The Lollar–Wetzlar railway was a railway line in the German state of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, connecting the towns of

Lollar Lollar () is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, in west-central Germany. It is situated on the river Lahn, 7 km north of Gießen. The biggest production site of Bosch Thermotechnology is located in Lollar. During World War II, i ...

and

Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...

via Lahnau. It was opened in 1878 as part of the Cannons Railway (''Kanonenbahn'') from

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, but was closed in 1983.

History

The 18.04 km long Lollar–Wetzlar line was built as a bypass for Gießen. The line separated in Lollar from the Main-Weser Railway coming from the north and ran directly to Wetzlar, where the Cannons Railway continued over the Lahntal railway to the west. This work was built under the leadership of Julius Lehwald. The initial survey work for the line was carried out in 1872. Construction began on 1 July 1875 and was completed in July 1878. The line was officially opened on 15 October 1878. This line allowed the Cannons Railway to avoid the Gießen rail node. Because the line's primary significance was military, it served none of the nearby localities. The line features huge radius curves and low grades. Some of the foundations of the bridges were designed to allow track duplication. The line joined the Dill line at a

flying junction A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is "gr ...

at Wetzlar freight yard. Passenger traffic on this line ceased on 30 May 1980. Freight traffic was closed between Lollar and Abendstern on 28 February 1983 to allow a bypass road to be built. The remaining freight between Wetzlar and Abendstern was abandoned on 28 September 1991.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lollar-Wetzlar railway Railway lines in Hesse