West Holstein Railway Company
The Westholsteinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was founded in 1875 with the aim of connecting the Westholstein region in today's Dithmarschen district with the Neumünster railway junction and also with the cities of Kiel and Lübeck .
The Kingdom of Prussia , the Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , neighboring districts and cities as well as the city of Tönning were involved.
history
After Schleswig-Holstein became Prussian as a result of the German-Danish War , the Westholsteinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was able to run its first 79 km long route from Neumünster via Hohenwestedt to the district town of Heide and via Weddinghusen to Karolinenkoog at the mouth of the Eider on August 22, 1877 with Prussian funding to open as the first branch line in Germany. This happened before the Glückstadt-Elmshorner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft expanded today's march line from Hamburg via Itzehoe to Heide .
The town of Tönning on the Eiderstedt peninsula could be reached from Karolinenkoog by means of a steam ferry, which was used from August 6, 1878. The bridging of the river would have become too expensive because of its considerable width and was only carried out in 1886 near Friedrichstadt as part of the march railway. This new building made the line to Karolinenkoog largely superfluous, so that the northernmost section was closed in 1942 after a long period of insignificance.
On November 1, 1878, the Wesselburen-Heider Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , in which the Westholsteinische and the Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn as well as the municipality of Wesselburen were involved, opened a line that branched off the above-mentioned railway in Weddinghusen and went eleven kilometers to the west Wesselburen led.
After the Wesselburen-Heider Eisenbahn became the property of the Westholsteinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft on April 1, 1881 , which had previously been in operation, they extended the route by ten kilometers to Büsum . Freight traffic began here on November 1, 1883, and passenger traffic on November 15, 1883.
On July 1, 1890, the Prussian State Railroad bought the company, whose total network was exactly 100 km long, and placed it under the Altona Railway Directorate .
Today (2017) the nordbahn railway company operates the passenger traffic from Neumünster via Heide to Büsum. The branch line to Karolinenkoog was discontinued in sections. Passenger traffic - most recently to Hemmerwurth - ended on May 23, 1954; the freight traffic there was served five years longer.
See also
literature
- Erich Staisch (Ed.): The way to the north . Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-8225-0298-7 .