Essen–Gelsenkirchen railway

Essen–Gelsenkirchen
Route number:	425, 450.2
Line length:	10.1
Track gauge:	1435
Voltage:	15 kV 16.7 Hz AC
Maximum speed:	110
state:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Operating points and lines
Freight line from Gelsenkirchen-Hessler 5.6 Gelsenkirchen-Schalke Süd   (former Schalke RhE, more recently a siding) Trunk line from Wanne-Eickel S 2 4.6 Gelsenkirchen Hbf 4.2 Gelsenkirchen RhE (now grade-separated line to Essen) Trunk line to Duisburg (former freight line from Schalke) 2.8 Gelsenkirchen-Rotthausen former freight line from Wanne-Eickel former line from Gelsenkirchen-Wattenscheid 0.0 5.6 Essen-Kray Nord 2.9 Frillendorf junction, previously Bk) Connecting line to Essen Nord former line from Gelsenkirchen-Hessler 1.9 Essen Hbf Burggrafenstraße(junction) Trunk line from Essen-Kray Süd S-Bahn-line from Essen-Steele S 1S 3S 6S 9 0.1 Essen Hbfterminus of S 2 and S 6 Trunk line to Duisburg S 1S 3S 9

The Gelsenkirchen Essen railway is a double-track, electrified main line railway in the central Ruhr area of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs from Essen Hauptbahnhof via Essen-Kray Nord to Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof.

Between 1866 and 1874 the Rhenish Railway Company (German: Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) built its own Ruhr line from Osterath on the Lower Left Rhine Railway to Dortmund RhE station, in competition with the Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg railway built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) between 1860 and 1862 and the Duisburg–Dortmund railway completed by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) in 1848 and which ran a little further north.

The line was opened to Wattenscheid RhE (later called Gelsenkirchen-Wattenscheid) station in 1868 and completed to Dortmund RhE six years later. During construction of the line a branch was built in 1870 joint CME and BME Duisburg station (now Duisburg Hauptbahnhof) in order to be competitive.

For the same reason, the RhE built a branch from its Ruhr line at Kray station (now Essen-Kray Nord station) to the north, which was opened on 13 February 1872 for freight and on 1 June 1872 for passengers. The line ended at Gelsenkirchen RhE station, south of the CME Duisburg–Dortmund line, less than half a kilometre from Gelsenkirchen CME station (now Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof).

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Wikipedia