Alster Valley Railway

The Alster track is a nearly six-kilometer long railway track in Hamburg. It is also completely double-tracked and is traveled along the entire length of the line S1 of the Hamburg S-Bahn. She goes on Ohlsdorf station seen from the extension of the Hamburg- Altona railway connection and leads up to Poppenbuettel. The original plans envisaged an extension to the well-being village or tribe village.

History

Prehistory

Shortly after the turn of the century, several villages tried in the Hamburg area, including the enclaves of the city to a connection to the railway network. In addition to the forest villages, which later received the same stretch of elevated railway, so that the communities in the Alster are addressed. Just one year after the signing of the " Ohlsdorfer contract ", which is the basis for the Hamburg- Altona City and Suburban Railway - the precursor of the S -Bahn - formed, a community of interest, the suburban railway was founded with the goal on 12 December 1905 on Ohlsdorf addition to prolong the Alster.

With the plans for the construction of the line the company Havestadt & Contag in Berlin was commissioned. The course should emerge in Ohlsdorf from the junction line and run initially until Poppenbuettel. Subsequently, the circuit should have a western an eastern section to folk village and to the village well. The trains should equally serve both villages.

Established on May 4, 1908 " Alster Bahn GmbH ", which should operate the route, negotiating with the Prussian state and the city of Hamburg and could compromise first commissioning to Poppenbuettel negotiate, as the following villages belonged to Hamburg in part and thus a separate permit required. The section was built from the beginning through double-tracked and electrified.

The license for less than six kilometer section between Ohlsdorf and Poppenbuettel was issued December 3, 1912 by Hamburg, on 31 May 1913 by the Prussian side. The route should go within three years in operation and be taken over by the Prussian state railways.

Meanwhile, the " Alster Bahn GmbH " was converted into a public company and so bore the name " Alster path - Aktien-Gesellschaft " ( ABAG ). The main shareholder was " Alster -Terrain -Aktiengesellschaft ", which was built in 1912 by the Hamburg real estate agent John Vincent Wentzel ( 1865-1919 ) established for the development of the valley.

Construction and operation

Construction work was incorporated in 1913, the Berlin company Julius Berger AG was commissioned to build. However, a year later, the First World War began, the work came because of material and labor shortages quickly to a halt. In addition, ABAG had difficulties to sell their land and so came into financial difficulties. The envisaged deadline for commissioning would therefore also can not be met, they would not have been extended to six months shortly before the end after the war.

Still under the difficult conditions it was possible the route - first single track - complete and must be inspected by the state police. The provisional could start on 15 January 1918. However, since a lack of copper for the overhead lines was, VT 15 and VT were 18/18a 20/20a to VT used initially to 1924 benzene railcar of the Prussian type series. This had an additional sidecar with the letters "a", which was designed as a non-motorized control cars for the trip in the opposite direction.

For the remaining work still remained to 10th July 1920 - six months after the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles - time that ABAG but no longer have the financial means and the main shareholder ATAG was liquidated on 10 November 1920. The Stormarn in which the villages were in 1922 took over the shares of ABAG and led the construction work continued on the track. Full commissioning with electric trains was then on 24 March 1924.

The electrical equipment was already on April 22, 1940, however, albeit only partially, converted. In addition to the overhead line, which was fed with 6.3 kV 25 Hz AC, was now a side busbar with 1.2 kV DC. The parallel operation was continued until 1955, and the overall direction removes it. The Alster path was thus the first track, which was operated with the current system of the Hamburg S-Bahn.