The Wehntal Railway () is a standard gauge railway line running between

Oberglatt Oberglatt is a municipality in the district of Dielsdorf in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, and belongs to the Glatt Valley (). Zurich Airport Zurich Airport is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the airline hub, pr ...

and

Niederweningen Niederweningen is a municipality in the district of Dielsdorf in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. History Niederweningen is first mentioned between 1096 and 1111 as ''Waningen''. In 1269 it was mentioned as ''Nidirunweningin''. The railwa ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It is named after the

Wehntal Wehntal is the name of a valley region in the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Geography The ''Wehn'' valley (native German name: ''Wehntal'') area is situated between the Lägern and ''Egg'' mountain chain in the Dielsdorf District of the C ...

valley. The line in the greater

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

area belongs to the

Zürich S-Bahn The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...

network and is operated by route S15.

History

Construction of the line

The first section of the Wehntal railway was opened between Oberglatt and

Dielsdorf Dielsdorf is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, seat of the district of Dielsdorf District, Dielsdorf in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. History Dielsdorf is first mentioned in 861 as ''Theolvesthoruf''. The name means ''est ...

at 1 May 1865. It was operated by the Bülach-Regensberg-Bahn as a terminal branch line connecting to the main line

Bülach Bülach () is a historic town and a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Zürich. It is the administrative capital of Bülach district. It is situated in the Glatt Valley (German: ''Glattal'') to the east of the small river Glatt and ab ...

Zürich Oerlikon Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The urban area was home to 1.45 mi ...

of the same company. At January 1, 1877 the Bülach-Regensberg-Bahn got bought by the

Swiss Northeastern Railway The Swiss Northeastern Railway (''Schweizerische Nordostbahn''; NOB) was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (''Bodensee'') and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the ...

(NOB), which made the acquisition to fight a possible competition by the

Swiss National Railway The Swiss National Railway (German: ''Schweizerische Nationalbahn'', SNB) was a railway company in Switzerland. The Swiss National Railway was created in 1875 from the merger of the two companies, the ''Winterthur–Zofingen Railway'' and the ''Zo ...

(SNB) by providing a shorter connection between Winterhtur and Baden. The extension of the Wehntal railway till Niederweningen was already planned at the time of the purchase by NOB, but was only realized 1891. During the construction work some bones of

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

were found in Niederweningen. The Niederweningen Dorf railway station became the new terminal station which was at that time called

. The latest extension of the branch line was realized in 1938, where the line got extended by about one km to connect the agriculture machinery factory Bucher-Guyer to the Swiss railway network. With the opening of the extension the new terminal station was called Niederweningen, while the name of the old terminal station became Niederweningen Dorf.

Surb valley railway

A further extension of the railway line through the

Surb Surbtal is a river valley region in the Canton of Aargau, Switzerland. Geography The ''Surbtal'' (literally ''Surb valley'') is situated parallel to the Limmat Valley (''Limmattal'') in the Baden and Zurzach districts of the Canton of Aargau ...

valley was planned since the mid-19th century, but was never realized. With this extension called Surb railway line the Wehntalbahn would have been connected in Döttingen to the

Turgi–Koblenz–Waldshut railway line The Turgi–Koblenz–Waldshut railway line is a railway line in Switzerland. It runs from Turgi in Switzerland via Koblenz, Switzerland, Koblenz to Waldshut-Tiengen, Waldshut in Germany. The Turgi–Koblenz–Waldshut line was the first rail link ...

and would have had lost the status as a terminal branch line. The construction of the extension was decided 1916 by amending the Swiss federal law by paragraph SR 742.34, but the construction never started. When the amended paragraph was cancelled 1937, the government had to give in by adapting the Swiss wide ticket prices and fright fares in such a way, that all prices were evaluated if the extension would have been built. The calculation considering the virtual Surb valley railroad only ended somewhere in the seventies.

Electrification

After

World War II 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 ...

the Wehntal railway was threatened to be closed due to sparse traffic. Some test with

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

s were not successful. After it was decided not to close the railway line it was electrified 1960 with 15 kV Hz as the second to last railway line of the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

to be electrified. The last railway line to be electrified was the Cadenazzo–Luino railway, which crosses the Italian border. There the steam operation lasted only a few weeks longer than on the Wehntal railway line. Since 1990 the Wehntal railway is part of the

. Until the end of 2015 it was operated by routes S5 and S55. Since then it has been operated by route S15.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* – movie showing the steam operation on the Wehntal railway line {{DEFAULTSORT:Wehntalrailwayline Railway lines in Switzerland Transport in the canton of Zürich Standard-gauge railways in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 1865