Celle–Soltau railway

Route number:

ex 211h

Line number:

9170

Line length:

58.9 km (36.6 mi)

Track gauge:

1,435 mm (4.708 ft)

Maximum speed:

Hanover–Hamburg railway from Celle

0,0

Celle-Nord

37,5 m

2,0

Celle Vorstadt

52,79 m

Celle–Wittingen railway to Wittingen

5,4

Vorwerk

5,7

Silberseein the 1950s

Hamburg–Hanover railway

from Garßen

to 1910

8,8

Scheuen

Barracks siding

11,0

Klosterforst Hustedt

12,2

16,5

18,5

20,7

23,1

Beckedorf–Munster railway

26,7

Beckedorf

29,4

Dohnsen

30,6

Wohlde

31,3

Bergen-Ost

to Bergen military depot station

32,5

Bergen

32,8

Bergen Nord

36,6

38,6

41,0

45,2

47,3

52,1

55,2

Soltau–Lüneburg railway

Soltauinterchange station

to Soltau station (DB)

Soltau–Neuenkirchen railway

58,9

Soltau-Südpassenger station removed

The Celle–Soltau railway is a standard gauge railway in the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany that belongs to the East Hanoverian Railways (Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen or OHE). It is the OHE's busiest line.

The initiative for the construction of a railway to Bergen came from the district of Celle. The Garßen–Beckedorf–Bergen section was opened on 23 April 1902 by the Kleinbahn Garßen-Bergen. Its terminus had to be at Garßen because they failed to reach agreement with the town of Celle on the route of the line through the town. Following the approval of the Kleinbahn Celle–Wittingen a solution emerged, however, in the shape of junction with that railway. So it was more than two years later, on 13 December 1904, that the line to Celle-Vorstadt on the Celle–Wittingen railway went into service, making through services to Celle possible. As a result, passenger services to Garßen were withdrawn and goods services (which consisted of transfers to the state railway) followed suit on 1 September 1910. However, the railway facilities at Garßen were not finally dismantled until the 1930s.

On 23 April 1910 the line was extended from Bergen to Soltau and also from Beckedorf to Munster. For that purpose a new firm was founded the Kleinbahn Celle-Soltau und Munster, in which the previous owners and the districts of Fallingbostel and Soltau as well as other local authorities participated.

A joint operating agreement was struck with the Kleinbahn Celle-Wittingen.

During Germany's rearmament prior to the Second World War, several sidings were converted to military depots (Scheuen, Bergen). Traffic levels rose sharply as a result. From 1940 the railway no longer ran as a Kleinbahn, but was treated as a public railway; that resulted in a new company Eisenbahn Celle-Soltau, Celle-Munster being set up.

Between 1989 and 1992 large sections of the line were upgraded with Y sleepers superstructure.

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Wikipedia