Soltau – Neuenkirchen railway line
| Soltau-Neuenkirchen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number : | 9171 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 209e (1957) 209a (1960) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 11.9 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Soltau – Neuenkirchen railway was a standard-gauge line operated by the Osthannoverschen Eisenbahnen (OHE).
history
After an extension to Neuenkirchen (Kr Soltau) or Rotenburg (Wümme) had already been considered during the construction of the Kleinbahn Lüneburg – Soltau, funds were made available in 1913 by the Kingdom of Prussia, the Province of Hanover and the District of Soltau to establish the Kleinbahn Soltau – Neuenkirchen GmbH to be able to. Construction work began in 1914, but could not be completed during the First World War. Although there had been provisional rail operations since the beginning of 1917, the line could not be officially put into operation until May 15, 1920. The Neuenkirchen train station was built away from the town in order to enable further construction to the north. Due to the war, the built-in sleepers had been impregnated with a salt solution instead of tar oil, so that they had to be replaced ten years later.
The operation of the line was taken over by the Lüneburg – Soltau railway , which provided the locomotives and later also the staff. On June 1, 1923, operations for both railways were transferred to the Hanover State Small Railway Authority . As early as 1928, the scanty passenger traffic was stopped because only around 5,300 travelers were counted in the whole year. However, the statistics show a low number of travelers even later, because apparently there was a possibility of a ride in the driver's car of the freight trains. On January 1, 1944, the two small railways merged to form Lüneburg-Soltauer Eisenbahn GmbH, which became part of Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG on July 10, 1944.
After the Second World War, regular passenger traffic began again on April 1, 1947; five to six pairs of trains ran on weekdays and three to four pairs of trains on Sundays. These trips were discontinued on May 28, 1961 because the Soltau Süd passenger station was abandoned. While the OHE trains from Lüneburg and Celle have been running into the Bundesbahnhof Soltau (Han) since then , from Neuenkirchen this would only have been possible with "brainstorming".
Freight traffic was always moderate, it was mainly limited to agricultural products and supplies for the land trade. On January 15, 1986 all traffic was stopped, on April 1, 1996 the line was officially closed and in 2006 between Neuenkirchen, B 71 and up to and including the Wiedingen stop. The remaining track in the Neuenkirchen station area was also dismantled in 2006, and the station building was demolished at the end of December 2012. The track is still between the Wiedingen stop and the forest in front of the Soltau - Bremen railway line (as of December 2012). As of April 2017, the remaining track, apart from a section that is still a fragment on the embankment next to a field, has now completely disappeared.
Reuse
A hiking trail was partially laid out on the route. In the community of Neuenkirchen, it was lifted in October / November 2013 between the former level crossing after today's observation tower (south of Leverdingen) starting in the direction of the community boundary. This means that the hiking trail has only survived on the section from the B 71 to the level crossing after the observation tower.
On May 3, 2014, the Neuenkirchen trolley line was opened on 930 meters of track in Neuenkirchen between the outdoor pool and the B 71. The extension to 1060 meters has been operational since October 3, 2014. The draisinenbahn operates on the first Saturday of every month from April up to and including November.
Rail vehicles
Among other things, the DT 502, which was built by the Talbot wagon factory with the serial number 78007 in 1934, was used on the route . Its design is A1-dm. This railcar was used on the last day of passenger service. After several intermediate stops, it is owned by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrsfreunde Lüneburg (2013).
literature
- Ingo Hütter, Thorsten Bretschneider: The East Hanoverian Railways. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-88255-730-5 .
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 10: Lower Saxony 2. Between Weser and Elbe. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, pp. 344-349, ISBN 978-3-88255-669-8
