The Obernburg-Elsenfeld–Heimbuchenthal railway line was a branch line in Bavaria. It opened up the Elsava valley in the Spessart to the west towards the Main valley. It was also colloquially known as the Spessart Railway.
The railway line in its current state as a cycle and hiking path near Rück, with the Elsava visible on the left.
The 16.8-kilometer-long, standard-gauge local railway line was opened on January 10, 1910 by the Bavarian State Railways. It connected to the Obernburg-Elsenfeld station on the Aschaffenburg–Miltenberg line in Lower Franconia and ran to the terminus on the southern edge of the municipality of Heimbuchenthal, a typical street village that stretches further up the valley to the north.
Passenger traffic for commuters consisted mainly of employees in the former district town of Obernburg am Main and in the Main valley municipalities. It was also the means of transport for students from the Elsava valley to secondary schools. The railway served as a means of transport for tourists to the famous moated castle in Mespelbrunn.
As early as 1914, two additional pairs of trains ran on Sundays in addition to the three usual pairs of trains on local railways; in 1939 there were six of these a day and in the fifties and sixties there were even up to eleven. The departures in Obernburg-Elsenfeld were aligned with the shift change at the Glanzstoff factory, the last train usually only left Obernburg-Elsenfeld after 11.30 p.m.
In 1936, Bunker 301 of the Wetterau-Main-Tauber position was built into the railway embankment between Schippach and Elsenfeld and the outer walls were faced with sandstone. After the end of the war, it was blown up by the Americans and still exists today as a bat roost.
Passenger traffic on the rails was stopped on May 25, 1968. At the same time, freight traffic on the upper section of the line also ended. A shunting locomotive was still in use at Eschau-Mönchberg station until the end of 1978 to serve the remaining customers, after which the disused line was dismantled.
Plans from 1961 to include the railway line in the expansion of the road from Elsenfeld to Hessenthal were implemented during the construction of the Eschau bypass (1998–2000) and the construction of the Sommerau bypass (2016–2017). The former railway line was also included in the Elsenfeld bypass (1987). The cycle path from Elsenfeld to Heimbuchenthal runs between Elsenfeld and Eschau, as well as between Hobbach and Heimbuchenthal on the former railway line.
Source: Wikipedia