Neumünster – Heide railway line

Neumünster – Heide
Route number :	1042
Course book section (DB) :	132
Route length:	63 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Hamburg 0.0 Neumunster to Ascheberg to Kiel and Flensburg 2.3 Neumünster city forest 6.4 Wasbek (formerly Bhf.) 13.8 Aukrug until about 1996: Innien (formerly Bhf.) 22.7 Hohenwestedt to Rendsburg and Schenefeld 1901-1956 Hohenwestedt – Schenefeld 1916-1954 28.2 Osterstedt (formerly train station) 30.9 Beringstedt (formerly train station) 35.6 Gokels (formerly Bhf.) 39.2 Hademarschen (formerly Bhf.) 43.1 Beldorf (formerly Bhf.) Grünentaler high bridge Kiel Canal 48.4 Albersdorf (formerly train station) 56.3 Nordhastedt (formerly Bhf.) from Itzehoe 62.6 Heath (Holst) to Husum and Büsum

The Neumünster – Heide railway is a single-track, non-electrified railway line in Schleswig-Holstein that connects the city of Neumünster in Mittelholstein and the Dithmarsch district town of Heide .

geography

Nordhastedt train station

The line leaves the Hamburg-Altona – Kiel line north of Neumünster station . From then on, it runs west through the agricultural geest . In addition to Neumünster, the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde and the district of Dithmarschen are passed through. The most important train station is Hohenwestedt . In Beldorf the route crosses on the Green Taler Hochbrücke the Kiel Canal . The trains pass the crossing station (formerly Inselbahnhof ) of Heide on tracks 4 and 5 before they cross under the marshland in an incision on the other side of the station on the continuing Heide – Büsum railway line .

history

Opening until 1970

The Neumünster – Heide – Weddinghusen – Karolinenkoog line was opened on August 22, 1877. In Karolinenkoog there was a connection to Tönning in Eiderstedt by steam ferry (see Heide – Karolinenkoog railway ). The Westholsteinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was the builder and operator of the line . In 1878 a branch line from Weddinghusen to Büsum was built , which was taken over by the West Holstein Railway Company shortly afterwards. The railway company finally went on July 1, 1890 in the Prussian State Railways .

High bridge around 1900

In 1892 the Grünentaler Hochbrücke was built over the Kiel Canal, which was under construction. It was a road bridge on which the track of the railway line ran in the middle. In the case of rail traffic, the bridge was temporarily closed to road traffic by barriers.

In Hohenwestedt there was a transition option to the Rendsburger Kreisbahn in the direction of Schenefeld or Rendsburg until 1954 (to the south) and 1956 (to the northeast) .

In the late 1950s, in addition to passenger trains, a pair of express trains ran the route from Büsum via Heide and Neumünster to Eutin .

1970 to 2000

Passenger traffic was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s with class 515 railcars and then with less comfortable rail buses , as the canal bridge did not allow a higher axle load. The most important achievement was the daily train pair between Neustadt (Holstein) and Heide.

In 1986 the old Grünentaler high bridge was demolished and a bridge of the same name with separate lanes was built north of it.

The line was about to be closed in 1990. On the other hand, the structural-political importance of the route as one of two remaining east-west routes in Schleswig-Holstein spoke. In particular, the route was of strategic military importance as a possible diversion route.

After extensive rationalization, the Altona-Kaltenkirchen-Neumünster Railway (AKN) took over both the railway operations and the route infrastructure in May 1993 on behalf of Deutsche Bahn AG , initially on a trial basis in a ten-year lease. This brought considerable improvements for the stations along the route. The AKN used modernized VT 2E railcars for passenger transport. For this purpose, VT 2.36 was temporarily equipped with a toilet. For reasons of space, an entry area was closed.

Present (from 2000)

Since December 2011 the trains of the AKN subsidiary nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft have been using the route. Independent operation has been carried out since 2003 by the Schleswig-Holstein-Bahn, which was merged with the Nordbahn . Since then, almost all trains to Büsum have been tied through. This is reflected in the common course book number 132. The number of trains on the weekends has been increased. Diesel railcars of the type Coradia LINT 41H from the manufacturer Alstom are currently used as rail vehicles .

At the time of the takeover by SHB, however, the AKN's lease agreement for the Neumünster – Heide line also ended. The DB Netz took over the conversation again and set up on the track numerous speed restrictions, which significantly extended the travel time. Due to the longer travel times, the clock nodes at Heide (Holst) and Neumünster stations were partially missed.

Freight traffic is no longer carried out on the route. The last goods customers were Lego and a few other companies in Hohenwestedt and the Bundeswehr in Albersdorf .

Trains run every hour between Hohenwestedt and Neumünster . The entire route, however, is only served every two hours. There are numerous stops along the route. In the course of the route modernization, however, the old station buildings in Wasbek, Aukrug, Osterstedt, Gokels and Nordhastedt were demolished. Hohenwestedt is the only crossing station on the route. In Heide the trains continue to Büsum after a short stop. With the timetable change on December 12, 2004, the Neumünster Stadtwald stop was put into operation. This is mainly used by the pupils of the nearby schools and the visitors of the baths in the city forest .

After a revision of the route over the Easter holidays in 2019, it was found on the first day of operation that a tractor team had crossed the newly revised tracks on the open route near Wasbek and deformed the rails in the process.

literature

• Erich Staisch: The way north . Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-8225-0298-7 .
• H.-W. Dumjahn (Hrsg.): Handbook of the German railway lines; Opening dates 1835–1935. Route lengths, concessions, ownership structure . Complete, unchanged reprint in 1984 of the publication published by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. With an illustrated introduction by Horst-Werner Dumjahn (=  documents on railway history . Volume 29 ). Horst-Werner Dumjahn Verlag, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4 .
• Hans Bock: The march from Altona to Westerland . Boyens, Heide 1989, ISBN 3-8042-0458-9 .

Web links

Commons : Neumünster – Heide railway line  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Private website for the Neumünster-Büsum route
• Historic route map of Schleswig-Holstein from 1944
• Route description ( memento from June 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Private homepage, created in March 2002 at the latest

Individual evidence

1. ^ In the DB timetable from 1995/96 the station is still called Innien.
2. ^ Vehicles of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Picture 29 from 1987 (old bridge). In: Roter-brummer.de. Retrieved June 7, 2011 . 
3. ^ Vehicles of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Picture 30 from 1988 (new bridge). In: Roter-brummer.de. Retrieved June 7, 2011 . 
4. ^ Per lane SHS-22, 2007
5. ↑ Closure: Tractor damages railroad tracks. In: kn-online.de. April 23, 2019, accessed April 23, 2019 .