Qualla: Emsland Railway

Emsland Railway: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ein Dahmer, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 26 October 1977, two steam locomotives ran from Rheine to Emden and back along the Emsland line. They were the last working steam engines on the Deutsche Bundesbahn network, and everyone knew it. Within days the federal railway banned steam from its tracks entirely. Class 042 and 043 freight engines had been hauling ore from Emden to the Ruhr for years past the date when every other line in Germany had switched to diesel and electric. The Emsland line was the last holdout, and 26 October was the end. A few weeks later, locomotive 043 196-5 was rolled into position in front of Salzbergen station, where it has stood ever since.

Read more: Emsland Railway on Qualla

Image: Ein Dahmer | CC BY-SA 4.0

Emsland Railway: A Line Built Out of Order

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nicole-Koehler, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Royal Hanoverian State Railways opened the Emsland line in two awkward pieces. The first section, between Emden and Papenburg, started running on 24 November 1854 - and connected to nothing. It was a stranded railway, useful only for shuttling freight between two ports, waiti...

Read more: Emsland Railway on Qualla

Image: Nicole-Koehler | CC BY-SA 3.0

Emsland Railway: The Lingen Workshops

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jacek Rużyczka, CC BY-SA 4.0. Almost as soon as the line opened in 1855, central workshops appeared in Lingen to maintain the locomotives and wagons that worked it. The site grew into the Königlich Preußische Eisenbahnhauptwerkstätte Lingen - the Royal Prussian Railway Central Workshop - and for the next 130 ...

Read more: Emsland Railway on Qualla

Image: Jacek Rużyczka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Emsland Railway: Langer Heinrich and the Ore Trains

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Markus Schweiß at German Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Among railway enthusiasts the most famous trains on the Emsland line were called Langer Heinrich - Long Henry - the heavy ore hauls that brought iron from the port of Emden down to the steel mills of the Ruhr. They were enormous trains, often double-headed, requiring class 042 or...

Read more: Emsland Railway on Qualla

Image: The original uploader was Markus Schweiß at German Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Emsland Railway: The Transrapid Years

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Emslandbahner, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Emsland was also chosen, in the 1980s, for something stranger. A 31.5-kilometer Transrapid magnetic-levitation test track was built parallel to parts of the line near Lathen, where the company developed the maglev technology eventually exported to Shanghai. For two decades vi...

Read more: Emsland Railway on Qualla

Image: Emslandbahner | CC BY-SA 4.0