Neckar Valley Railway

Heidelberg – Bad Friedrichshall
Route number (DB) :	4100 (Heidelberg Hbf – HD-Altstadt) 4102 (Heidelberg Rbf – Abzw Königstuhl) 4110 ( HD Hbf (old) - HD-Altstadt – Neckargemünd) 4111 (Neckargemünd – Bad Friedrichshall Hbf)
Course book section (DB) :	705 665.1–2 (S-Bahn RheinNeckar) 780 (Neckarelz– / WÜ – Stuttgart)
Route length:	70.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	13  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Top speed:	130 km / h
Train control :	PZB
Legend Route from Mannheim S 1 S 2 S 3 S 4 16.634 0.000 Heidelberg Rbf (1914-2000) 17,490 0.000 Heidelberg Hbf (since 1955) S 5 S 51 Route to Karlsruhe S 3 S 4 18.630 0.000 Heidelberg - Weststadt / Südstadt (Bft; since 2003) 18.730 0.000 Rohrbacher Straße (tram to Rohrbach) 19.130 0.000 Königstuhl (Bk; 1914–1955) 18,974 19,334 Königstuhl ( Kmw ; formerly Abzw (1955–1997) ) 19,363 0.000 Königstuhl Tunnel (2487 ​​m; since 1914) 0.000 Heidelberg Hbf (terminus until 1955) 112  m BÜ Rohrbacher Strasse 0.500 Gaisberg tunnel (312 m) 1.000 Peterskirche (until around 1925) 1.000 Hospital tunnel (68 m) 21.850 1.800 Schloßberg tunnel (approx. 766 m) Herrenmühle siding 21.97 2.300 0 Heidelberg Old Town   (until December 2008 Heidelberg Karlstor) Relocation of the route Nov. 20, 1933 BÜ Reichsstraße 37 ,   Neckargemünd – Heidelberg tram (until Nov. 17/22, 1933) 22.215 2.544 today's route change 4100/4110 “White crossing”, BÜ Reichsstraße 37 ,   tram Heidelberg – Neckargemünd 3.5716 3.6000 Mileage jump due to route relocation in 1933 4.400 Jägerhaus / Wolfsbrunnen (until 1943) 5,500 Heidelberg- Schlierbach / Ziegelhausen (formerly Bf) 6,800 Heidelberg Orthopedics (since 2003) 8.700 Kümmelbacher Hof 9.3894 9.4000 Mileage jump 9.760 0.000 Neckargemünd Elsenz Valley Railway to Bad Friedrichshall S 5 S 51 0.581 Bundesstrasse 45 0.732 Elsenz (75 m) 0.830 Reichenstein tunnel (147 m) 0.977 1.130 Neckargemünd old town (since 2003) 1.219 Neckar 1.401 Neckar Bridge (March to June 1946) 2.593 State border Baden-Württemberg / Hesse 3.300 Bundesstrasse 37 (152 m; since 1988) 4.124 Hinterburg tunnel (139 m) 4.263 former route from Schönau (near Heidelberg) (until 1981) 4,411 Steinach 5,596 Neckarsteinach (formerly Bf) 9,620 Neckarhausen (near Neckarsteinach) (formerly Bf) 12,946 Hirschhorn (Neckar) 13,346 Laxbach 13.632 Schloßberg Tunnel (341 m) 13,973 15.323 Feuerberg tunnel (966 m) 16.289 18.404 State border Hessen / Baden-Württemberg 18.580 Eberbach - Pleutersbach 19,471 Gammelsbach 19,531 Bundesstrasse 45 20,860 Itter , Landesstrasse 2311 Hessian Odenwaldbahn from Erbach 21.0 +154.5 21.1 +50.0 Mileage jump 21,201 Eberbach 21,560 Scheuerberg tunnel (569 m) 22.129 27.425 Lindach 30.491 Zwingenberg (Baden) 34.022 Neckargerach (formerly Bf) 36,362 Binau Tunnel (853 m) 37.215 37.441 Binau (formerly Bf) 40.835 Mosbach-Neckarelz Route to Osterburken S 1 S 2 S 41 41.635 Elz 41.800 formerly Mosbach connecting arch (until approx. 1960) 42.100 formerly Baden Odenwaldbahn (until 1895) 42.200 former route to Meckesheim (until 1945) 42.918 Bundesstrasse 292 43.730 Hochhausen (Neckar) 46.031 Neckarzimmern 47.853 Hassmersheim 49.137 Böttinger Tunnel (766 m) 49.903 50.635 Gundelsheim (Neckar) 52.840 Heinsheim 55.043 Offenau 56,800 Bad Friedrichshall Anst Südzucker (Bft) 57.246 Jagst (128 m) Frankenbahn from Würzburg Elsenz Valley Railway from Neckargemünd S 42 58,482 Bad Friedrichshall main station formerly Lower Kochertal Railway to Ohrnberg (until 1993) Frankenbahn to Stuttgart S 41 S 42 Swell:

The Neckar Valley Railway is the railway line from Heidelberg via Eberbach and Mosbach to Bad Friedrichshall . It belongs to the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (VRN) and is partly served by the RheinNeckar S-Bahn . The southernmost branch ( Mosbach-Neckarelz - Bad Friedrichshall Hbf ) is integrated into the Heilbronn light rail network .

history

Planning, construction and opening

Situation at the time of the construction of the Neckar Valley Railway

The Heidelberg - Neckargemünd section was created in 1862 as part of the Badische Odenwaldbahn , which ran from Heidelberg via Neckargemünd, Meckesheim , Neckarbischofsheim , Aglasterhausen , Obrigheim , Neckarelz , Mosbach , Oberschefflenz , Seckach , Osterburken , Königshofen and Lauda to Würzburg . A corresponding law that was passed on April 27, 1860 formed the basis for the construction of the route. The Heidelberg – Neckargemünd section was opened as part of this line on October 23, 1862.

Although, geographically speaking, it would have been the most obvious option to build the route along the Neckar between Neckargemünd and Neckarelz, the towns of Neckarsteinach and Hirschhorn , which are located on the Neckar and belong to Hesse , were a thorn in the side, so that a more complicated variant of the so-called " Little Odenwald " preferred ( history of origin ).

About ten years later it was resolved to overcome the small states, so that on May 24, 1879 the Neckargemünd – Neckarsteinach – Eberbach – Neckarelz – Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld line could be opened, over which the Heidelberg – Würzburg trains from now on wrong.

Further development until 2003

Through trains ran from Heidelberg on the Neckar Valley Railway both in the direction of Würzburg and in the direction of Heilbronn .

From 1907 to 1914 the line from Heidelberg to Neckarelz was extended by a second track. On March 2, 1914, the line through the Königstuhl Tunnel to the new marshalling yard was opened.

Between 1920 and 1930 the line was expanded to accommodate higher axle loads.

After the Neckar Bridge was blown up at the end of the Second World War in 1945, the “Neckar Bridge” stop was set up on March 9 near Kleingemünd, from where trains could travel eastwards. Continuous traffic could be resumed on June 23, 1946, but initially only on a single track; Therefore, at this point in time, Kleingemünd became a branch point (or according to today's standards, a transfer point). From September 15, 1958, this section was also double-tracked again.

In 1955, Heidelberg's main train station was relocated from the city center to its current location, which also changed the route of the Neckar Valley Railway between Heidelberg main train station and Karlstorbahnhof . Since then, the Neckar Valley Railway has been using the route through the 2487 meter long Königstuhl Tunnel , which previously only freight trains to the Heidelberg marshalling yard had used. The old tunnels on the edge of Heidelberg's old town have now been expanded for road traffic (Adenauerplatz – Karlstor); The reconstruction of the Schloßberg and Spitaltunnel cost 11.5 million German marks and was approved on September 13, 1968.

When many of the DB's main railways were electrified in the 1950s, the Neckar Valley Railway Heidelberg – Heilbronn also came under contact wire. The section to Heidelberg Karlstor was electrified on May 22, 1955. On September 14, 1972, the overhead line was switched on. Inaugural trips with electric trains from Heidelberg to Stuttgart took place on September 21; on October 1, 1972, regular electric traffic began.

On October 1, 1986, the Neckarsteinach signal box was decommissioned. On March 5, 1990 Neckarsteinach changed from a class 3 train station to a stopping point.

