Ruhr Valley Railway

Düsseldorf – Hagen

Route number :

2400

Course book section (DB) :

450.1, 450.3, 450.6,
450.7, 450.9, 450.11

Route length:

80 km

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Power system :

15 kV 16.7 Hz ~

Top speed:

120 km / h

Dual track :

Düsseldorf Hbf - Essen-Werden
Essen-Kupferdreh - Essen-Überruhr
Bochum-Dahlhausen - Hattingen
Wengern Ost - Hagen Hbf

Legend


		from Cologne and Mönchengladbach

	0.0	Düsseldorf main station
	1.1	Düsseldorf Wehrhahn
	2.1	Düsseldorf Zoo
	3.3	Düsseldorf-Derendorf

	4.0	Junction Düsseldorf-Derendorf to the Cologne-Duisburg railway line


	5.4	Abzw Vogelsang to the Düsseldorf-Derendorf freight yard

	6.0	Düsseldorf-Rath center
		Line from Troisdorf
	7.0 + 139	Düsseldorf-Rath
		Route to Mülheim-Speldorf
	7.0 + 2194.0 7.1 + 0.0
	9.6 + 470.0 9.7 + 70.0
	9,836	Ratingen East
	11.1 10.8	Change of mileage
		Angertal Railway
		A 3
	15.5	Hösel Kleinbahn Heiligenhaus – Hösel
		B 227
		Höseler Tunnel (326 m, single track)
		Niederbergbahn from Heiligenhaus
		Lower Ruhr Valley Railway to Mülheim-Styrum
	19.4	Kettwig reservoir
		Ruhr , Kettwig railway bridge , Kettwiger See

	20.7	Kettwig
	25.0	Eating (old Bf)
	25.3	Eat-becoming
		Route to Essen Hbf
	31.6	Essen-Heisingen
	33.0	Ruhrbrücke copper rotation
		Ruhr ( Baldeneysee )
		Hespertalbahn from Haus Scheppen

	33.7	Awanst Essen-Kupferdreh Hespertalbahn former wedge station Essen-Kupferdreh

	33.7	Route from Wuppertal-Vohwinkel
	36.5	Essen-Holthausen
	37.8	Food overthrow
	37.8	Abzw Essen-Überruhr
		Route to Essen-Steele Ost
	41.7	First Theodor colliery
		Railway line Mülheim-Heißen-Altendorf (Ruhr)
		Route from Mülheim-Heißen
	42.7	Altendorf (Ruhr)
		Ruhr, Dahlhausen railway bridge

		Route from Essen-Steele Ost
		Route from Bochum-Dahlhausen junction, Bez West
	44.1	Bochum-Dahlhausen Railway Museum
	45.1	Bochum-Dahlhausen
		former route to Bochum-Weitmar

	48.5	Hattingen (Ruhr Bridge)
		Dysentery
		New line to Hattingen city center
	49.4	Hattingen (Ruhr) wedge station
		former route to Wuppertal
		City-Tunnel Hattingen (100 m, single track)
	1.2	Hattingen (Ruhr) Mitte stop

	51.0	Hattingen (Ruhr) Thyssen ( Anst )
	51.5	Welper ( Bbf )
	52.7	Hattingen (Ruhr) Henrichshütte
		Blankensteiner Tunnel (74 m)
	54.7	Blankenstein (Ruhr) Castle
		Kleinbahn Bossel – Blankenstein
	56.6	Blankenstein (Ruhr)
	59.2	Herbede
	61.0	Hardenstein ruins
	62.5	Nightingale colliery
	62.7	Witten-Bommern Gbf
	64.1	Witten - Bommern Hp
		Witten – Schwelm railway line
		from Witten
	67.5	Wengern East
	68.0	Thyssen ( Anst )
	70.0	Oberwengern
	70.8	Schockemöhle (Wilshaus) ( Anst )
	72.0	Volmarstein
		from Dortmund Hbf
		Düsseldorf-Derendorf – Dortmund Süd railway line
	76.0	Hagen vestibule
		from Herdecke
		to Hagen-Eckesey
		Upper Ruhr Valley Railway to Schwerte
		Volme
		Upper Ruhr Valley Railway from Schwerte
	80.2	Hagen Hbf
		to Wuppertal

The Ruhr Valley Railway is a partially historical railway line from Düsseldorf - Rath via Essen - Kupferdreh , Bochum - Dahlhausen , Hattingen , Hattingen-Welper , Hattingen-Blankenstein , Witten - Herbede , Hagen - Vorhalle and Schwerte to Warburg . It was built from 1870 to 1876 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , one of the three large private railway companies in the Ruhr area at the time . The line is an example of the fact that river valleys were particularly well suited for the construction of railway lines at the time because of their usually even gradient.

