Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway
Encyclopedia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
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The Altenbeken-Kreiensen railway is part of a former long-distance route in Germany from the Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
area via Altenbeken
Altenbeken
Altenbeken is a municipality in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Altenbeken is situated in the Eggegebirge, approx. 15 km northeast of Paderborn...
, Ottbergen, Holzminden
Holzminden
Holzminden is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Holzminden. It is located directly on the river Weser, which here is the border to North Rhine-Westphalia.-History:...
, Kreiensen
Kreiensen
Kreiensen is a municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany.-Geography:Kreiensen is situated on the river Leine, approx. 20 km north of Northeim, and 35 km south of Hildesheim....
and Seesen
Seesen
Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx...
towards Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. The once continuous double track main line railway is now operated as a single track east of Ottbergen. It runs through the Eggegebirge
Eggegebirge
The Eggegebirge is a range of low, forested mountains in the very east of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.-Geography:The Eggegebirge extends from the southern tip of the Teutoburger Wald range near Horn-Bad Meinberg southwards to the northern parts of the Sauerland near Marsberg...
ridge and along the northern edge of the Solling
Solling
The Solling is a range of hills up to high in the Weser Uplands in the German state of Lower Saxony, whose extreme southerly foothills extend into Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia....
hills.
The section in North Rhine-Westphalia up to and including Holzminden is also known as the Egge Railway .
History
The line from Altenbeken to Godelheim was opened on 1 October 1864 by the Royal Westphalian Railway Company
Royal Westphalian Railway Company
The Royal Westphalian Railway , was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways...
and extended on 10 October 1865 to Holzminden. It connected with the Brunswick Southern Railway
Brunswick Southern Railway
The Brunswick Southern Railway was built by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway as a link from its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway to the Hanoverian Southern Railway. It ran through the northwestern Harz Foreland from Börßum via Salzgitter, Ringelheim and Seesen to Kreiensen...
, which was opened by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
Duchy of Brunswick State Railway
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway was the first state railway in Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened on 1 December 1838.-Opening:...
between Holzminden and Kreiensen on 10 October 1865, creating a link with Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
(Braunschweig). To connect with the Brunswick area the line bypassed the town of Einbeck with two tunnels and a long climb. Originally the route was considered a long distance line from the Ruhr to Brunswick and Berlin. The section east of Ottbergen remained a secondary line because after Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
’s annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
in 1866 a bypass of Hanover was no longer necessary. The section from Altenbeken to Ottbergen connected with the Solling Railway (Sollingbahn), opened in 1873, and the South Harz Railway (Südharzstrecke), opened 1868–69, creating an important west-east connection to Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
and Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. The line lost importance because more traffic shifted to the north-south direction over the decades after 1945 as a result of the division of Germany. The most striking construction on the Egge Railway is the 1,631 m long Rehberg Tunnel at Altenbeken.
As late as the 1980s there had been for years a continuous long distance express ("D-train", D-Zug, short for Durchgangszug, literally “corridor train”) with through carriages that were separated in Altenbeken and continued towards Höxter. In the 1990s through trains also ran on the line from Ottbergen to Nordhausen
Nordhausen
Nordhausen is a town at the southern edge of the Harz Mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen...
in Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
. The Paderborn
Paderborn Hauptbahnhof
is the main passenger station in the city of Paderborn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the Hamm–Warburg line, part of the Mid-Germany Connection from Cologne or Düsseldorf to Thuringia and Saxony...
–Holzminden–Kreiensen service ended with the handover of passenger operations between Paderborn and Holzminden on the line to NordWestBahn
NordWestBahn
The NordWestBahn GmbH ist a private railway company providing regional train service on several routes in northern and western Germany. It Is a joint venture of the Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG, the Verkehr und Wasser GmbH in Oldenburg and the Veolia Verkehr GmbH, Berlin. The head office of the company...
in December 2003.
The line is now double track between Altenbeken and Ottbergen and between Stadtoldendorf
Stadtoldendorf
Stadtoldendorf is a town in the middle Holzminden district, Lower Saxony, Germany. Stadtoldendorf is the seat of the Samtgemeinde Eschershausen-Stadtoldendorf.Allocation of seats in the local council electoral period 2006-2011:...
and Vorwohle. Since October 2008 it has been controlled by an electronic interlocking operating from Göttingen.
Paderborn–Holzminden
The RegionalbahnRegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
service RB 84 Egge-Bahn runs hourly on weekdays and every two hours on Sundays and public holidays. In Paderborn it becomes RB 74 Senne-Bahn running to Bielefeld
Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof
is the central railway station of the city of Bielefeld in Germany. The station was opened in 1847 as part of the Cologne-Minden trunk line. The current building was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style.-Train services:...
on the Senne Railway. Passengers continuing to Bielefeld must therefore not change at Paderborn, the train only changes direction.
Passenger services are operated by NordWestBahn with Bombardier Talent diesel multiple units at speeds up of to 120 km/h, the route allows east of Altenbeken mainly allow speeds of 100 km/h. The average speed is 66 km/h.
Holzminden–Kreiensen
The eastern section is operated every two hours by Deutsche BahnDeutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
with Alstom Coradia LINT diesel single-units. In Kreiensen connect with trains operated by Metronom
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a non State-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony, the largest since December 2005. The company is exclusively for passenger and operates on behalf of the public transportation trains on the lines Hamburg-Bremen, Hannover and...
on the Hanoverian Southern Railway to/from Hanover. Most services continue over the Kreiensen–Brunswick line
Brunswick Southern Railway
The Brunswick Southern Railway was built by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway as a link from its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway to the Hanoverian Southern Railway. It ran through the northwestern Harz Foreland from Börßum via Salzgitter, Ringelheim and Seesen to Kreiensen...
to Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg
Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...
. The Ottbergen–Holzminden–Kreiensen–Bad Harzburg route has been marketed by Deutsche Bahn since 2005 as the HarzWeserBahn.
External links
NRW rail archive of André Joost:Photographs from Tunnelportale at eisenbahntunnel-portal.de: