Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway
| Vienenburg–Langelsheim | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Line length: | 17.9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge: | 1435 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| State: | Lower Saxony | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway was a nearly 18-kilometer-long railway along the northern edge of the Harz in the German state of Lower Saxony. It was mainly used for freight traffic. It was opened in 1875, but it lost its importance with the closure of a line connecting to the east as a result of the division of Germany after the Second World War and it is now closed and dismantled.
The Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company (German: Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft, MHE) had been trying to develop a western connection from its network since the 1850s, but had failed as a result of disputes between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick. In 1864, a treaty was finally contracted between Prussia and Brunswick authorising construction of the Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway, which was completed in 1869. With the annexation of Hanover by Prussia in 1866, it was possible to extend the line further to the west. Around the same time the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company (Hannover-Altenbekener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, HAE) was looking for a connection to the east and the mountain towns in the Upper Harz also wanted a connection to the rail network. So the HAE planned a new long-distance line on the Vienenburg–Hildesheim–Hamelin–Löhne route. The MHE line would build a connection from Vienenburg via Langelsheim to Clausthal. However, in 1873, the HAE ran into financial difficulties, so it was taken over by the MHE. This brought together the two projects aiming at building railways to Vienenburg and instead a line was built to Grauhof, splitting there to run towards Clausthal (the former Innerste Valley Railway) and towards Hildesheim (now part of the Hildesheim–Goslar railway). The latter connected in Ringelheim with the Brunswick Southern Railway, which ran to Kreiensen to meet the Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway, and to the line between Hanover and Kassel, which connected to western and southern Germany.
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