The Ruhr Valley Railway was primarily used to transport coal to the Ruhrort port , bypassing the Heißener Berg. Connecting railways ensured a high volume of traffic in the heyday of coal mining on the Ruhr and due to steel production at the Henrichshütte in Hattingen .

In addition to the Ruhr Valley Railway, which does not run along the Ruhr in its westernmost section from Kettwig to Düsseldorf , there was also the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway from Kettwig along the Ruhr to Styrum , which was shut down until 1978 and then dismantled. The Hespertalbahn is not part of the Ruhrtalbahn , although it runs largely parallel to the river, here on the south bank of Lake Baldeney , from the old copper turn station to the Scheppen house .

history

S-Bahn in Essen-Werden station

Railway bridge over the Ruhr between Essen-Burgaltendorf and Bochum-Dahlhausen

Trunk line

The main route of the Ruhrtalbahn has been running since 1872 from Oberbilk BME (not to be confused with today's Düsseldorf-Oberbilk stop ) via Grafenberg, Rath BME (today's Oberrath station on the Rheinbahn line U 72) and Ratingen Ost in the Höseler Tunnel through the Höseler Berg and with a bridge over the Ruhr into the valley to Kettwig, runs on the right (ie northern) side of the Ruhr via Werden to Heisingen and again crosses the river to Kupferdreh . The start of operation of this section took place on February 1, 1872. From there it was united to Überruhr with the Wuppertal-Vohwinkel-Essen-Überruhr railway line , which had existed since 1847 and which was taken over by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn over the new Ruhr Bridge Steele via Steele in 1863 Hbf with the routes Witten / Dortmund-Oberhausen / Duisburg and Steele Hbf- Dahlhausen (Ruhr) had been connected. In 1874, a second connection was also built on the opposite (southern) side of the Ruhr via Altendorf (Ruhr) with another Ruhr bridge to Dahlhausen . In 1877 the line from Werden to Essen Hbf was built.

From 1926 , the Niederbergbahn branched off to Wülfrath via Heiligenhaus and Velbert , roughly where the Kettwig Stausee stop later came into being (at that time the Pusch block point ) . The section to Heiligenhaus was shut down again in 1960.

Lower Ruhr Valley Railway

Since 1876, the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway has merged into the Ruhr Valley Railway in Kettwig via a lower bridge. The line branched off in Styrum from the main line Duisburg-Essen-Witten and ran on the left side of the Ruhr via Broich , Saarn , Mintard and Kettwig in front of the bridge. In Broich there was a connecting curve to the Rheinische Bahn with a connection to the Speldorf train station .

During the Second World War, the two adjacent Kettwig railway bridges over the Ruhr as well as that of the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway near Styrum were destroyed. Only the upper bridge structure was rebuilt in Kettwig as part of the Ruhr Valley Railway Kettwig – Düsseldorf. The passenger trains of the Lower Ruhr Valley Railway, coming from Mülheim, initially ended in Kettwig in front of the bridge, from 1953 at a provisional end stop below the Kettwig Stausee station, where it was possible to change between the two separate lines. The destroyed bridge was not rebuilt, today only a pillar in the Kettwig reservoir testifies to the earlier lower bridge structure.

In Mülheim , Speldorf station was the new terminus of the Ruhr Valley Railway in place of Styrum and Mülheim. All passenger trains coming from the direction of Speldorf had to drive through the connecting curve in Broich in order to be pushed backwards to the platform in Broich station. The train was then able to continue in the direction of Kettwig. Trains from Kettwig did the procedure in reverse. Locomotives were supplied from the Speldorf depot instead of the Styrum depot .

