Dill Railway

Siegen–Gießen
Route number:	445
Line length:	73
Voltage:	15 kV, 16.7 Hz AC
Maximum speed:	140
Legend Sieg Railway from Cologne −1.1 Siegen 0.0 to Hagen 0.4 from Hagen 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 NRW–Hesse 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 A 45 from Betzdorf (Sieg) from Breitscheid 129.1 Haiger (Keilbahnhof) 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 Westerwald Cross 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 to Koblenz 152.8 Buderus Edelstahl I siding 153.2 Buderus Edelstahl II siding 153.3 from Koblenz 153.4 Wetzlar 153.9 Lahn 154.7 Wetzlar freight yard 156.0 to Lollar 160.6 Dutenhofen (Wetzlar) 161.0 to Gießen-Bergwald 163.6 to Gießen Gbf 164.0 Main-Weser Railway from Frankfurt/Main 166.0 Gießen (Keilbahnhof) to Gelnhausen to Fulda to Kassel

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 von 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.

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 Lahn Valley 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:

RegionalBahn:

• RB 40: Dillenburg–Haiger–Siegen
• SE 40: Frankfurt–Friedberg–Gießen–Wetzlar–Siegen
• HTB : Dillenburg-Haiger-Burbach-Betzdorf

RegionalExpress:

• RE 30/40: Frankfurt–Gießen–Wetzlar–Siegen continuing to Cologne or Aachen

EuroCity:

• EC 62: Siegen-Wetzlar–Gießen–Frankfurt–Stuttgart–Munich continuing to Klagenfurt

Type		Line	Comments	Train class	Company
EuroCity (EC 62)		Siegen-Wetzlar–Gießen–Frankfurt–Stuttgart–Munich continuing to Klagenfurt	two trains per day	ÖBB 1016	DB Fernverkehr AG
Regional-Express (RE 99/RE 40)		Frankfurt–Gießen–Wetzlar–Siegen	60 minute frequency	Stadler FLIRT	HLB
StadtExpress (SE 40)		Frankfurt–Friedberg–Gießen–Wetzlar–Dillenburg	60 minute frequency	DBAG Class 425	DB Regio AG
Regionalbahn		Dillenburg-Haiger-Burbach-Betzdorf	60 minute frequency	Stadler GTW	HTB

There is only one long-distance train the EuroCity. The SE 40 from Dillenburg to Frankfurt via Gießen and Friedberg is a special train. From Dillenburg to Gießen this train stops at all stations from Gießen to Frankfurt via Friedberg this train stops only in Butzbach, Bad Nauheim, Friedberg and Frankfurt-West.

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.

References

• Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, ed (2005) (in German). Eisenbahn in Hessen. Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen. Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland. 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) (in German). Das Bw Dillenburg. Freiburg: Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag. ISBN 3-88255-315-4. 
• Merzhäuser, Wenzel (1996) (in German). Eisenbahnen im Westerwald. Freiburg: Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag. ISBN 3882555793. 

External links

• "Current photographs of KBS445" (in German). http://www.KBS445.de. Retrieved 8 February 2011. 
• "Brief Description of the line" (in German). Pro-Bahn. http://www.pro-bahn.de/mittelhessen/dill.htm. Retrieved 8 February 2011. 
• "Photographs of tunnel portals, line 2651" (in German). Tunnelportale. http://eisenbahntunnel-portal.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/2651.html. Retrieved 8 February 2011. 
• "Photographs of tunnel portals, line 2880" (in German). Tunnelportale. http://eisenbahntunnel-portal.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/2880.html. Retrieved 8 February 2011. 
• "Photographs of tunnel portals, line 2881" (in German). Tunnelportale. http://eisenbahntunnel-portal.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/2881.html. Retrieved 8 February 2011.