Scherfede station is located in the

Warburg Warburg (; Westphalian: ''Warberich'' or ''Warborg'') is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is in Höxter distr ...

district of Rimbeck in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. A busy locomotive workshop developed there up to the mid-20th century.

History

In 1872, the first locomotive ran on

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

–

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

line ( Upper Ruhr Valley Railway) through Scherfede station. The

Holzminden–Scherfede railway The Holzminden–Scherfede railway was a 49 km long main line from Holzminden to Scherfede (now part of Warburg) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that connected the Altenbeken–Kreiensen railway with the Upper Ruhr Valley Railwa ...

was opened four years later on 15 October 1876. Passenger traffic was abandoned on this line on 2 June 1984 and freight was abandoned on this line from Scherfede on 10 June 2001. The establishment of this line made Scherfede into a junction station, which led to the establishment of an independent railway workshop. West of the rollingstock depot, there was (until the closure of the workshop) a 17-road semicircular roundhouse furnished with workshop spaces. Before and during the Second World War, the importance of the station and the railway workshop rose. More than 100 trains ran on the east–west route each day and numerous trains were assembled in the station. Air raids during the war inflicted severe damage, while the roof of the roundhouse in the workshop was destroyed. On 22 February 1945, an air raid on Scherfede station completely destroyed a signal box and several buildings in the area were damaged by incendiary projectiles. Three people were killed. On 21 March 1945 there was another air raid. On 3 April 1945, the town and the station were occupied by American soldiers after the withdrawal of German troops. During the food shortage immediately after the war, the station was often used by urban women travelling to buy food (on ''Hamsterfahrten'', literally “hamster rides”) in the fertile ''Warburger Börde'' (the rolling country around

). The station, workshop and ''Bahnmeisterei'' (track maintenance supervisor’s office) included about 400 employees at this time. In subsequent years, its importance declined greatly. The workshop lost its independence and was operated from May 1950 for a short time as a branch of the Warburg workshop. Since the mid-1950s, the site has been privately operated. Roads 16 and 17 of the locomotive shed have remained, while the water tower was demolished in the early 1970s. The station building was demolished in 1983. There were two signal boxes at Scherfede station, which were taken into operation in 1915. The western signal box is no longer operational, but it is privately used, while the Eastern signal box is still operated. Scherfede station is not yet connected to an

electronic interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances a ...

Current operation

The

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (; RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with a top speed of and an average speed of about as it calls at fewer stations than ''R ...

service between Hagen and Warburg/Kassel (RE 17: the '' Sauerland-Express'') stops in Scherfede. Buses also operate to

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* * {{cite web, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927050229/http://www.joergerkel.de/eisenbahn/holzminden-scherfede/ , access-date=8 August 2013 , language=de , url=http://www.joergerkel.de/eisenbahn/holzminden-scherfede/ , title=Die Eisenbahnstrecke Holzminden - Scherfede , postscript= (with numerous photos of Scherfede station) , archive-date=27 September 2007 Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway stations in Germany opened in 1873 Buildings and structures in Höxter (district)