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Elmshorn–Bad Oldesloe railway
Overview
Line number	9120
Locale	Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Service
Route number	139
Technical
Line length	52.7 km (32.7 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	80 km/h (49.7 mph) (maximum)
Route map Legend From Hamburg-Altona 0.0 Elmshorn To Westerland To Kiel 2.9 Langenmoor 3.8 Sparrieshoop 6.0 Bokholt 7.4 Voßloch 9.1 Barmstedt Brunnenstraße 10.0 Barmstedt 15.4 Langeln 16.7 Hoffnung 19.4 Alveslohe From Neumünster 24.6 Henstedt-Ulzburg formerly Ulzburg To Eidelstedt 26.6 Henstedt-Kisdorf 29.1 Henstedt-Wohld 31.3 Wakendorf-Götzberg 36.4 Nahe (Holst) Nahe Torfverladestelle 42.5 Sülfeld 44.8 Grabau 48.4 Blumendorf Arcelor Mittal siding Rümpeler Weg From Ratzeburg From Hamburg and Schwarzenbek 52.7 Bad Oldesloe To Lübeck and Neumünster Source: German railway atlas

The Elmshorn–Bad Oldesloe railway (also called the Elmshorn–Barmstedt–Oldesloe railway, abbreviated, EBOE or EBO) is a regional railway line that has existed since 1896 in the south of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It has been operated since 1981 by the AKN Eisenbahn.

History

A ten km-long narrow gauge railway was opened from Elmshorn to Barmstedt via Elmshorn by the Elmshorn-Barmstedter Eisenbahn-AG (Elmshorn-Barmstedt Railway Company) on 15 July 1896. On 9 June 1907, this was taken over by the Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloer Eisenbahn-AG (Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloer Railway Company, EBOE), which was founded on 3 December 1904 in Elmshorn. On the same day, it opened the Barmstedt–Ulzburg (now Henstedt-Ulzburg)–Oldesloe (now Bad Oldesloe) line as a branch line and licensed the previous narrow-gauge railway as a branch line to allow through traffic to the state railway. The construction of the 42 km-long route cost around 2.9 million marks. Eight steam locomotives were available for operations.

The now 53 km-long standard gauge route passes through a sparsely populated rural landscape. It was built throughout as a single track, but because of its strategic importance as an east–west connection and a northern bypass of Hamburg, its stations were given long passing loops.

Passenger traffic was worthwhile only between Elmshorn and Barmstedt; the section between Barmstedt and Bad Oldesloe was converted to railcar services in 1931. Freight traffic was just adequate. After the division of Germany in 1945 it lacked through freight trains from the east. This improved after the opening of the border crossing at Herrnburg near Lübeck. Business closures and modal shifts ended these traffic flows in the 1970s. No money was available for necessary route reconstruction and the tracks were still laid in a gravel bed.

On 29 September 1973, passenger traffic between Barmstedt and Bad Oldesloe was closed; a rail replacement service already operated between Barmstedt and Alveslohe.

By the end of 1973, the EBOE had abandoned freight traffic from Barmstedt. For some time the AKN still ran freight from Alveslohe via Ulzburg to Henstedt. It was possible to operate freight between Ulzburg and Blumendorf until 31 December 1981. The four km-long remnant from Blumendorf station to Bad Oldesloe was operated as an industrial mainline track from Bad Oldesloe. The track between Ulzburg and Blumendorf has long since been dismantled. The trackless route has been converted to a cycle path. There are information boards close to this cycle path in the Wakendorf II area and it is Europe's longest path through fruit trees.

Since 1965, the Elmshorn-Barmstedt line has been designated with the line name of EBO by the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund (Hamburg Transport Association, HVV).

The EBO as part of AKN Eisenbahn

The EBOE has been operated since 1981 by AKN Eisenbahn, which had already managed it since 1957. The section from Barmstedt to Ulzburg was used after its closure for operational movements. The workshop in Barmstedt was not sufficient for the maintenance of modern VT E railcars, but an alternative to upgrading the workshop was to renew the line between Barmstedt and Henstedt-Ulzburg. This was implemented up to 1991 and the workshop in Barmstedt was closed. Passenger services were resumed in 1992, initially with only a few trains daily, and the line was incorporated in the HVV. Since 1999, the line has been regularly operated from Ulzburg Süd (on the main line of the AKN) as line A3.

Rollingstock

As there were initially only light locomotives (with two two-axle carriages hauled by one of five three-axle locomotives of Prussian class T 3), freight made powerful locomotives more necessary. Between 1925 and 1940, locomotives with four or five axle were procured. In 1933, the first three two-axle railcars were used, they had been made in Gothaer Waggonfabrik. As a result, the number of services that could be operated increased from seven pairs of trains in 1930 to 22 pairs of trains. Four-axle railcars were procured in 1951 and 1953 and a MAN railbus was acquired in 1958. Due to the scrapping of the pre-war railcars from 1961, new and used Uerdingen railbuses were purchased. They were single-engined, like the VT 95, but had normal buffers and screw couplings. In order to rationalise vehicle classes, the MAN railbuses were transferred to the Alster Northern Railway in 1968 . With the acquisition by the AKN, it was operated with AKN rollingstock. Two of the Uerdinger railbuses are still operated for special events.

Notes

1. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.

References

• Jörg Minga, Reinhardt Hassenstein (2008). 125 Jahre AKN Eisenbahn AG 1883–2008 (in German). Hamburg: Ellert & Richter. ISBN 978-3-8319-0318-4.
• Gerd Wolff (1972). Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Teil 1: Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg (in German). Gifhorn: Zeunert. ISBN 3-921237-14-9.

External links

• "BahnRadWege Route A: Bahntrasse der EBOE" [Cycle path Route A: rail trail of the EBOE] (in German). Stormarn. Archived from the original on 12 June 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
• Jörn Schramm. "History of the EBOE" (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2014.
• "Photographs of the EBOE" (in German). kaiserbahn. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
• Documents and clippings about Elmshorn-Barmstedt-Oldesloe railway in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

• Railway lines in Schleswig-Holstein