Troisdorf–Mülheim-Speldorf railway

The Troisdorf–Mülheim-Speldorf railway is the main axis for freight between Cologne and the Ruhr area in Germany and the Netherlands. It connects the marshalling yards of Duisburg-Wedau (formerly important, now closed and demolished) and Gremberg (in Cologne).

Mülheim-Speldorf–Troisdorf railway
Overview
Line number	2324
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Technical
Line length	81.2 km (50.5 mi)
Route map From Mülheim Hbf Former Lower Ruhr Valley Railway to Kettwig Connecting curve from Rhine-Ruhr Port 0.0 Mülheim-Speldorf Freight line to Oberhausen-West To Duisburg Hbf/Krefeld 5.7 Duisburg-Wedau 6.6 Duisburg-Bissingheim 8.3 Duisburg-Entenfang 13.1 Lintorf Anger Valley Railway to Wülfrath 17.2 Ratingen West From Ratingen Ost 21.3 Düsseldorf-Rath To Düsseldorf-Derendorf Staufenplatz Tunnel Hardt junction from/to Düsseldorf Hbf To Düsseldorf-Gerresheim Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway From Düsseldorf Hbf 28.6 Düsseldorf-Eller 34.9 Hilden To Solingen 38.9 Richrath 41.2 Immigrath From Wuppertal Hbf 48.1 Opladen Passenger line to Köln-Mülheim 52.4 Leverkusen-Morsbroich 55.5 Köln-Dünnwald (siding until 2010), now signal box museum Köln-Mülheim–Lindlar railway from Bergisch Gladbach From Leverkusen and from Opladen 60.8 Köln-Mülheim From/to Köln-Deutz and Cologne Hbf 62.9 Köln-Kalk Nord Köln-Kalk Nord junction To South Bridge Gremberg-Nord junction From South Bridge 68.5 Gremberg Steinstraße junction From Cologne 71.3 Porz 73.9 Porz-Wahn 78.4 Spich 81.1 Troisdorf To Siegen To Bonn-Oberkassel Source: German railway atlas

History

The track was opened on 18 November 1874 by the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) to connect its Ruhr line with the Right Rhine line. It runs parallel, but a few kilometres to the east of the Cologne–Duisburg trunk line opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) thirty years earlier, from which it hoped to draw traffic. Since the line bypasses the centre of the towns, soon after the nationalisation of both companies in 1879/1880 passenger operations were closed on parts of it. Except on a few short sections the line is now used exclusively for freight.

Passengers

After the Second World War passenger services ran only on the section from Mülheim-Speldorf to Düsseldorf-Rath (continuing to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof) and from Hilden to Opladen. Passenger services were discontinued between Duisburg-Wedau and Mülheim-Speldorf on 6 December 1971. This was followed on 23 September 1983 by the end of operations between Duisburg-Entenfang and Düsseldorf-Rath. Since then the only operation on the line is the Regionalbahn service, Der Wedauer (RB 37), from Duisburg Hauptbahnhof to Duisburg-Entenfang. Between Duisburg-Wedau and Lintorf, the line is also used by museum trains to access the Anger Valley Railway. Passenger services on the Opladen–Hilden section were abandoned on 23 September 1983. Passenger operations on the two sections were mainly operated in the postwar period with battery railcars of class 515, but local trains were also hauled by locomotives of classes 140 and 212 or composed of class 430 electric multiple units. A reactivation of passenger services has been discussed from time to time.

Freight

The line was and is used by heavy freight traffic. North of Düsseldorf-Rath station there is a siding connecting to Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes for the carriage of steel tubes by freight trains.

External links

• "1944 timetable, Cologne–Düsseldorf" (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2011.
• "1944 timetable, Düsseldorf–Dortmund" (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2011.
• "V&M Deutschland GmbH, Düsseldorf-Rath" (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2011.

Freight train hauled by class 155 locomotive in Ratingen-Lintorf on the Mülheim-Speldorf–Troisdorf line