The Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd–Hamm railway, also called the Hamm-Osterfeld line, is a 76-kilometre long double-track electrified main line railway at the northern edge of the Ruhr in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has a continuous level route with no tunnels. Its eastern and central sections are now only used for freight, while its western section is also for passenger operations. The main operator, Deutsche Bahn, has always referred to this line as the Nordstrecke. It was the northernmost route of the former railway division of Essen.
History
The line was built to relieve the existing network of railways in the Ruhr region, which was at the limit of its capacity, especially for freight traffic. The line was opened on 1 May 1905. It served primarily as a direct connection between the two major marshalling yards of Hamm and Osterfeld Süd to allow long-distance freight trains to avoid the Ruhr and to enable new coal mines to be connected to the railway network. The second track was added 1912. The passenger services were always planned to be thin, despite there being several major cities along the route, as the line was mainly intended for freight traffic. It never carried long-distance passenger services. The entire line was electrified in 1967. Passenger services on the section between Hamm and Gelsenkirchen-Buer Nord were discontinued on 29 May 1983. The track is occasionally used, however, between Hamm and Horstmar junction as a detour route for passenger trains on the main Dortmund–Hamm line.
Route
The line begins at Hamm station and the junction of the former tracks from the passenger station and the freight tracks at the western end of Hamm marshalling yard. At Herringen junction a connecting track from Hamm marshalling yard joins from the west. Shortly afterwards is Pelkum station where the colliery railway from RAG-Bergwerk Ost ends. The line to Oberaden station consists of two main tracks with four sets of points for passing. At Horstmar junction there is a single-track line connecting to Preußen station. In Lünen Süd there is still a disused freight yard with a hump and further west a loading facility for several industrial companies and a single-track line connecting line to Lünen Hauptbahnhof. Waltrop station has been completely closed. In Recklinghausen Ost there is an abandoned marshalling yard. There are single-track connecting curves from the east to Recklinghausen Hauptbahnhof and Recklinghausen Süd, which were built in 1905 with the line. At Blumenthal junction, there is a single-track line from Recklinghausen Hbf to connecting with the line in the west. In Westerholt there is a transfer station to Zechen- und Hafenbahn der Ruhrkohle AG. At Gelsenkirchen-Buer Nord station the line joins a single-track line built in 1968 running from Lippe junction to the Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg line. Since 24 May 1998, these passenger services on the line have operated as Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahnline S 9. The junction is designed to allow for duplication towards Haltern. The S-Bahn station at Haltern was opened in 1998 and replaced the stop at the old station building. The Gladbeck West station today is now a junction station served by the S-Bahn and the regional services towards Dorsten on the connecting line to Gladbeck-Zweckel on the Winterswijk–Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck railway. North of the tracks is a freight loading facility with a now decommissioned hump for the Zechen- und Hafenbahn der Ruhrkohle AG. Bottrop Hauptbahnhof has been rebuilt several times since its inception. In the area of the freight yard, the line met the Emscher Valley Railway from Welver to Sterkrade of the former Royal Westphalian Railway Company, which was opened in 1879 and was closed in this area in 1968 and was dismantled by 1983, although part of the line operated as a colliery railway. The Hauptbahnhof freight yard still contains a marshalling yard and a railway sleeper plant. Near the station the single track line to Essen-Dellwig Ost and the mostly double track line via Gerschede and Essen Frintrop junctions to Oberhausen West branch off. The line continues towards Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd station as a two-track freight line and a separate single-track passenger line. At the end of the line is located Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd station, including one of the largest railway yards of the region, whose importance for passengers is, however, marginal. In Ostkopf the line joins the Emscher Valley Railway from Dortmund to Duisburg-Ruhrort, the one built by the former Cologne-Minden Railway Company. Its western end connects over a two-track freight rail line to Oberhausen West and over a two-track freight and passenger line to Grafenbusch junction, where it connects over a single-track freight line to Oberhausen-Sterkrade via the Holland line, Oberhausen–Wesel–Emmerich–Arnhem, and a single-track passenger line to Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof.
Current operations
Today the following passenger services use part of the line. There are no longer any passenger service between Gelsenkirchen-Buer Nord and Oberhausen, so passengers on this route are forced to change in Gladbeck West or Bottrop. Rail freight on the Hamm-Osterfeld route, although declining, is still important on its entire length.