Until the mid-1990s there was still long-distance traffic on the Neckar Valley Railway, which has since been completely discontinued. This train offer was last made by an interregional couple Emden-Stuttgart after D-trains like Amsterdam-Munich or Wilhelmshaven-Lindau disappeared from the timetable earlier.

In 1983 and 1984 a wing train of the TEE Rheingold also ran from Mannheim via Heidelberg – Heilbronn – Stuttgart, on the Remsbahn to Aalen and on via Riesbahn via Nördlingen and Donauwörth to Munich. Despite the longer travel time, this route was chosen for tourist reasons. However, the connection was canceled due to low utilization and incompatibility with the intercity system.

At the beginning of 1996, the line was adapted for 18 million German marks for the use of tilting technology in regional express trains and equipped with speed monitoring for NeiTech trains (GNT). This reduced travel times from 103 minutes to 68 minutes.

Until the introduction of the new train names ( RE / RB ), there were mainly local trains on the route , but also three pairs of rear-end cable trains that ran from Frankfurt am Main via Hanau and Erbach to Stuttgart and used the Neckar Valley Railway from Eberbach to Heilbronn.

The line from Heidelberg Rbf to Königstuhl was taken out of service on November 30, 1997.

Opening of the RheinNeckar S-Bahn

S-Bahn in Eberbach (2006)

Regional Express from Mannheim to Heilbronn in Gundelsheim

With the opening of the S-Bahn , a total of three new stops were put into operation on the Neckar Valley Railway : Heidelberg-Weststadt / Südstadt , Heidelberg Orthopädie and Neckargemünd Altstadt . The platform height of the other on-the-go stations from Heidelberg to Neckarelz has been increased to 76 centimeters in order to enable level entry into the S-Bahn. Since then, all platforms have been 140 meters long.

The city of Neckargemünd, the state of Baden-Württemberg and the DB signed a planning and construction contract for the construction of the Neckargemünd Altstadt S-Bahn station, according to which the state assumed 85% of the construction costs and the city the remaining costs, including the planning costs . Instead of the 2.4 million euros expected at the time, the construction cost more than 4 million euros, the city's share increased - among other things due to the installation of elevators for 55 thousand euros - from almost 700 thousand euros to almost 1.5 million euros. After a legal dispute that lasted until May 2018, the DB took over part of the costs, which ultimately resulted in the state 2.1 million euros, the DB 985 thousand euros and the city 950 thousand euros, and thus around 615 thousand euros less than requested by the DB, paid.

Further development

The continuous hedge cable trains from Frankfurt through the Odenwald to Stuttgart were discontinued in December 2004 after the state of Baden-Württemberg was no longer interested in them.

The section from Mosbach-Neckarelz via Bad Friedrichshall and Neckarsulm to Heilbronn was added to the Heilbronn Stadtbahn network for the 2014/2015 timetable change on December 14, 2014 . The trains on the new S 41 line change direction at Neckarelz station and then run on the Neckarelz – Osterburken line to Mosbacher station .

traffic

Vehicle use and station equipment

All stations on the Neckar Valley Railway, which in the course book lists the DB in points 665.1 and 665.2 are specifically for the S-Bahn Rhein Neckar accessible rebuilt and equipped with weatherproof house. A few years after the introduction of the S-Bahn, LCD train destination displays were retrofitted at some larger train stations (for example Eberbach or Neckarelz ) . By raising the platforms to 76 cm above the upper edge of the rails, it is possible to board the S-Bahn railcars of the 425 .2 series at the same level . These vehicles are used:

• Series Bombardier Talent 2 as RE 10a Mannheim-Heilbronn
• Class 425 for S-Bahn traffic
• ET 2010 series for the Heilbronn – Mosbach light rail traffic

passenger traffic

During the day, the S1 ( Homburg  - Kaiserslautern  - Mannheim  - Heidelberg  - Osterburken ) and S2 (Kaiserslautern - Mannheim - Heidelberg - Eberbach  - Mosbach ) lines of the Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn and regional express trains from Mannheim run every hour on this route. Eberbach – Heilbronn (RE10a). With the timetable change in June 2020, RE trains will start or end in Tübingen from Monday to Saturday. While the S2 ends in Mosbach , the S1 runs continuously every hour to Osterburken, which means that it is optimally integrated into the timetable of the Frankenbahn Stuttgart - Würzburg .