Middle Ruhr Valley Railway

Hattingen (Ruhr) station on the Ruhr Valley Railway

The Middle Ruhr Valley Railway was built in 1869 from Dahlhausen (Ruhr) via Hattingen on the left (southern) side of the Ruhr to the Henrichshütte in Welper and in 1874 via Herbede and Wengern Ost to the Vorhalle.

Since 1987 an approximately one kilometer long stretch to Hattingen (Ruhr) Mitte has branched off from it. It was built during the construction of the S-Bahn to enable a better connection between Hattingen's city center and regional bus services to the S-Bahn.

Upper Ruhr Valley Railway

The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway has been running from Schwerte since 1870 , following the course of the river, via Fröndenberg / Ruhr to Arnsberg , since 1871 to Meschede , since 1872 to Bestwig and since 1873 via Brilon-Wald to Warburg . In the Elleringhäuser Tunnel near Olsberg , it overcomes the watershed between the Rhine and Weser .

Shutdowns

Passenger traffic was given up in 1959 between Überruhr and Dahlhausen, in 1965 between Werden and Kupferdreh and in 1968 between Mülheim and Kettwig Stausee, goods traffic on these three sections followed in sections in 1966/1968, 1965/1978 and 1968/1978; these sections were subsequently dismantled.

On the Hattingen – Wengern Ost section, public transport ceased on May 23, 1971.

Todays use

Transportation

The route sections are currently being used in local public transport

Düsseldorf - Essen-Werden from the S 6 ,
Düsseldorf-Grafenberg (Schlüterstraße / Employment Agency) - D-Rath (Hubertushain) from the U 72 tram ,
Essen-Überruhr - Essen-Kupferdreh from the S 9,
Bochum-Dahlhausen - Hattingen from the S 3 as well
Schwerte – Warburg (DB course book route 435) used by the Sauerland Express (RE 17) and Dortmund-Sauerland Express (RE 57).

Tourist railway

The (middle) Ruhrtalbahn has been used since the beginning of 2005 as a railway for regular tourist traffic on the section Bochum-Dahlhausen– Hattingen –Herbede – Wengern Ost– Hagen-Vorhalle - Hagen Hbf , after the Bochum-Dahlhausen Railway Museum had its own between 1981 and 1989 Directed a museum train service between Hattingen and Wengern Ost and Oberwengern. The owner of the Hattingen - Wengern Ost section (17.2 km) is the Ruhr Regional Association , which founded TouristikEisenbahnRuhrgebiet GmbH - TER in 2004 to maintain the Ruhr Valley line. As a railway infrastructure company, the TER is obliged, in accordance with the legal requirements, to make its route available to all railway companies in a non-discriminatory manner as public railway infrastructure. In the tourist season, however, the Ruhr Valley route is mainly used by historic steam trains from the Bochum-Dahlhausen Railway Museum or by nostalgic rail buses.

Until July 2019, the operator of the tourist line transport was RuhrtalBahn Betriebsgesellschaft mbH, based in Münster . In 2007, 40,000 people traveled by rail bus and steam train between Bochum-Dahlhausen and Hagen. The railway company Railflex has been operating tourist traffic since September 2019. In addition to the tourist traffic, goods traffic for a freight forwarding and logistics company in Hattingen and a large metal scrap recycling company in Herbede, which is carried out by DB Cargo , take place on the TER route on weekdays .

On a section of the middle Ruhrtalbahn, the RuhrtalRadweg , which was built by the Ruhr Regional Association between 2005 and 2006, runs alongside the route between the Hardenstein ruins and Wengern, in the location of a former second track . Since July 2020 it has been checked whether the Hattingen – Hagen section should be reactivated for local rail passenger transport.

RuhrtalBahn steam train in Hagen Hbf

The Ruhr Valley Railway near Bochum-Dahlhausen

Hardenstein ruins stop
Historic steam train - just before entering the Hagen-Vorhalle station

literature

Klaus Dattenberg: When Heisingen still had a train station. Memories of the railway from its beginnings in 1872 to the present day. (= From Heisingen's past , ISSN 2365-2306, Volume 2.) Essen 2017.
Bernd Franco Hoffmann: The Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn. Through the valleys of Wupper, Ruhr and Volme. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2015, ISBN 978-3-9540058-0-2 .