Muttentalbahn Mining Cart Memorial

The Muttentalbahn was a good six-kilometer-long railroad, with the coal was transported in the 19th century from the mines in the Muttental in the southeast of the Ruhr to the coal defeats and the loading stations. It is considered one of the oldest horse trolleys on the European continent. The Muttentalbahn was at the beginning of the 19th century in addition to the Prince Wilhelm Railway and the Schlebusch-Harkorter coal railway one of the most important railway lines.

The Muttentalbahn goes back to the efforts of the mines Frielinghaus, Turteltaube, Louisenglück, Morgenstern im Osten, Eleonora and Nachtigall to create a better connection to the Wittener Hauptkohlenstraße. The mines applied for the construction of the horse-drawn tram in 1829. The horse-drawn tram was already completed in December and connected the mines of the Muttental on Bommerholz to the main coal road. There the coal was transported to Wuppertal or the Bergisches Land using the old method on horse-drawn vehicles. Like the Rauendahler horse tram and the General horse tram before it, it was also equipped with iron-clad wooden rails, which reduced wear and tear. A trip took about 1 hour and 15 minutes and was about the speed of a pedestrian.
The end of the horse-drawn railway came with the rise of the "real" railway, which in 1874 also reached the mines of the Muttental with the Ruhr Valley Railway.

The Muttentalbahn was a railway that was a good six kilometers long and was used in the 19th century to transport coal from the mines in the Muttental in the south-east of the Ruhr area to the coal dumps and the loading stations. It is considered to be one of the oldest horse tramways on the European continent.