Radolfzell–Mengen railway
Overview
Native name	Hegau-Ablachtal-Bahn
Owner	DB(0.0–8.0 and 55.9–56.7) Lkr Konstanz(8.0–17.8) Ablachtalbahn(17.8–55.9)
Line number	4330
Locale	Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Service
Route number	732,ex 304h
Technical
Line length	56.78 km (35.28 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Minimum radius	245 m (804 ft)
Maximum incline	1.7%
Route map Legend km elev RE 3from Singen −0.05 Radolfzell ↓S 61RB 31 398 m to Konstanz 1.47 Radolfzell-Haselbrunn 2.70 Haselbrunn (Radolfzell) 4.30 Brandbühl West (Üst) 4.80 Brandbühl tunnel (255 m) 5.28 Brandbühl east (crossover) 7.27 Stahringen 440 m RE 3RB 31to Lindau 8.00 DB Netz Konstanz district property boundary 10.80 Wahlwies A 98 13.80 Nenzingen 17.40 Stockach NE ↑S 61 481 m 17.69 Channel of theStockacher Aach 17.85 Konstanz district Ablachtalbahn property boundary 17.86 Stockacher Aach 20.80 Zizenhausen 22.30 Stockacher Aach,B 313 23.80 Stockacher Aach,B 313 24.80 Mühlingen-Zoznegg 27.35 Stockacher Aach 27.65 Schwackenreute 621 m to Altshausen 31.90 Sauldorf 614 m 32.80 Tegometall siding 34.40 Bichtlingen 35.60 Ablach 37.72 Meßkirch 607 m 40.56 Ablach 41.60 Menningen-Leitishofen 41.70 Ablach 44.00 Ablach 44.40 Göggingen (Baden) 45.30 Ablach 47.40 old Tegometall siding 47.50 new Tegometall siding 47.73 Krauchenwies 581 m 48.70 Ablach to Sigmaringen 51.80 Zielfingen 53.90 Dillmannsches sawmill siding 55.10 left Ennetacher Ablach 55.93 Ablachtalbahn DB Netz property boundary 56.00 right Ennetacher Ablach from Immendingen 56.73 Mengen 559 m to Ulm km Source: German railway atlas[1][2] This diagram: view talk edit

TheRadolfzell–Mengen railway (also called in German theHegau-Ablachtal-Bahn—Hegau–Ablach Valley Railway) is a branch line in the German state ofBaden-Württemberg. It runs fromRadolfzell viaStockach toMengen. The line was built as a mainline connection fromUlm viaLake Constance (Bodensee) to Switzerland. Regular passenger services were abandoned between 1972 and 1982. Passenger services were reactivated on the southern section between Radolfzell and Stockach in 1996 and has since been operated under the brand name ofSeehäsle. The northern section from Stockach to Mengen is however only used for freight trains and passenger excursion trains. In 2005, it had to be temporarily closed because of the deterioration of the infrastructure on some sections. Since 2021, trains have once again been running between Stockach and Mengen on Sundays and public holidays under the brand name ofBiberbahn.^[3]

The brand nameSeehäsle is based on the brand nameSeehas (named after a mythical "lake hare"), which is used for the S-Bahn-like services of the formerMittelthurgau-Bahn (now operated bySBB GmbH, a subsidiary of theSwiss Federal Railways) in theKonstanz district on the line betweenKonstanz andEngen. The original name of the line as the Hegau-Ablach Valley Railway (Hegau-Ablachtal-Bahn) is still common, as the line runs through theHegau, running from the vicinity of Schwackenreute parallel with theAblach river to Mengen. In Stahringen, theStahringen–Friedrichshafen railway branches from the line toFriedrichshafen andLindau.

On 2 September 1859, an international meeting of delegates from the region between theAlps, Lake Constance and theBlack Forest adopted a proposal for the construction of a railway line between Ulm, Lake Constance and the Black Forest. Railway committees were established in all the cities on the planned route.^[4]

These committees planned a new line from Ulm viaEhingen,Riedlingen, Mengen, Meßkirch, Stockach, Radolfzell,Singen,Schaffhausen,Waldshut andSäckingen toBasel and a branch from Meßkirch viaTuttlingen andDonaueschingen toFreiburg and beyond via theRhine and theVosges as far asChaumont. They considered this route of great importance because it would be part of the shortest route betweenVienna andParis and would also gain importance as part of the shortest route fromBerlin andMilan, running viaLeipzig,Nuremberg, Ulm, Radolfzell, Schaffhausen andZurich.^[3]

In 1866, the looseGerman Confederation collapsed, but the sovereign states of theGrand Duchy of Baden, theKingdom of Prussia and theKingdom of Württemberg signed trilateral treaties to promote the "transnational" rail project and its passage through the PrussianHohenzollern Province.

These treaties permitted, among other projects, the construction of theTübingen–Sigmaringen railway, theUlm–Sigmaringen railway and the Radolfzell–Mengen/Sigmaringen andSchwackereute–Altshausen lines. The lines would connect theGrand Duchy of Baden State Railway and theRoyal Württemberg State Railways at Sigmaringen, Mengen andPfullendorf.

