Coburg–Sonneberg railway

Coburg–Sonneberg
Overview
Locale	Bavaria, Germany
Line number	5121
Technical
Line length	19.5 km (12.1 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Route number	820
Route map  Operating points and lines  Werra Railway from Lichtenfels 0.00 Coburg 295.38 m to Bad Rodach 1.30 Coburg Nord(since 2005) Werra Railway to Eisfeld 4.13 Dörfles-Esbach 310.18 m to Ebensfeld-Erfurt HSL 5.1 Itz valley viaduct Itz 6.40 Rödental(until 1979: Oeslau) 8.10 Rödental Mitte(since 2005) 8.98 Mönchröden 317,26 m Steinach Valley Railway from Ebersdorf b.Coburg 15.22 Neustadt bei Coburg 344.17 m 17.16 Bavaria/Thuringia state border line from Schalkau 19.51 Sonneberg Hbf 387.25 m line to Probstzella

The Coburg–Sonneberg railway is a single-track, electrified, 20 kilometre-long main line railway from Coburg in the German state of Bavaria via Neustadt to Sonneberg in Thuringia. It was opened in 1858 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.

In 1841 the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and the duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen signed a treaty to establish a railway from Eisenach to Coburg. This also covered the construction of a line from Coburg to Sonneberg, connecting Sonneberg with the city of Meiningen and south to Bavaria.

in 1855 the newly formed Werra Railway Company (Werra-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) received a concession to build and operate the line and on 1 November 1858 the Werra Railway was opened. 28 years later, on 1 October 1886, a 19.2 km long extension was opened from Sonneberg to Lauscha.

On 1 October 1895, the Werra-Railway Company, including this line, was acquired by the Prussian government and it was administered by the railway administration of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Erfurt until 1945. The timetable of the German State Railway (Deutsche Reichsbahn) in 1939 included 14 daily passenger trains and an express train in each direction with a running time on the line of 20 minutes for the expresses.

After the occupation by Thuringia by Soviet troops in July 1945, operations between Sonneberg and Neustadt were interrupted. On 1 September 1947, freight services resumed over the Inner German Border, with a break during the Berlin Blockade. Two pairs of freight trains each day had been approved by the occupying powers for the transport of coke from Neustadt to Sonneberg, but traffic was small and irregular. On 30 September 1951 the last run took place, which was followed by the dismantling of the tracks in the spring of 1952.

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Wikipedia