Meppen-Haselünner Railway
| Meppen-Haselünner Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Course of the Meppen-Haselünner Railway
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| Route number (DB) : | 9201 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 51.3 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | D4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 38 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 190 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 40 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Meppen-Haselünner Eisenbahn (MHE) is a former railway company in Lower Saxony and still describes its route from Meppen to Essen / Oldenburg today .
history
The district of Meppen opened the railway line from Meppen to Haselünne on October 17, 1894 , which was extended to Herzlake eight years later . On September 1, 1907, Lewinghausen was finally reached , where a connection to the Grand Ducal Oldenburg State Railways (GOE) was established. In Haselünne, the management, engine shed and workshop of the company, which continues to be known as the Meppen-Haselünner Railway , were built. On October 1, 1900, a connection from Meppen station to Emshafen was opened (1 km), but has not had any traffic since the 1990s. After the district reform , the Meppen-Haselünner Railway was merged with the Hümmlinger Kreisbahn on January 1, 1993 to form the Emsland Railway . At this point in time, the 60 years of operational management by the Bentheimer Eisenbahn ended .
The line from Essen / Oldenburg to Löningen was opened on August 12, 1888 , initially on account of the municipality of Löningen. In 1895 the GOE, which had previously been in charge of operations, took over the line. In 1907 the routes from Essen and Meppen were finally merged in Lewinghausen. In 1920 the line was transferred to the Deutsche Reichsbahn , after the Second World War to the Deutsche Bundesbahn , and between 1977 and 1979 the district of Emsland finally took over.
route
The route begins at the DB train station in Meppen. Since 1954 it has been leaving this in a northerly direction and then leads (partly on a very high dam) to the premises of the Wehrtechnische Dienststelle 91 for weapons and ammunition (WTD 91, colloquially also known as the testing center) of the Bundeswehr . This is also the part of the route's greatest ascent. Behind the Vormeppen train station, where the line's locomotive shed is now and which is enclosed on both sides by the test site, the line, fenced on both sides, leads a few kilometers through the area before it reaches the open field again at Bokeloh.
The old route is continued here: until 1954 the tracks led in a curve through some Meppen districts, but with the planned construction of the Ems side canal, the route was relocated to the north, as the existing siding to the Meppen shooting range already had bridges for this channel was equipped. We continue over fields and along some villages to Haselünne. The generous facilities of the station immediately reveal the former center of operations, today the station building is a restaurant, the locomotive shed belongs to the Hasetal Railway Friends (see below), the loading tracks are hardly used anymore.
Herzlake is reached about 10 km further , although the place has not been passed through since 1989. When the bypass road was rebuilt, the stretch of the MHE, which previously described an arc through the town, was straightened and has therefore been completely on the northern side of the bypass road since then. However, since the place wanted to keep a siding, a branch line to the old station was built at the Herzlake stop outside (B 213) , over which freight traffic still runs sporadically today.
The route continues parallel to the federal highway 213 ; apart from the old station building, nothing can be seen of the former Lewinghausen transfer station. In Helmighausen and Löningen, on the other hand, there are still train stations and loading tracks. After a total of 52.2 km which is DB -distance Osnabrück Oldenburg in Essen / Oldbg. reached.
traffic
passenger traffic
In 1894, the MHE started a rather modest passenger service, which, even after the extension of the route, remained mainly oriented towards Meppen. After the Second World War, from 1951 to 1962, MHE passenger trains also ran to Essen, and some continued to Quakenbrück .
After passenger trains had also run with steam locomotives in the early years, diesel railcars were also procured from 1934, although locomotive-hauled trains were also used until the end. However, this could no longer prevent the migration of passenger traffic to the road, which is why the railway began using its own buses from the 1960s and gradually shut down rail passenger traffic:
- June 25, 1962 Essen – Lewinghausen,
- May 21, 1966 Lewinghausen – Herzlake,
- December 31, 1970 Herzlake – Meppen.
Freight transport
From the beginning, freight traffic on the route was an important source of income. Above all, agricultural products were transported to and from the farmers in the region. In the 1950s and 1960s, the steam locomotives used up to then were replaced by diesel locomotives , while at the same time the quantities carried fell sharply.
In the meantime, however, the picture has changed: Since the late 1970s, the tonnage has increased again. Today, in addition to fertilizer and wood, gravel transports and all kinds of transport (especially vehicles and fuels) are carried out for the Bundeswehr; there is also a loading point at the Meppen train station for the transport of household waste to the waste incineration plant in Salzbergen .
A few years ago, a new freight yard was built in Löningen at the level of the Hermann Bröring compound feed plant. Mainly block trains for the compound feed plant are emptied here. Wood from the surrounding forests is also loaded here.
Museum trips
Museum trains operated by the “Eisenbahnfreunde Hasetal eV” association have been running on the MHE route since 1988/89 . The Henschel Bismarck type steam locomotive "Lower Saxony" is used here with historic wagons that were acquired by the Weser Uplands steam railway in 1988 ; the journeys take place every two weeks on Saturdays in the summer months. For special trips and to relieve the steam locomotive, a rail bus was in use until 2005 , which has since been sold to the RuhrtalBahn and replaced by a diesel locomotive. In cooperation with the Hasetal Tourist Association, tours by bike and steam train are also offered, with the bike being transported on parts of the train.
After an accident on July 31, 2014, in which a freight train derailed near Haselünne and severely damaged the track system, the route was closed to museum railroad traffic; however, operations were resumed.
The Meppen-Haselünne railway line was renovated from August 2014 to January 2015. Over a length of around 3.4 kilometers, sleepers and rails were replaced and two points (Bokeloh and Haselünne) were newly laid.
literature
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 9: Lower Saxony 1 - Between Weser and Ems . Eisenbahn Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-88255-668-4 , pp. 299-320
Individual evidence
- ^ History. (No longer available online.) Emsland district , archived from the original on November 4, 2011 ; Retrieved November 21, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Carola Alge: Trains should run again at the end of January in Meppen and Haselünne . In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , Haselünne edition, January 7, 2015, accessed on January 21, 2020.
