Ciclovia Ferroviária Kray-Wanner

The route is rather unspectacular. Nevertheless, it is the backbone of the cycle path network in the central Ruhr area.

From here you have many connection options:
- Erzbahntrasse at the north-eastern end
- Bahntrassenweg towards Zeche Holland
- Direction GE-Rotthausen at the southwest end
- to the Velten railway line in the direction of E-Steele
- through the Hange Valley and Hallo Park to E-Center
- on the Alma route to Gelsenkirchen

"The Rhenish Railway Company, one of the three major private railways in western Prussia, opened in 1874 from the station Kray (now Essen-Kray North) a freight train route to Wanne on the main line of the Cologne-Minden railroad.The purpose of this relatively unspectacular, straight-line railway - originally Called the Bonifacius-Wanner railroad, the Bonifacius, Rheinelbe, Alma, Pluto and Königsgrube coal mines, with their lucrative freight traffic, were connected to each other, and because of the strong competition between the railways, the coal mines endeavored to have several railroad tracks in order to secure their position This has led to a very dense but not optimal rail network in the Ruhr area.The Kray-Wanner Bahn can be considered as an example of this over-development in the early days of the railway.After the nationalization of the large private railways, the route was logically abandoned by the Royal Prussian Railway Administration in 1889. However, it escaped early mining, because it could be immediately leased as a coal mine. Through the operators Vereinigte Rheinelbe & Alma, Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks AG, they "survived" until the modern times of Ruhrkohle AG. 1919 was simultaneously with the northern section of the ore railroad to the port Grimberg on Rhein-Herne-Kanal also connected to coal mine Alma and manufactured in 1933, starting from the mine yard Rheinelbe, a link to the bill Holland 3/4/6 in Wattenscheid, today as well as the Kray-Wanner Bahn are even expanded to bike paths. The connecting tracks of the United Rheinelbe & Alma coal mine, which had already been shut down in 1931, to the Alma coking plant and the neighboring railway workshop remained in operation until 1963 and 1988, respectively. Only in 1993 came with the closure of the coking plant Zollverein the final decommissioning of the railway company. Until this year, coal from the Consolidation mine in Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck was transported by ore train, Kray-Wanner Bahn and Zollvereinbahn to the coking plant. "Source: route-industriekultur.ruhr

Rheinelbe stockpile. A touch like in ancient Egypt 😉