The two southern states committed to the precise routed planned so that their lines could attract as much through traffic as possible. Württemberg began the construction from Ulm to Mengen, while Baden delayed its part of the project.^[3]

The construction of the Hegau-Ablach Valley between 1865 and 1873 by the Baden State Railways was preceded by consideration of the route by regional planning bodies and the local railway committees.^[3]

The Hegau-Ablach Valley was built in several sections and opened as follows.

The Radolfzell–Meßkirch section was built between 1866 and 1870. The embankment was designed for a two-track line, as were the stone abutments of the bridges, which can still be seen in the two main bridges betweenMühlingen and Zizenhausen. However, it has never had more than one track north of Stahringen.^[3] The first section from Radolfzell to Stahringen and Stockach was opened on 20 July 1867.^{[A 1]} It was followed by the opening of the Stockach–Schwackenreute–Meßkirch section on 3 February 1870.

The continuation of the line between Meßkirch and Mengen needed to cross the Prussian Hohenzollern Province. Prussia did not seek to build its own railway in southern Germany but wished to see the two main cities of the province connected to the rail network of the neighbouring countries. In authorising the passage of the line through the Hohenzollern district ofKrauchenwies, Prussia introduced the condition that Baden would have to build a branch line from Krauchenwies to Sigmaringen. Thus, the two lines, Meßkirch–Mengen andKrauchenwies–Sigmaringen, were then built at the expense of Baden in 1873.^[3] The two lines ran parallel to each other from Krauchenwies station through the royal park. In the park the remnants of the rail sidings and piers of the Ablach bridge mark the formerly double-track line. Further away, in the vicinity of the modern lakeside resort of Steidlesee, the Krauchenwies–Sigmaringen line branched off to the north. On 6 September 1873, the section from Meßkirch via Krauchenwies to Mengen was opened together with the line from Krauchenwies to Sigmaringen. Prussia also achieved a connection of the railways of neighbouring countries to the Hohenzollern Province in Hechingen without having to build its own rail network.

There was local resistance to the construction of branch lines from Meßkirch to Pfullendorf and from Meßkirch to Tuttlingen, although the route of the latter line had already been marked out. The engineerRobert Gerwig, who had designed theBlack Forest Railway and the line from Radolfzell to Meßkirch, moved the planned railway junction at Meßkirch to a green fields site near Schwackereute.^[3] Schwackereute station was designed on a large site as a crossing station.^[3] So the Baden State Railways opened a connection from Schwackereute to Pfullendorf (the western part of theAltshausen–Schwackenreute railway) on 11 August 1873. A fork was also projected to the Black Forest to the west of Schwackereute, bypassing Tuttlingen to a junction with the Black Forest Railway in Hattingen. The plan was not executed but instead Württemberg built the Danube Valley Railway (seeUlm–Sigmaringen railway andTuttlingen–Inzigkofen railway) from Mengen via Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen toImmendingen.

The regional function of the line was fulfilled only in part–no trains ran on the Ulm–Radolfzell route. On 1 November 1873, a fast pair of trains was introduced, requiring 100 minutes to run from Radolfzell via Mengen to Ulm,^[5] but in 1875 it was abandoned for lack of profitability as there was little demand.^[3] In 1879, the Hegau-Ablach Valley Railway was downgraded to a branch line. The whole line was now served by local trains, which stopped at all stations.^[6]

In the Second World War the Hegau-Ablach Valley Railway was involved in the war effort. From the summer of 1944, it had become apparent that the Allies had air supremacy in the south of the country. Low-flying air raids, unscathed by the barely functioning German air defences, targeted military and transport infrastructure.^[7]

On 24 July 1944, fighter-bombers attacked a freight train loaded with cattle between Bichtlingen and Meßkirch and a farmer and livestock trader and businessman from Messkirch was killed.^[7]

With progressive loss of air superiority during the day it was soon not possible to operate on the line. In early 1945, a train was fired on between Stockach and Schwackereute. Two 17 years boys aged were killed by machine-gun fire in the course on the way home from Überlingen.^[8]

On 22 February 1945, shortly before the end of the war, seven AmericanMosquito fighter-bombers attacked the major stations along the Singen–Mengen–Ulm line, as part of the AlliedOperation Clarion, intending to make the line unusable through targeted attacks. They also targeted Singen, Stockach and Mengen.^[7] In Meßkirch fighter bombers fired on the station, a freight train and a shunting locomotive.^[7]

The route was closed byDeutsche Bundesbahn in stages, passenger traffic on the Krauchenwies–Mengen section were closed on 13 December 1954, all traffic ended on 1 September 1960 and this section of line was then dismantled. Here, the rails were removed from the Krauchenwies station premises to the connection with the siding to Dillmannschen sawmill near Mengen. The passenger services on the line between Meßkirch and Krauchenwies were closed on 1 June 1969. Not even three years later, on 28 May 1972, passenger services on the Stockach–Meßkirch section were closed. Ten years later, on 25 September 1982,^{[A 2]} this was followed by the closure of the southern section from Stockach to Radolfzell.

