The Osnabrück–Brackwede railway, also the called the Haller Willem, is a single-track branch line running through the Teutoburg Forest () from Osnabrück via Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and Halle (Westf) to Brackwede in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The line is known for its steep climb to the Teutoburg Forest, where a tunnel was omitted for cost reasons. The railway was built in 1886 in response to demands for a line from Osnabrück to Bielefeld. In 1984, the section from Osnabrück to Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde was closed for passenger traffic, freight traffic continued until 1991. After numerous protests this section of track was reactivated in 2005. The entire line is owned by Deutsche Bahn, but the section from Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde to Osnabrück has been leased to the Verkehrsgesellschaft Landkreis Osnabrück (transport company of Osnabrück district). The Brackwede–Dissen section is part of Deutsche Bahn’s Münster-Ostwestfalen regional network (MOW).
Route
The Haller Willem line branches from the Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway at Hörne. The junction is located at 74 metres above sea level. The line then runs through Sutthausen and Malbergen stations. At Oesede station in Georgsmarienhütte the line is already 94 metres above sea level. After Oesede the line passes through the stations of Kloster Oesede and Wellendorf. The former Hankenberge station lies 177 metres above sea level and is situated close to the highest point of the line. The line runs on a grade of 1:50 through the Teutoburg Forest and passes through Hilter station to Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde station, which is 97 metres above sea level. The line runs largely on the level from Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde through the stations of Westbarthausen, Borgholzhausen, Hesseln and Halle Gerry Weber Stadion to Halle in Westfalen station. The line continues through the plain to Brackwede through the stations of Künsebeck, Steinhagen in Westphalia, Steinhagen Bielefelder Straße, Quelle and Quelle-Kupferheide. In Brackwede the line connects to the main line to Minden.
Meaning of the name
The name Haller Willem ("William from Halle") refers to the carter Wilhelm Stuckemeyer. He was among the men who transported goods between Bielefeld and Osnabrück before the construction of the line. The Halle–Brackwede road that Stuckemeyer operated on quickly acquired the name of Haller Willem due to his popularity among the locals. This name was then used for the railway line built shortly later and has survived to this day.
History
The first evidence for the extraction of coal in Borgloh (now part of Hilter) comes from 1460. With the beginning of industrialisation at the beginning of the 19th century coal mining steadily increased. The coal was taken by horse and cart from Borgloh to Osnabrück. The horse-drawn wagons could not cope with the increasing coal traffic. The construction of a railway like those being built in England was considered as a solution.
Other municipalities near Borgloh also supported the construction of a railway. On 25 July 1878, the engineer Mackensen and the government architect Richard planned a railway line from Osnabrück to Brackwede, which would connect the villages of Borgloh, Rothenfelde and Oesede to the German railway network.
The plans envisaged that the line would be built as a 750 mm gauge railway. This would have reduced the cost of the structures on the line. The disadvantage was that the freight would have had to be transhipped at the terminal stations, which is why the line was ultimately built to standard gauge. One problem that became clear during the planning was the differences in altitude in the Teutoburg forest. Because it was decided to avoid a tunnel for cost reasons, tight bends were required on a grade of 1:40 on this section. It was estimated that the construction of the railway line would cost 2.5 million marks. In a cost comparison it was calculated that the line would yield a surplus of 127,000 marks a year.
The Prussian government rejected the project on 8 June 1879, as it was first focussing on the construction of main lines. The explanatory report continued to serve as a template for its possible construction. On 10 May 1880, a railway committee was founded in Bad Oeynhausen to campaign for the construction of a railway from Osnabrück to Brackwede. It basically adopted the route of the explanatory report, but the line would be able to be extended to Detmold and Bergheim. Eleven people were constantly involved with the railway committee, including Mayor Brüning of Osnabrück and Mayor Huber of Bielefeld. On the very day of the founding of the committee, it wrote a letter to the Royal Ministry of Public Works (Königliche Staatsministerium für öffentliche Arbeiten). In this letter, it again described the necessity of building the railway. The responsible railway administration now endorsed the project but demanded a grant of 10,000 marks per kilometre for the construction of the line. It was subsequently agreed that the payment would be 3,000 marks per km, with the municipalities and companies agreeing to participate in the payment.
Parliament approved the construction of the railway in March 1882 and 2.6 million marks were made available for it on 15 May 1882. In the following months the committee struggled to overcome problems as some municipalities and companies did not want to pay their share of the subsidies.
Planning and construction
The planning of the route was completed at the end of 1882. All plans for the railway stations, bridges and culverts were completed in the summer of 1883. In the following months, the line was divided into seven sections for construction. On 17 December 1883, the proposed route was verified by the National Police.
