page_title: Isar Valley Railway
section_title: Nationalisation and closure of individual sections
hierarchical_section_title: Isar Valley Railway / History / Nationalisation and closure of individual sections
caption_attribution_description: Auszug aus dem Kursbuch von 1944
context_page_description: The Isar River Valley Railway is a standard gauge and electrified railway in the German state of Bavaria. Originally it was 51.1 km long, running from Munich South station to Bichl and was built from 1891 to 1898 in sections by the Lokalbahn AG company. The section from Munich South to Wolfratshausen was classified as a main line, while the section from Wolfratshausen to Bichl was classified as a branch line. In 1900, the LAG electrified the section from the Isartalbahnhof to Höllriegelskreuth for suburban services at 580 volts DC. In 1938, the LAG and, with it, the Isar Valley Railway were nationalised. After the Second World War, Deutsche Bundesbahn converted the electrification to 15 kV AC; this was completed in 1955 and extended to Wolfratshausen in 1960. The northern section from Munich South to Grosshesselohe Isartal station and the southern section from Wolfratshausen to Bichl was closed by Deutsche Bundesbahn between 1959 and 1972. The middle section is now used by line S 7 of the Munich S-Bahn. The name of the line refers to the Isar as the northern half of the line follows the river’s western bank.
context_section_description: The Deutsche Reichsbahn took over Lokalbahn AG, including the Isar Valley Railway, on 1 August 1938. The Isar Valley Railway was also involved in the plans for the reconstruction of the Munich railway network during the Nazi period. It would have served as a transit route to Italy. The plans were rejected shortly after the start of the Second World War. Traffic to and from the munitions factory in Geretsried increased freight traffic for a short time. The munitions factory was built in 1939 and connected by a rail siding to the Isar Valley Railway in Wolfratshausen. As the destruction of Munich increased, Deutsche Reichsbahn established a connection from the siding to the south, producing a triangular junction in Wolfratshausen, allowing freight trains to run via Bichl and Tutzing. The munitions plant was served daily by two or three freight trains. On 19 July 1944, 70 percent of the Isar Valley Railway was destroyed in an air raid by the United States Air Force. In order to transport freight from the munitions plant the Isar Valley Railway was restored to service provisionally, but due to the lack of spare parts only salt-impregnate sleepers could be used. After the Second World War, traffic on the Isar Valley Railway was restored to normal operations only slowly. Its rolling stock was stored or destroyed all over Germany. From 1946, regular passenger services were largely restored. After World War II, the volume of freight traffic fell again, passengers traffic briefly rose as a result of  “hamster rides” (Hamsterfahrten: people, mostly women, travelling to the countryside to look for food).
  On 8 October 1950, the connecting curve at Grosshesselohe Isartal station was opened. Some trains now ran on the curve directly to and from Munich Central Station (Hauptbahnhof). In the 1950s, Deutsche Bundesbahn planned to switch the electrical system from direct current to alternating current. On 25 March 1955, the rectifier failed at the Maria Einsiedel power station. In the following months, the line was therefore converted to AC operation earlier than planned, so that electrical operations could be resumed. On 27 September 1957, the initial Munich Central Station–Grosshesselohe Isartal station section was electrified and, in May 1960, the Höllriegelskreuth–Wolfratshausen section followed. From 29 June 1960, continuous electrical operations were possible between Munich and Wolfratshausen.
  In the 1950s, losses of an average of 2.8 million Deutsche Marks were incurred each year on the Isar Valley Railway. The salt-impregnated sleepers rotted, so the speed limit of 60 km/h had to be reduced to 40 km/h and was shortly later reduced to 30 km/h. Since the rebuilding of the track was no longer worthwhile due to the low passenger numbers, Deutsche Bundesbahn decided in early 1958 to close the section from Beuerberg to Bichl. The section was closed on 31 May 1959, at the start of the summer timetable, for passengers and freight traffic and it was dismantled in December of the same year. From now on Deutsche Bundesbahn buses substituted for rail services.
  In the early 1960s the city of Munich was planning the development of the Middle Ring, requiring the closure of the level crossing at Brudermühlstraße. Therefore, the city of Munich, presented an application for closing the section from Munich Isar Valley Railway station to Großhesselohe Isar Valley Railway station in 1963. Deutsche Bundesbahn rejected the application after a passenger survey, however, because it considered the maintenance of passenger operations worthwhile. When Deutsche Bundesbahn was given approval to build the S-Bahn trunk line and the city had to abandon plans to build a U-Bahn line on the same route, DB agreed to the closure of the level crossing. Accordingly, DB closed passenger services on the section of the line on 31 May 1964. Henceforth, all passenger services ran on the connecting curve at Großhesselohe. In 1970, the overhead line was dismantled between Munich South and Großhesselohe and the second track was demolished. The level crossing at Brudermühlstraße
caption: Extract from the timetable of 1944
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