On 29 September 1986, at the initiative of the Tegometall company, the Krauchenwies–Mengen section was returned to service after it had been rebuilt with state subsidies for freight. A siding, which was about 900 meters long, was built south of Ablacher Straße to the company's works. After the construction of two railway crossings onfederal highway 311 and state highway 456 and the bridge over the Andelsbach, the line was ready for freight operations. The track from the Tegometall works to Mengen was officially classed as a"siding of Mengen station”, as on the same day, 29 September 1986, freight traffic was abandoned on the Meßkirch–Krauchenwies line.^{[A 3]} The line was formally closed on 1 March 1987, but it was reopened for freight traffic on 28 May 1989.

As a result of rail reform and regionalisation of the railways in the 1990s, there was a renaissance of rail transport, which also benefited the Hegau-Ablach Valley Railway. On 8 September 1996, the abandoned section between Stockach and Radolfzell was reactivated for passengers and operated by theMittelthurgaubahn. Thedistrict of Constance (Konstanz) rented the section between Stahringen and Stockach from Deutsche Bahn, which let it fundamentally reorganise it.

Following the reactivation of the regional rail services in 1996, theSeehäsle services were operated byMittelthurgaubahn using three prototypes ofclass GTW 2/6 diesel multiple units of Swiss manufacturerStadler Rail (Bm 596 671–673). From 2005, two additional convertedcontrol cars were used because of the large demand for school transport.

After the liquidation ofMittelthurgaubahn in 2003, the operation was taken over byEuroTHURBO, which in turn was incorporated as part of the GermanSBB subsidiarySBB GmbH in 2005.

Due to frequent breakdowns of the GTW sets, a variety of replacement vehicles were used from 2001: these included aMANrailbus set (class VT 98 + VS 98) of theHochwald Railway, aRegioSprinter of theRurtalbahn GmbH andRegio-Shuttles of theHohenzollerische Landesbahn (HzL). From October 2005 all three of the GTW sets were out of operations; they were replaced by aMAN railbus set and three NE 81 sets (built byDuewag andWaggon Union) owned byBodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn. It was only from 28 August 2006 that the two refurbished GTW were used again.

Since the GTW prototypes could not be made permanently operational and SBB GmbH demanded funding for replacement vehicles, the agreement between the district of Constance and SBB GmbH was terminated at the end of 2006. The GTW prototypes were sold through an intermediary to the Italian companyFerrovie del Sud Est.

The HzL won the contracts for operations for both the periods of 2006–2008 and of 2009–2023. Until 2008 three NE 81 sets formerly operated byBodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn were used as an interim solution. Since they have been replaced by new Regio-Shuttle diesel multiple units (and the NE 81 sets were transferred toSüdwestdeutsche Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft). Traffic is controlled from the HzLRingzug (ring train) operations centre in Immendingen, where the railcars are also maintained. At peak times on weekdays services operate every half-hour between Radolfzell and Stockach. Outside the peaks and on weekends trains operate hourly, with convenient connections in Radolfzell towardsKonstanz (Constance) andSingen, with generally poorer connections to the hourly services toFriedrichshafen.

In November 2008, all level crossings in Stahringen and Wahlwies were rebuilt and adapted to modern standards.

• von Meißner, Frank (2008). "Neue Regio-Shuttles für Seehäsle".Eisenbahn-Kurier (in German) (7).
• von Meißner, Frank (2006). "Neues von Seehas & Co".Eisenbahn-Kurier (in German) (7).
• Kochems, Michael; von Meißner, Frank (2004).Regionalbahnen im Südwesten (in German). Düsseldorf: ALBA-Verlag.ISBN 3-87094-240-1.
• Scharf, Hans-Wolfgang; Wollny, Burkhard (1993).Die Eisenbahn am Bodensee (in German). Freiburg: EK-Verlag.ISBN 3-88255-758-3.
• Mihailescu, Peter-Michael; Michalke, Matthias (1985).Vergessene Bahnen in Baden-Württemberg (in German). Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss Verlag. pp. 146–148.ISBN 3-8062-0413-6.
• Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland [German railway atlas]. Schweers + Wall. 2017.ISBN 978-3-89494-146-8.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBahnstrecke Radolfzell–Mengen.

• "Internet site of Ablachtal-Bahn GmbH" (in German). Retrieved21 May 2018.
• "Internet site of HzL" (in German). Retrieved21 May 2018.
• "Comments on the reactivation of the whole line to Mengen" (in German). Verkehrsclub Deutschland. Retrieved21 May 2018.
• "Stockach - Mengen/Sigmaringen, Dates and facts" (in German). www.vergessene-bahnen.de. Retrieved21 May 2018.

• Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg
• Railway lines opened in 1867
• Buildings and structures in Sigmaringen (district)
• Buildings and structures in Konstanz (district)

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata