Bröl Valley Railway

Bröl Valley Railway
Bröl Valley Railway
Overview
Native name	Bröltalbahn/ Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn
Technical
Line length	87.3 km
Track gauge	785 mm (2 ft 6+29⁄32 in)
Hennef–Waldbröl (actual Bröl Valley Railway)
	Legend

The Bröl Valley Railway (German: Bröltalbahn) was the first public narrow gauge railway in Germany and had a track gauge of 785 mm (2 ft 6+29⁄32 in). It was the heart of a railway company, which from 1925 also ran bus services and from 1956 its passenger services only ran by road. Goods trains continued to run until 1967, when the remaining trackage was lifted.

Siegburg–Niederpleis–Rostingen

Legend

0.0	Siegburg	57.90 m
0.7	Sieg	Jointly used with the SSB und der Straße
	Brück
1.5	Siegburg-Mülldorf	58.60 m
3.3	to Beuel	68.90 m
3.3	Niederpleis	68.90 m
3.3	to Hennef	68.90 m
5.9	Birlinghoven	75.60 m
	Pleisbach
7.3	Dambroich	81.60 m
8.2	Scheuren Mill	88.82 m
9.7	Uthweiler-Jüngsfeld	101.71 m
	refuge siding
11.9	Oberpleis	119.42 m
13.3	Herresbach	133.45 m
15.2	Nonnenberg	157.00 m
	refuge siding
17.1	Quirrenbach	194.00 m
17.8	Rostingen	205.60 m
	Dachsberg (refuge siding)
	Himberg (refuge siding)

Beuel–Niederpleis–Hennef–Asbach

Legend

0.0	Beuel	52.00 m
1.8	Pützchen	60.10 m
	Vilich
4.5	Hangelar	66.00 m
6.7	Großenbusch	67.45 m
8.2	to Siegburg	68.90 m
8.2	Niederpleis	68.90 m
8.2	to Rostingen	68.90 m
10.4	Buisdorf	63.20 m
11.9	Quadenhof	65.00 m
14.0	Geistingen	68.45 m
14.8	Hennef passenger station	68.20 m
15.8	Hennef goods station	68.00 m
15.8	to Waldbröl	68.00 m
17.8	Geisbach	74.15 m
19.8	Kuchenbach	90.70 m
23.6	Dahlhausen	121.25 m
	Eulenberg (refuge siding)
24.9	Hanfmühle	130.00 m
25.9	Eudenberg	142.44 m
	refuge siding
27.9	Krautscheid	167.00 m
30.9	Mendt	212.63 m
	Steineberg (refuge siding)
33.7	Buchholz	247.30 m
	Bennau-Berg (refuge siding)
36.5	Bennau-Thal	228.98 m
38.4	Asbach (today the RSE Museum)	245.70 m

The firm was founded on 3 February 1869 as the Bröl Valley Railway Company (Brölthaler Eisenbahn-Actien-Gesellschaft) or BTE. On 10 June 1921 it was renamed as the Rhine-Sieg Railway (Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn-AG) or RSE. The company headquarters was moved in 1917 from Hennef (Sieg) to Beuel. In 1983 the RSE went into the Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft. It should not be confused with the Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn GmbH founded in 1994 by the Verkehrsclub Deutschland.

The 785 mm gauge railway network of the Bröl Valley Railway was, at its peak, a total of 87.3 kilometres long and, towards the end, was mainly worked by goods services. With the take over of the Heisterbach Valley Railway in 1901 an isolated section of 750 mm gauge line also belonged to the BTE.

In the old Bröl Valley Railway engine shed in Asbach is a railway museum about the old railway that was founded in 2000.

Literature edit

Sources

Adolf Becker (1988), Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (ed.), Die Bröltalbahn – Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn (in German) (1. ed.), Niederkassel-Mondorf: Verlag Kersting, ISBN 3-925250-05-0
Sascha Koch: Eisenbahnen im Oberbergischen und die Geschichte des Bahnbetriebswerkes Dieringhausen. Galunder Verlag, Nümbrecht, 2005. ISBN 3-89909-050-0.

Others

Manfred Frickhöfer: Die Rhein-Sieg-Eisenbahn (Bröltalbahn). Druck: quickprint grube & speck, Karlsruhe 1979.
Carsten Gussmann, Wolfgang Clössner: Die Heisterbacher Talbahn und Industriebahnen im Siebengebirgsraum. Freiburg im Breisgau 2006. ISBN 978-3-88255-456-4.

Bröl Valley Railway

Literature edit

External links edit