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| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line number |
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| Locale | North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route number | 433 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line length | 38 km (24 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of tracks | 2: Dortmund Hbf–Schwerte | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating speed |
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The Ardey Railway (German : Ardeybahn) is a 38 km long railway line running from Dortmund via Schwerte to Iserlohn (KBS 433) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The section between Dortmund Central Station and Dortmund-Horde part of the railway route Dortmund-Soest, is double track and electrified and classified as a mainline railway. The northern part of the Ardey Railway between Dortmund-Horde and Schwerte is a double-track and non-electrified main line. Its maximum speed is 90 km/h. The southern section between Schwerte and Iserlohn is a single-track non-electrified branch line, with a passing loop at Kalthof. Most of this section can be run at 100 km/h.
The Letmathe–Fröndenberg railway has been closed between Iserlohn and Menden and there is currently no connection between the Ardey Railway and the line to Letmathe in Iserlohn. Iserlohn is therefore formally not a Bahnhof (station, which under German regulations must have at least one set of points) but instead a Haltepunkt (halt) on two lines. However, the Zweckverband SPNV Ruhr-Lippe (association for the promotion of public transport in Ruhr-Lippe, ZRL) intends to build a connection between the two lines, including points, which would restore its status as a station.
After Iserlohn had been connected by rail to Letmathe in 1864, the chamber of commerce and industry campaigned in 1882 for the construction of a railway to the north towards Schwerte. Against resistance mainly from businessmen in the Lenne valley, who advocated lines from Letmathe to Schwerte or from Iserlohn to Altena, especially the then owner of the nickel plants in Iserlohn and Schwerte, Dr Theodor Fleitmann. He supported the construction of a railway through the valley of the Elsebach. The district (Landkreis), however, decided that the line should be built along the Baarbach to promote industry in Sümmern, Kalthof and Hennen. After the death of Fleitmann in 1904, the construction started in 1907 and it was completed a year later. Money provided in Fleitmann’s will for the construction of a railway was not used because it had been earmarked for the route favoured by him.
The construction of the railway was relatively expensive; 200,000 cubic metres of limestone were blasted just for a cutting in Iserlohn, where numerous fossils were found. Several embankments and bridges had to be built on the course of the line. The recently completed bridge over the Ruhr were severely damaged in a flood in February 1909 and had to be replaced. Overall, the line between Schwerte and Iserlohn had to overcome a height difference of 130 m. The construction cost 6 million marks, covering, among other things, the erection of 39 engineering structures and the moving of about one million m3 of earth. [2]
The opening ceremony took place on 30 September 1910, coinciding with the last stagecoach ride from Schwerte to Iserlohn, the day after scheduled traffic commenced. [3] The other part of the line from Schwerte to Dortmund-Horde was opened two years later in October 2012 for freight operations and in January 1913 for passenger operations. [4] In contrast to the first section, this line was built for its full length as double track.
In addition to the crossing loop at Kalthof, there was also a crossing loop at Ergste until 1981. Therefore, it had a second platform, traces of which can still be seen.
There is no freight traffic on the line any more. Sidings are still present in Kalthof (for Kettenwerk Thiele) and Hennen for the occasional transport of RWE transformers to the substation in Sümmern.
In the 1990s and the early 2000s, services were provided by class 624 railcars. In 2002, DB Regio NRW won the contract for the so-called Sauerland Net (German : Sauerland-Netz; apart from this line, it also includes the Dortmund-Sauerland-Express, the Volmetal-Bahn and the Hönnetal-Bahn) and thus has the right to operate the line for another 12 years from the timetable change in December 2004, using Alstom Coradia LINT 41 (class 648) railcars.
Passenger demand on the Dortmund-Horde–Schwerte section rose from about 3,000 to about 4,500 passengers between 1997 and 2008. Also on the Schwerte–Iserlohn section there has been passenger growth of about 50% to about 1,600 passengers a day. [5]
The Regionalbahn service RB 53 ( Ardey-Bahn ) operates
The average speed is highly directional. So trains to Dortmund from Iserlohn have an average speed of only 44 km/h, while trains from Dortmund to Iserlohn average 51 km/h. This is partly due to the out-dated signalling in Kalthof, which does not allow the simultaneous entry and exit of trains, meaning that trains to Dortmund have to wait seven minutes for the oncoming trains, and also to the coupling of trains in Schwerte (also taking seven minutes). In the opposite direction the uncoupling of trains in Schwerte takes just three minutes and no specific period is required for stopping at Kalthof. Shortening of the travel time to Dortmund is planned.
Rail services from Ardey are operated by DB Regio NRW, using LINT 41 diesel railcars in single or double traction, which are capable of operating at 120 km/h. Coupling/uncoupling is usually carried out in Schwerte. Occasionally LINT 27 (class 640) or class 628 DMUs are used.
The following upgrades to the line are proposed:
It is interesting that the line does not have a single level crossing, but instead many overpasses and underpasses were built for even the smallest dirt roads, including single-lane tracks on high embankments.
The Hagen–Hamm railway is a continuous two-track, electrified main line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, connecting Hagen via Schwerte, Holzwickede and Unna to Hamm.
The Ruhr–Sieg railway is a 106 km long double-track, electrified main line from Hagen to Siegen via Iserlohn-Letmathe, Finnentrop and Kreuztal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The line, which has many tunnels, runs primarily through the valley of the Lenne. South of Altenhundem it crosses the watershed between the Lenne and the Sieg. The line was opened between 1859 and 1861 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
Unna station is the main passenger station in the Westphalian city of Unna in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The other stations in the city that are served by regular passenger services are Unna-Königsborn, Unna West, Massen, Lünern and Hemmerde.
The Wupper-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) running from Aachen via Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Hagen to Dortmund. The service is operated every hour by DB Regio NRW. It is the third most widely used Regional-Express line in the area administered by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr with approximately 24,000 passengers a day.
The Fröndenberg–Kamen railway is a single-track, partially electrified and partially disused railway line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs from Fröndenberg via Unna to Unna-Königsborn and formerly on to Kamen.
Schwerte station is a through station in the town of Schwerte in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station was opened with the section of the Hagen–Hamm railway between Hagen and Holzwickede, opened by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company on 1 April 1867. It has six platform tracks and it is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.
The Upper Ruhr Valley Railway is a 138-kilometre-long, non-electrified line from Schwerte (Ruhr) station) through the Hochsauerland to Warburg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the most southerly of the east-west lines that run from the Ruhr to eastern Germany and it connects the rural Hochsauerlandkreis with the Ruhr. The line is included in the German railway timetable as line 435, which continues on the line from Schwerte to Hagen, which is part of the Hagen–Hamm railway.
The Hagen–Dieringhausen railway is a mostly single-track and non-electrified railway line from Hagen Hauptbahnhof via Lüdenscheid-Brügge, Meinerzhagen and Gummersbach to Gummersbach-Dieringhausen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Duisburg–Quakenbrück railway is a former inter-regional German railway, built by the Rhenish Railway Company (RhE) from Duisburg in the western Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia to Quakenbrück in Lower Saxony on the border of the former Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Some sections of it are now disused.
The Letmathe–Fröndenberg railway is a two-track, partially electrified and partially disused branch line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. For over 100 years it ran from Letmathe via Iserlohn, Hemer and Menden to Fröndenberg. The section between Hemer and Iserlohn and the branch line from Hemer to Sundwig have been closed and dismantled.
Iserlohn station is located in central Iserlohn in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is at the end of two single-track lines, the Ardey Railway (Ardeybahn) from Dortmund and Schwerte and the line from Iserlohn-Letmathe with services from Essen via Hagen. Since 2008, it has operated from a rebuilt station called the Stadtbahnhof.
The Ruhr-Sieg-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Essen via Bochum, Witten, Bochum, Hagen, Iserlohn-Letmathe and Finnentrop to Siegen or Iserlohn. It is operated by Abellio Rail NRW hourly.
The Sauerland-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Hagen to Warburg (Westf). A few services run to or from Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. It is managed by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe, the Nahverkehrsverbund Paderborn-Höxter and the Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund. It is operated by DB Regio NRW with electric multiple units of classes 612 and 644.
The Sauerland Net is a group of railway services in the western Sauerland and the eastern Ruhr of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and consists of three Regionalbahn services, RB 52 (Dortmund–Hagen–Lüdenscheid), RB 53 (Dortmund–Schwerte–Iserlohn) and RB 54 (Unna–Fröndenberg–Menden–Neuenrade), and the Regional-Express service RE 57. The RB 52 also carries the brand name of the Volmetal-Bahn, the RB 53 is called the Ardey-Bahn, the RB 54 is called the Hönnetal-Bahn and the RE 57 is called the Dortmund Sauerland-Express. In December 2004, DB Regio NRW took over or retained operations of these services. Previously the RB 53, RB 54 and RE 57 had been operated by DB Regio NRW and RB 52 had been operated by the Dortmund-Märkische Eisenbahn (DME).
Dortmund-Hörde station is a passenger station in the Dortmund district of Horde in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.
The Hönne Valley Railway is a 22 km long, single-track and non-electrified branch line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Menden (Sauerland) to Neuenrade through the Hönne valley. It is operated as timetable route 437 from Unna via Fröndenberg, Menden (Sauerland) and Balve to Neuenrade.
The Alme Valley Railway was an approximately 60 km long, mostly single-track branch line from Paderborn via Buren to Brilon in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is named after the Alme river and runs through its valley in a north–south direction. The line is disused and dismantled between Paderborn and Büren-Weiberg, but it has not been formally closed. The remaining line between Büren-Weiberg and Brilon Wald (forest) was for a long time only used for freight and museum trains, but the section between Brilon Stadt (town) and Brilon Wald has been back in use by regional services since 2011.
Brilon Stadt (town) station is one of four passenger stations that are still in service in the town of Brilon in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located near the centre of Brilon. The former goods shed of the station is a listed building.
The Herford–Himmighausen railway is a 48 km-long line from Herford via Detmold to Himmighausen and is a single-track and electrified main line. It is located in Ostwestfalen-Lippe in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and is part of Deutsche Bahn’s Münster-Ostwestfalen regional network (MOW), which has its headquarters in Münster. In Herford this route is known as the Lippische Bahn. The line from Herford to Detmold was built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company.
The Hellweg net consists of the four Regionalbahn lines in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia: RB 50, RB 59, RB 69 and RB 89. It has a length of about 370 km. The RB 50 is referred to as Der Lüner, the RB 59 as Die Hellweg-Bahn and the RB 69 and RB 89 together as Die Ems-Börde-Bahn. On 14 December 2008 operations were taken over by eurobahn. Previously these four Regionalbahn services were operated by DB Regio NRW.
