The Elsenz Valley Railway (Elsenztalbahn) or Neckargemünd–Bad Friedrichshall railway is an electrified, partly double-tracked main line in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, running from Heidelberg via Sinsheim to Bad Friedrichshall, that, for part of its course, follows the Elsenz river that gives it its name. The crossing stations on the single-tracked sections were controlled by mechanical signal boxes until 2008, but are now controlled by electronic interlockings.
The section from Heidelberg to Meckesheim was opened on 23 October 1862 by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway as part of the Odenwald Railway and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. The section from Meckesheim to Bad Rappenau was opened by the Baden State Railway on 25 June 1868 and it was extended to Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld on 5 August 1869.
The line has been electrified to allow the extension of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn on the Heidelberg–Steinsfurt section of the line and the operation of Heilbronn Stadtbahn on the section between Sinsheim and Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld.
History Construction from Heidelberg to Meckesheim
At the end of the 1840s, the Kingdom of Württemberg wanted to connect its railway lines with those of Grand Duchy of Baden, from Heilbronn via Sinsheim either to Wiesloch or Heidelberg. (Series on Meckenheim local history, No 5) Baden did not agree to support this proposal, however, as it only wanted a line via Pforzheim.
A railway committee was founded in Mosbach for the construction of an Odenwald Railway on 24 May 1853 and another one was founded in Heidelberg in 1856 . As part of this process, it was determined on 27 April 1860 that the section from Heidelberg via Meckesheim to Mosbach would be built at government expense. After preparatory work that had been in progress since 1858, construction subsequently commenced. The line was initially built as a single track, but it was prepared for eventual doubling. The inaugural train trip took place on 22 October 1862 in very poor weather. On the following day operations by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways were recorded on the line. There was a derailment on the first day of operations on the Neckar bridge at Neckarelz due to a landslide as a result of heavy rain.
Construction from Meckesheim to Jagstfeld
A line from Waibstadt to the Rappenau salt works (Saline Rappenau) was planned. A petition was presented against this in 1862 by the town of Sinsheim and 25 other municipalities, which instead sought a line from Meckesheim via Sinsheim to Rappenau. The latter followed by an extension to Jagstfeld was approved on 19 January 1866.
The opening trip on the section from Meckesheim to Bad Rappenau took place on 18 June 1868 with regular services commencing on 25 June. (= Erich Preuß (ed.): Bahnhöfe A – Z: Das große Archiv der deutschen Bahnhöfe 5) () There were initially two viaducts on this section, three bridges, 14 level crossing keepers houses and 36 level crossings. The connecting line to the salt works had been put into operation in April.
The second track from Heidelberg Karlstor to Meckesheim was opened in mid 1869, because with the lines to Bavaria and Württemberg significantly more trains would run on this section. (Series on Meckenheim local history, No 5)
It was opened to Jagstfeld on 5 August 1869.
20th century
Between 1920 and 1930, the line was upgraded for higher axle loads.
In the Second World War, on 2 February 1945, the Neckar bridge between Bad Wimpfen and Jagstfeld was severely damaged by bombs and as a result the line from the 35.52 kilometre point was abandoned in 1952. The halt of Bad Wimpfen Neckarbrücke was built as a workaround near a ferry to the other side of the Neckar, not far from Jagstfeld station, on 5 October 1947. In November 1952, operations resumed over a new bridge.
The level crossing at km 17.050, to the west of Mauer, (now the street of Im Bruchrain) was closed in about 1959. The level crossing at km 16.0 (at that time guard post 19), south of the village of Bammental, received a protection system with flashing lights for the first time in 1964, whereupon the local crossing keeper's house was demolished. The level crossing at km 1.6 (guard post 1a), between Meckesheim and Zuzenhausen, was closed in 1965 as a result of the construction of the Meckesheim bypass. The level crossing over Horrenberger Straße in Zuzenhausen (guard post 3a) receives a locomotive-monitored flashing light system on 6 June 1969. Sometime before 1976, the level crossing at km 18.2 (guard post 21a, Hartmann Company) in Mauer was closed. The guard post 17a level crossing near Bammental station closed in 1978.
Two years after the last sugar beet was loaded in Meckesheim; loading ended in Bammental (72 wagons) in 1979 and in Grombach (424 wagons; 11,047 tonnes) in 1980. The last beet was loaded in Babstadt (ca. 100 wagons) in 1984 and in Sinsheim (212 wagons), Steinsfurt (153 wagons) and Hoffenheim (99 wagons) in 1991.
In 1980, the railway overpass over district road 4162 at Waldhilsbach was upgraded.
On 1 August 1981, guard post 25 in Bad Rappenau was abolished.
The Neckargemünd–Meckesheim line was renewed in August 2003 and the Meckesheim–Neckargemünd line was renewed in August 2006. The line from Grombach to Bad Rappenau was closed from 3 to 30 August 2006. The Meckesheim–Sinsheim line was renewed from May to June and in August 2007.