Between Neckarelz and Bad Friedrichshall , RB trains on the Neckarelz - Bad Friedrichshall - Heilbronn - Stuttgart - Ulm route ran every hour until December 13, 2014 . The wagons used were mostly double-deck wagons . Occasionally or in rush hour traffic , however, n-cars were also used. The trains, made up of double-decker cars, were hauled exclusively by class 146.2 electric locomotives . Class 111 electric locomotives were used in front of the trains made up of n-wagons . All locomotives that were used on this RB line are based in Stuttgart. Together with the Frankenbahn Stuttgart – Würzburg, this connection is listed under the route book number 780.

The S 41 trams, which will replace the RB trains on December 14, 2014 , run every hour between Heilbronn station forecourt , Heilbronn city center, Neckarsulm , Bad Friedrichshall , Mosbach-Neckarelz (with a change of direction) and Mosbach (Baden). In addition, light rail vehicles run every hour between Mosbach (Baden) and Mosbach-Neckarelz to provide a connection to the RE3 Mannheim – Bad Friedrichshall – Heilbronn. In Neckarsulm, there is a four-minute connection to the shortened regional trains to Stuttgart, which means that Heilbronn Hbf can also be reached faster than through the city center. However, this is often criticized as not working because of delays, especially in the afternoon.

Freight transport

On May 22, 1966, the service of the Schlierbach-Ziegelhausen station in freight traffic was stopped.

The scheduled freight trains mostly run early in the morning and late in the evening. These are predominantly car , coal and tank car block trains that are operated by DB Cargo Germany . But private transport companies can also be found in the Neckar Valley in freight transport , for example TXL , HGK and BCB.

During the construction-related full closure of the Bruchsal – Mühlacker line (May 16 to October 28, 2008), however, there was considerable additional traffic in the Neckar valley. a. the nightly shutdown has been lifted.

As of December 31, 2001, as part of MORA C, the service of the last freight train stations in Eberbach, Neckarelz and Neckarzimmern was discontinued by Deutsche Bahn AG . Since May 2008, however, 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 t of wood annually.

literature

• 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

Commons : Neckartalbahn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Heidelberger Bahnanlagen at verkehrsrelektiven.de
• Excerpt from the course book from 1944 p. 1 , p. 2 , p. 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schedule table from 1909 ( File: EisenbMainNeckarTauber2-63.jpg )
2. ↑ http://www.s197410804.online.de/Zeiten/1933.htm
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Jürgen Heß, Herbert Hoffmann, Siegbert Luksch: No. 5: Looking back at 150 years of the Meckesheim railway location: 11: Chronology. (PDF; 568 KiB) November 29, 2013, accessed January 2017 . 
4. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
5. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.s197410804.online.de/Zeiten/1945.htm
7. ↑ ^{a b c} http://www.s197410804.online.de/Zeiten/1965.htm
8. ↑ Deutsche Reichsbahn: Official station directory 1944 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Bohemian-Moravian Railways, the private railways as well as the small railways with goods traffic and the Ostbahn (Bfv) Valid from June 1, 1944 . Page 549
9. ^ ^{A b} 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 , p. 113-114 .
10. ↑ Christoph Moll: Neckargemünd 21: The railway agrees with the comparison. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung GmbH, May 5, 2018, accessed on November 3, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Christoph Moll: S-Bahn stop old town: "Neckargemünd 21" has an end. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung GmbH, April 21, 2018, accessed on November 3, 2018 . 
12. ↑ New two-system vehicles from AVG have been approved for railway operations. KVV, June 26, 2014, archived from the original on August 7, 2014 ; accessed on June 27, 2014 . 
13. ↑ Benjamin Auber: "We're all on the same tram" . In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung . No. 61 , March 14, 2016, p. 10 .
14. ↑ http://www.db.de/site/bahn/de/unternehmen/presse/verkehrsmeldung/bw/bw20080505a.html
15. ↑ the rail bus. 6/2005, pp. 78-79