Thuringian Railway
The Thuringian Railway leaves Eisenach to the west and reaches the Werra, which it crosses in Hörschel. At Herleshausen the line passes through Hessian territory for seven km, before returning to Thuringia and continuing to Gerstungen. The fact that the line crossed the Inner German border five-times during the division of Germany created security problems for the GDR. Until 1978, freight trains ran to Herleshausen, then the line was closed between Wartha and Gerstungen. For this reason, in the years 1961/1962, after the establishment of the Berlin Wall, a single-track detour line was built in East Germany, the Förtha–Gerstungen railway. At Förtha the line branched off the Werra Railway and ran to the east to connect with the Thuringian Railway in Gerstungen, bypassing the Herleshausen–Wommen section. In July 1988, the old line was made impassable at the border by the dismantling of approximately 100 m of the track immediately next to the border. It was not until 1991, after reunification, that the old Thuringian Railway main line was rebuilt; it was put back into operation on 25 May 1991. Subsequently, the bypass line was shut down and dismantled.