Opening of the Heilbronn - Mosbach tram ( Memento from December 13, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
↑ the rail bus . 3/2008, pp. 79-80
↑ Scharf, Volume 2, p. 42

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 21, 2008 .

[1] DB Netze - Infrastructure Register

[2] Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .

[vb-hh-3] According to sources, the closure is not documented in official documents of the Deutsche Bundesbahn , so the exact date is not known.

[scharf-el-4] According to Josef Högemann: Narrow-gauge railway Mosbach – Mudau ( ISBN 3-927587-15-X ) and Wolff / Menges: German small and private railways. Volume 2: Baden ( ISBN 3-88255-653-6 ). Scharf, citing DB employees involved in the electrification , suggests that electrification could not have been the cause, as the bridge could be taken into account in the planning.

[tafel-bf-mosbach-5] Board at the new Mosbach train station on the occasion of its inauguration

[Sbahn-6] Opening of the Heilbronn - Mosbach tram ( Memento from December 13, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )

[schienenbus-200506-7] the rail bus . 3/2008, pp. 79-80

[8] Scharf, Volume 2, p. 42