Ocholt-Westersteder railway company

Ocholt – Westerstede

Route length:

7.115 km

		from Leer
	0.0	Ocholt
		to Oldenburg
	2.8	Südholt
	6.75	Westerstede
	7.1	End point

The Ocholt-Westerstede Railway Company was a railway that operated the traffic between the places Ocholt and Westerstede .

history

Since the Oldenburg – Leer railway line, opened in 1869, ran past Westerstede, there were soon initiatives to establish a connection to the nearest train station. After the concession was granted on December 22, 1874, construction work began in March 1876, and on September 1, 1876, the narrow-gauge line was put into operation. This railway was one of the first narrow-gauge railways in Germany for public transport, only the Bröltalbahn was older.

The municipality of Westerstede was a partner in the railway. The Grand Ducal Oldenburg Railway (GOE) was in charge of operations.

Passenger traffic was the main load, with three to four pairs of trains moving 40,000 to 50,000 passengers a year. Freight traffic was 4,000 t to 7,000 t annually. From 1894 there was also a roller-block traffic . Thanks to the economical management, annual profits were made.

The expansion of Wilhelmshaven into a naval base also increased the need for feeder routes, and so there were plans to nationalize the route, re- track it and extend it towards Wilhelmshaven.

A corresponding law was passed in the Oldenburg state parliament on March 27, 1903, and on October 16, 1904, the last train ran on the narrow-gauge railway. Just 14 days later, the first standard gauge train was running on the re-tracked route between Ocholt and Westerstede . This line was extended to Ellenserdamm on the Oldenburg – Wilhelmshaven railway line and operated until 2001.

literature

Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways. Volume 9: Lower Saxony 1. Between the Weser and Ems . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2005. ISBN 3-88255-668-4 , pp. 171-177