Development
From March 2008, the track was modernised for the extension of the adjacent S-Bahn networks. A project entitled "Electrification and expansion of the transport infrastructure on the Elsenz Valley Railway and the Schwarzbach Valley Railway", included, in addition to the electrification, the reconstruction or conversion of all platforms and the modernisation of the stations from Neckargemünd to meet the standards of the Rhine Neckar S-Bahn, including, among other things, bringing platform heights to 76 centimetres. The upgrade was divided into the following sections:
Neckargemünd – Meckesheim Meckesheim – Sinsheim-Steinsfurt – Eppingen Meckesheim – Aglasterhausen
Parallel with the line upgrade, the Elsenztal electronic interlocking was put into operation from 24 October until 1 November 2008. This now remotely controls the entire line, along with the branches to Aglasterhausen and Eppingen, via the signalling computers at Waibstadt, Sinsheim, Grombach and Bad Rappenau and is operated by the Meckesheim 1 (up to and including Sinsheim Hbf) and Meckesheim 2 dispatchers at the Karlsruhe operation centre. The monitoring of the two remote-controlled level crossings in Mauer and south of Reilsheim was transferred to the electronic interlocking on 3 February 2009.
Construction of the Meckesheim substation to the north of Meckesheim on the Mannheim–Neckarelz traction power line, from which the newly electrified lines are supplied, began on 5 November 2008.
The electrification began in the autumn of 2009. The first electric train ran on 6 November 2009.
Before its conversion for the S-Bahn, platform track 3 in Steinsfurt station, including the single track Elsenz bridge, was demolished.
A little later, the halt of Sinsheim Museum/Arena was rebuilt as a double-track station to allow trains to cross, with work completed on 12 June 2011, and reclassified as a part of Steinsfurt station for administrative purposes. A new track 3 was built there before the level crossing as a siding and terminal track without access to a platform. As a result of this layout, special football trains run directly from the Museum/Arena area to be shunted in the siding or run from the Sinsheim Museum/Arena station.
In December 2012, a retaining wall collapsed at Bad Wimpfen, causing this section of the line to be closed for three months.
As part of the development of the northern line of the Heilbronn Stadtbahn, the whole Bad Rappenau – Bad Friedrichshall section was blockaded in the period from 7 January 2014 to 30 March 2015. On weekends and holidays, no trains served Steinsfurt and Bad Rappenau. During this construction work, Bad Wimpfen station was converted into a double-track station where trains could cross and the bridge over the L530 was rebuilt with two tracks. At the same time, the new halts of Bad Rappenau Kurpark and Bad Wimpfen im Tal were created.
Operations Passengers 19th century Around 1893, local train services were extended from Heidelberg to Neckargemünd to Meckesheim, which ran between Neckargemünd and Meckesheim about once an hour a train. These stopped, in addition to the places served by the other trains, at the halts of Heidelberg Peterskirche, Jägerhaus-Wolfsbrunnen, Kümmerlbacher Hof, Waldhilsbach and Reilsheim that were established at the same time. One of these trains continued from Heidelberg to Wiesloch-Walldorf station.
20th century After Bruchsal station, the local tunnels, the Enz viaduct in Bietigheim and all the Neckar bridges were destroyed during World War II, all trains operating from Mannheim to Stuttgart from April to August 1945, including up to 80 freight trains per day, ran via Meckesheim, Eppingen provisional station (now the Stebbach part of Eppingen station) and Heilbronn-Böckingen (Franconia Railway). Until the reconstruction of the Neckar bridge in Neckargemünd in 1946, trains from Mannheim to Würzburg also took a corresponding route. From July 1945, "milk trains" ran from Mannheim to Obrigheim, Bad Rappenau and Eppingen; from August, express, semi-fast and general freight could also be carried on these trains.
In the mid-1950s, the steam trains were superseded by railcars of the VT 95 and VT 98 classes (similar to Uerdingen railbuses). The line was served by, along with eight pairs of trains running over the whole line and another pair reversing in Neckargemünd, some of which did not stop in Waldhilsbach and Reilsheim, six train pairs to Obrigheim, two train pairs from Heilbronn to Bad Rappenau and one semi-fast train pair on both the Heidelberg–Stuttgart and the Cologne–Darmstadt–Heidelberg–Stuttgart routes, and the trains of the line to Eppingen between Sinsheim and Steinsfurt. (scan of 1953 timetable)
The last steam train ran from Mannheim on 24 December 1972 and steam trains stopped running on the line before the timetable change at the end of May 1973.
From the summer of 1973 to 1975, there were through coaches from Paris to Heilbronn, which formed part of the semi-fast trains 1555 and 1756 on the Elsenz Valley Railway.
At the end of 1988, a clock-face timetable was introduced on the line. After the electrification of the line, Regional-Express services were operated with Silberling coaches and diesel locomotives of class 218 and many Regionalbahn services were operated with class 628 diesel multiple units. Initially, individual local trains were operated by the SWEG with class NE 81 diesel multiple units. At the timetable change in June 1997, services running later at night were introduced and the last train from Heidelberg to Sinsheim then ran around 22:12. From 28 September 1997, Regional-Express services were operated with class 611 diesel multiple units, which shortened travel times as a result of their tilting technology. Due to technical faults, however, this use did not last long.
After the timetable change in December 1999, the Regionalbahn services also ran on Sundays and public holidays every hour instead of every two hours.