On 5 January 1885, the proposed project was advertised in the Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper and a period of 14 days was specified for objections. On 2 May 1885, the first ground-breaking ceremony was held in Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and a celebration was held at the Hotel Zur Post. For the first eleven months, the line was built largely by hand. The works were only hindered by two obstacles. Baron Korff demanded that there be a halt on his property near Sutthausen. It was agreed that the train would stop there if a flag was raised. The plot of a widow at Horne had to be expropriated and the purchase price was set at 3,726.60 marks. Eleven months after the groundbreaking, a work train was welcomed with festivities in Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde. On 15 July 1886, the two building crews met in Hankenberge, completing the line. Trial runs were held on the line from mid-July to early August.
Station buildings
The station buildings of the Haller Willem are interesting. To save costs, the building of Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and Halle were "recycled". The building of Dissen is the former station building of Hildesheim, which was replaced after the nationalisation of the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company with a new, somewhat more northerly Hauptbahnhof (main station). Since the first railway reached Hildesheim in 1846, the building is one of the oldest surviving station buildings in Germany and is a listed building. The first building at Halle, which was demolished in 1963 and replaced by the current station building, was originally the station building of Hannover-Süd station of the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company, which after its nationalisation and the connection of the Hanover–Altenbeken railway to Hanover Hauptbahnhof was no longer needed. The remaining buildings were built according to Prussian standard designs. The brick building could be varied with mirrored floor plans or by omitting a floor. So there were similarities. The stations of Künsebeck and Westbarthausen were similar and the building of Steinhagen, Borgholzhausen, Wellendorf and Oesede also matched.
Opening and operations
+ Ticket prices at the opening From Osnabrück 2nd class 3rd class To Oesede 1.10 marks 0.80 marks To Ottoschacht 1.40 marks 0.90 marks To Wellendorf 1.70 marks 1.10 marks To Dissen-Rothenfelde 2.60 marks 1.70 marks To Borgholzhausen 3.20 marks 2.10 marks To Halle 3.80 marks 2.60 marks To Steinhagen 4.40 marks 2.90 marks To Brackwede 5.00 marks 3.30 marks
On 6 August 1886, the city of Osnabrück issued a letter of invitation to the opening of the line and it was formerly opened on 14 August 1886. A special train left that day at approximately noon from the Cologne-Minden station in Osnabrück. The train arrived at about 2 PM in Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and a lunch for invited guests was provided in Rothenfelde. The special train consisted of five magnificent decorated passenger cars, hauled by a steam locomotive. The fares from Osnabrück were set on 14 August 1886. The Osnabrücker Zeitung reported that the line would be well received by tourists because of the landscape and that many excursions were already planned by clubs. The line was operated from the opening by four pairs of trains a day, but these were so-called mixed trains, as they also included freight wagons and had a running time of two and a half hours. The citizens were outraged over this long traveling time since a journey via Löhne was shorter by a few minutes despite the detour.
The Haller Willem quickly became a mainstay of the economy in the region. Natural resources were transported out of the Teutoburg Forest, but it also brought workers and school students to the towns. It also connected with some tourist destinations. On 6 February 1905, the railway division (Eisenbahndirektion) of Munster, announced that they wanted to raise the speed limit on the line to 50 km/h. The infrastructure, especially the level crossings, were improved for this purpose. Already six services ran on the Haller Willem in the timetable of 1905. Travel time was cut to only around two hours as a result of the structural improvements. Services were increased up to the First World War to five pairs of trains and seven more running on part of the line. After the First World War there were six pairs of trains and a pair of trains that went only as far as Wellendorf. The travel time of the fastest trains was reduced to only one hour and 45 minutes. In addition, six freight trains operated, although it is not known what they carried.
In 1920, the first level-crossing barrier system on the line was put in operation at Dissen-Rothenfelde station. The barrier was later considered to be a nuisance as the track was often closed for long periods.
From the 1960s the railway had ever stronger competition from the road. Many goods could now be more cheaply and conveniently be transported by truck and many travellers used cars and buses. The utilization of the services of the Haller Willems declined.
On 2 June 1984, the passenger services were finally abandoned between Osnabrück and Dissen-Rothenfelde. Freight traffic continued on this section until 31 May 1991, but at the beginning of the 1990s Deutsche Bahn (DB) wanted to abandon freight traffic and to dismantle the track northwest of Dissen-Rothenfelde. This was prevented by a citizens' initiative called the Initiative Haller Willem.
DB developed a program to modernise passenger and freight operations on the southeastern section between Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and Bielefeld. This was eventually implemented by the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region as a decentralised project in support of Expo 2000 in Hanover. The Zweckverband VerkehrsVerbund OstWestfalenLippe (Ostwestfalen-Lippe transport association) took over management of the project. As a result, the line was renovated in 1999/2000 and equipped with the latest technology. The municipalities participated intensively to modernise the station environments and the designation of new residential developments near the line.