Engers station is a through station and a former railway junction in the district of

Engers Engers is a district of Neuwied on the right banks of the river Rhine in Germany located next to Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate. Engers has 5,367 inhabitants. It is highwater-endangered by its direct contact with the river Rhine. City history ...

in the town of

Neuwied Neuwied (, ) is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the Neuwied (district), District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. It is on the East Rhine Railway (, Right Rhine line) and was formerly also the beginning of a line to Au (Sieg) and had a large freight yard.

History

The station was built in the 1860s simultaneously with the Right Rhine line from

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

. Its commissioning took place on 27 October 1869, when the Right Rhine line was extended from Niederlahnstein to

. Initially, Engers station played only a minor transport role and only had a couple of railway employees. But this changed over the next two decades, initially with the completion of the Right Rhine line and finally in May 1884 with the completion of the Engers–Au railway to the

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the States of Germany, German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Ma ...

. The station thus became a rail transport hub, which also meant that a train depot with a roundhouse was built at the station. In the late 19th century and well into the 20th century, a major freight yard was developed next to the passenger station, which eventually had a

hump Hump, The Hump, or humping may refer to: Biological * Hump, the fleshy mass on the back of a camel containing its fat reservoir ** For other examples, see the list of animals with humps * Humping, slang for sexual intercourse ** Dry humping, a fo ...

for assembling trains, as well as facilities for loading raw materials (including clay and pumice) and agricultural products. In 1912, Engers station, which was then part of the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the state of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

, sold approximately 150,000 tickets. The track work as well as the hump and the loading facilities still exist for the most part, but are no longer connected to the railway. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Engers station and the related workshops, together with large parts of the Rhine line, were badly damaged by Allied artillery bombardments in March 1945. The rail service was resumed in August of that year. However, the station increasingly lost its former importance in the postwar period. In 1954 most of the freight and passenger trains on the Right Rhine line diverted over the line to the newly rebuilt Urmitz railway bridge and the freight yard in Engers was abandoned in the 1970s. Finally, the station lost its importance as a junction in 1989 with the closure of the line to the Westerwald.

Current operations

The old station building still exists, but is no longer used as such, because it has been sold into private ownership. Two platforms are used for passenger operations and are linked by a pedestrian underpass. It is served hourly by the Rhein-Erft-Bahn from Koblenz via Cologne to Mönchengladbach. The station is also served by three bus routes of the ''Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel'' (Rhine-Moselle transport association, VRM).

Notes

References

* * {{Authority control Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate Railway stations in Germany opened in 1869 1869 establishments in Prussia Neuwied (district)