Dill Railway

Dill Railway
Overview
Native name Dillstrecke
Locale Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Termini Siegen
Gießen
Line number
  • 2881 (Siegen–Siegen Ost)
  • 800 (Siegen Ost–Haiger)
  • 2651 (Haiger–Gießen)
Technical
Line length 73 km (45 mi)
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification 15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed 140 km/h (87 mph)
Route number 445
Route map

 Sieg Railway from Cologne
 −1.1 Siegen
0.0 Ruhr-Sieg railway to Hagen
 0.4 Ruhr-Sieg railway from Hagen
 0.4–1.2
Giersberg Tunnel
(one line 732 m/other 699 m)
2.0 Chainage change
 2.6 Siegen Ost goods yard
 2.9 Kreisbahn S-W
3.1
107.6
 Mannesmann Fuchs Rohr siding
 108.3 "Siegen town" siding
 110.9 Niederdielfen Viaduct
 111.4 Niederdielfen
 114.8 Rudersdorf Viaduct
 115.8 Rudersdorf (Siegen)
 116.4 Rudersdorf substation siding
 117.6 Rudersdorf Tunnel 2652 m
 ca. 119.0 NRW–Hesse state boundary
121.4 Dill river and road bridge
 121.7 Dillbrecht
 124.2 Bridge over Dill and road
 124.9 Rodenbach (Dillkr)
 127.0 A 45
 from Betzdorf (Sieg)
 from Breitscheid
 129.1 Haiger (Keilbahnhof)
129.6
119.3
 km change, network boundary
 119.3 B 277
 119.4 Dill
 121.4 Sechshelden
 123.7 from Ewersbach
 125.0 Dillenburg
 to Wallau (Lahn)
 126.6 Dill
 127.1 Niederscheld (Dillkr) Süd
 128.3 Dill
 129.0 Burg (Dillkr) Nord
 129.3 from Niederwalgern
 129.8 Cross Westerwald Railway
 from Montabaur
 130.8 Herborn (Dillkr)
 133.3 Dill
 134.6 Firma Haas & Sohn siding
 135.0 Sinn
 137.1 Edingen (Wetzlar)
 139.4 Katzenfurt
 143.5 Ehringshausen (Kr Wetzlar)
 146.0 Werdorf
 148.8 Dill
 149.0 Firma Berkenhoff & Drebes siding
 149.4 Aßlar
 150.4 to Koblenz
 152.8 Buderus Edelstahl I siding
 153.2 Buderus Edelstahl II siding
 153.3 from Koblenz
 153.4 Wetzlar
 153.9 Lahn
 154.7 Wetzlar freight yard
 156.0 to Lollar
 160.6 Dutenhofen (Wetzlar)
 161.0 to Gießen-Bergwald
 163.6 to Gießen goods yard
 164.0 from Frankfurt/Main
Gießen goods yard
166.0 Gießen (Keilbahnhof)
 to Gelnhausen
 to Fulda
 to Kassel
Source: German railway atlas[1]

The Dill Railway (German: Dillstrecke) is a 73 km-long double-track electrified railway line, which runs from Giessen in Hesse to Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2002 InterRegio trains operated the connection to Düsseldorf, Norddeich, and Münster. Nowadays the line is only worked by regional trains, including diesel multiples of the DreiLänderBahn, but there is one exception. The EuroCity Line 112/113 from Siegen to Klagenfurt via Frankfurt, Stuttgart, München and Salzburg with a destination coach to Zagreb. This train starts every day from Siegen in the morning at 6:17 pm, the train von Klagenfurt arrives at 9:57 am at Siegen. The southern section between Haiger and Gießen was built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company in 1862 as part of its line from Deutz and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. The section from Haiger to Siegen was opened in 1915 by the Prussian state railways.

History

Regional-Express in Rudersdorf
InterRegio service in 2002
Rudersdorf station

Construction

The Dill line consists historically in two parts. The southern section was built about 50 years before the northern section.

Southern section

The southern part is the south-western section of the Deutz–Gießen line built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and completed originally as a single-track in January 1862 from Köln-Deutz to Gießen. The population of the rural areas along the Dill river was initially largely hostile to the construction of the railway, although it contributed to the prosperity of the region. It quickly gained great importance for the movement of professionals between home and work. The town of Wetzlar had to accept the remote location of its station, as it was located near a curve in the Dill line built for the junction with the Lahn Valley Railway, which was opened a year later. The route soon became an important line and was almost fully duplicated by1870. The central section of the Deutz–Giessen line ran from Betzdorf via Burbach and Würgendorf to Haiger, the route of the current Heller Valley Railway. Due to the difficult terrain, construction of a direct connection from Siegen to the Dill line was too expensive at the time.

Northern section

The line between Haiger and Siegen line was opened in 1915, completing a connection from Hagen to Giessen, and thus from the Ruhr to the Rhine-Main area as well as southern Germany. The line was shortened by approximately 30 kilometres. The line was particularly important for coal traffic. This required the construction of the almost 2.7 km-long Rudersdorf Tunnel and two large viaducts, the Rudersdorf Viaduct and the Niederdielfen Viaduct. It was originally planned to build the Siegen–Dillenburg section with four tracks, but this was prevented by the outbreak of the First World War. Because of the engineering works, the entire line between Haiger station and the Hessian / North Rhine Westphalia border, through which the Rudersdorf tunnel passes, has been listed as a cultural monument under the Hessian heritage law.

Development

In 1965, the whole of the Dill line and the Ruhr-Sieg line were electrified. The first electric train ran on the line on 14 May 1965.

Operations

Passengers

The train services operating on the Dill Railway are:

Regional passenger services

The following regional services operate on the line:

Line Route Frequency
RE 99
Main-Sieg-Express		 Siegen – Dillenburg – Wetzlar – Gießen (– Frankfurt) 60 min
RB 40
Mittelhessen-Express		 Siegen – Wetzlar – Gießen - Frankfurt 60 min
RB 95 Au – Siegen – Dillenburg 120 min

Freight

In Germany there are three major freight railways: the North-South railway and the East and the West Rhine Railways. The Dill Railway is very important in handling freight services from the Netherlands and Ruhr to the area around Stuttgart as well as Austria. The most important customer on the Dill Railway is the steelmaking firm of Thyssen-Krupp in Dillenburg, which receives deliveries of goods daily from Thyssen-Krupp in Bochum.

Notes

  1. ↑ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.

References

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