Dill Railway

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 from 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.

Dill Railway
Overview
Native nameDillstrecke
Line number
  • 2881 (Siegen–Siegen Ost)
  • 800 (Siegen Ost–Haiger)
  • 2651 (Haiger–Gießen)
LocaleHesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Termini
Service
Route number445
Technical
Line length73 km (45 mi)
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge
Electrification15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed140 km/h (87 mph)
Route map

−1.1
Siegen
0.0
0.4
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
NRWHesse 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
from Breitscheid
129.1
Haiger
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
152.8
Buderus Edelstahl I siding
153.2
Buderus Edelstahl II siding
153.3
153.4
Wetzlar
153.9
154.7
Wetzlar freight yard
156.0
160.6
Dutenhofen (Wetzlar)
161.0
to Gießen-Bergwald
163.6
to Gießen goods yard
164.0
Gießen goods yard
166.0
Gießen
(Keilbahnhof)
Source: German railway atlas[1]

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 Lahntal 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) 060 min
RB 40
Mittelhessen-Express
SiegenWetzlarGießen - Frankfurt 060 min
RB 95 Au – Siegen – Dillenburg 0120 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

  • Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, ed. (2005). Eisenbahn in Hessen. Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland (in German). Stuttgart: Theiss Verlag. pp. Vol 2.1, p. 264ff and Vol 2.2, pp. 1011ff. ISBN 3-8062-1917-6.
  • Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas) 2007/2008 edition. Schweers + Wall. 2007. ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9.
  • Krauskopf, Bernd; Vogelbusch, Reinhard (1984). Das Bw Dillenburg (in German). Freiburg: Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag. ISBN 3-88255-315-4.
  • Merzhäuser, Wenzel (1996). Eisenbahnen im Westerwald (in German). Freiburg: Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag. ISBN 3-88255-579-3.
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