Teck Railway

Teck Railway
Overview
Native name	Teckbahn
Line number	4610Wendlingen–Oberlenningen 4611Kirchheim–Weilheim
Locale	Baden-Württemberg,Germany
Service
Route number	761
Technical
Line length	17.422 km (10.826 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm(4 ft8+1⁄2in)standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 HzAC overhead catenary
Route map Neckar-Alb RailwayfromPlochingen 0.000 Wendlingen (Neckar) Neckar-Alb Railway toTübingen Siding toEnBWsubstation Wendlingen 3.858 Kirchheim (Teck)-Ötlingen 4.300 Kirchheim (Teck)-Ötlingen (until 1975) Link for freight traffic (1975–19xx) Transformatoren Union AG Grüninger & Prem iron foundry 6.465 Kirchheim (Teck) (since 1975, terminus ofS 1) 6.000 Kirchheim (Teck) (1899–1975) 6.110 Kirchheim u. Teck (1864–1899) Lauter 7.264 Kirchheim (Teck) Süd Max Weise flange factory to Weilheim (Teck) Mosolf siding 8.300 Bosch scrap siding 9.959 Dettingen (Teck) 13.287 Owen (Teck) 14.832 Brucken 15.943 Unterlenningen Scheufelen paper factory 17.422 Oberlenningen Source: German railway atlas

Oberlenningen station (railhead)

TheTeck Railway(German:Teckbahn) is a branch line in theGerman stateof Baden-Württemberg, connectingWendlingen am NeckarwithKirchheim unter TeckandOberlenningen.InDeutsche Bahn’s timetable it has route number 761. A branch line once ran from Kirchheim toWeilheim an der Teck,but it is now closed.

History

The section from Wendlingen (then called Unterboihingen) to Kirchheim opened on 21 September 1864. Its original operator was the Kirchheim Railway Company (Kirchheimer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), which was the first private railway company inWürttemberg.It was later taken over by theRoyal Württemberg State Railways.On 1 October 1899, the first train ran to Oberlenningen after the line had been extended there.

In 1975, a large section of the line was moved in Kirchheim, the old station near to the centre of the town was abandoned and a new station was built on the southern outskirts. A shopping centre (the Teck-Center), was built on the site of the old station and the old track, which partly ran through the local streets, was abandoned.

Until December 2009, the line was a single track, non-electrified line operated byDB Regio,with services from Wendlingen to Kirchheim twice an hour and from there to Oberlenningen once an hour. Some morning and evening trains ran to and fromPlochingen.The service was operated withclass 650 diesel multiple unitsand locomotive-hauled trains (consisting of aclass 218 diesel locomotiveand threeSilberlingcarriages). The vehicles were operated byDB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee(RAB), a subsidiary ofDB Regio.

There had long been a proposal to connect the Teck Railway to theStuttgart S-Bahnnetwork and thus prolong the S-Bahn line S1 from Plochingen Wendlingen to Kirchheim. In early 2008, after several years of planning, theVerband Region Stuttgart(Stuttgart Region Organisation), which coordinates public transport in the Stuttgart Region, concluded a contract for rail services with Deutsche Bahn for the construction and financing of the line. Then from July 2008 until the start of the December 2009 timetable, the line between Wendlingen and Kirchheim was electrified and modernised, with line closures during the two intervening summer holiday seasons. In Wendlingen, the lead at the junction with the Neckar-Alb Railway was doubled to allow the S-Bahn trains to use the platforms appropriate to their direction of operation. A new train storage area was created in Kirchheim for terminating trains.

Branch line

The 7.74-kilometre-long branch line from Kirchheim (Teck) South over Jesingen and Holzmaden to Weilheim an der Teck was opened in 1908. The last scheduled passenger train ran on this section on September 25, 1982. On March 31, 1988, the Holzmaden–Weilheim section was also closed for freight. The Kirchheim–Holzmaden section was served by freight services until September 25, 1994. The section after the 5.5 km mark (just past Holzmaden station) has been dismantled and is partly converted to a foot or bike path. The Kirchheim–Holzmaden section is still usable but it is not used.

The five-kilometre section from Kirchheim unter Teck South station to Holzmaden station will eventually be reactivated for work trains for the newWendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway.Excavated material from the new line (including the tunnels) will be carried on theA 8to Holzmaden via a highway exit dedicated to this traffic. There the excavated material will be loaded on to rail wagons to continue its journey. Kirchheim station has a set of points that would allow the extension of the S-Bahn along the line to Holzmaden.

Current operations

Services on the extension of the S1 from Plochingen to Kirchheim unter Teck commenced on December 13, 2009. Since thenWernau,Wendlingen, Ötlingen and Kirchheim have been served every half-hour byclass 423 electric multiple units.Up to this point the line is electrified and is built for a top speed of 100 km/h. Passengers have to transfer at Kirchheim station to continue towards Oberlenningen. Between Kirchheim and Oberlenningen hourly services are formed of class 650 diesel multiple units operated byDB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee.On this section the speed is limited to 60 km/h.

The transport authority for regional and S-Bahn traffic on the Teck Railway is theVerband Region Stuttgart(VRS). The section from Kirchheim to Oberlenningen is one of three regional lines that VRS is responsible for; the others are theSchuster Railwayand theBacknang–Ludwigsburg line.Until a few years ago the line was the responsibility ofNahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg(Regional Transport Company of Baden-Württemberg, NVBW).

Between Wendlingen and Kirchheim, the line has colour light signals and is controlled from twointerlockingsin Wendlingen and Kirchheim. Safe working on the Kirchheim–Oberlenningen section operates under the system known asZugleitbetrieb( "train control" ), which is used in Germany on simple routes.

Freight also plays an important role on the Teck Railway. Trains run several times a day to thePapierfabrik Scheufelen(Scheufelen paper mill) in Oberlenningen and several times a week to a scrap dealer in Dettingen unter Teck. The freight yard at Oberlenningen station is relatively large for a secondary line and has its ownClass V 60diesel shunter.

Freight is now operated exclusively withclass 294 diesel locomotives.Theclass 218 locomotivesformerly used have not been in systematic use since 11 December 2009.

Planning

Modernising the section from Kirchheim to Oberlenningen by increasing speeds and upgrading the technical safety of railway crossings would improve connections with the S-Bahn in Kirchheim. There are no concrete plans at this time.

The Regional Transportation Plan for the Stuttgart region of 2001 identified a rail link betweenGöppingenand Kirchheim unter Teck, connecting the abandoned tracks of theVoralb Railway(Voralbbahn) with the Teck Railway, and classified it as of "high urgency".