page_title: Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: vereinfachtes Höhenprofil der Strecke
context_page_description: The Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway connects Neudietendorf and Ritschenhausen in the German state of Thuringia. It is a mainly single-track main line operated by DB Netze.
context_section_description: The first ten kilometres of the Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen line was built by the Thuringian Railway Company (German: Thüringische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) in 1867 as a branch line from Neudietendorf to Arnstadt. In 1879, the line was extended via Plaue to Ilmenau (Erfurt–Ilmenau line). Work on the crossing of the Thuringian Forest and the closing of the gap between Plaue and Ritschenhausen was started in 1879 by the Prussian state railways. Three years later, the Suhl–Grimmenthal section was inaugurated. Finally in 1884 the Grimmenthal–Ritschenhausen section and the 33 kilometre long section between Plaue and Suhl were completed. The building of this section included ramps with an average of grade of 2.0% and the 3,039 metre-long Brandleite Tunnel, which took just under four years to build and was very expensive. In August 1884 the first trains finally ran on the whole line.
  The line quickly developed into a major north-south link, so that duplication between Neudietendorf and Grimmenthal was carried out between 1886 and 1893. Until the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 Ritschenhausen station (built in 1874 and now heritage listed) and Meiningen (built in 1858 and 1874) were joint border stations of the Prussian and the Bavarian State Railways. Locomotives were changed for trains continuing through these stations to Erfurt or Schweinfurt.
  After the Second World War, the connection towards Bavaria was interrupted by the border between the American and Soviet occupation zones. In 1946, the second track on the line was removed as part of reparations to the Soviet Union, except on the Gehlberg–Oberhof section. The track still remained an important link between southern Thuringia and Erfurt. Thirty years later, the second track was restored on the section from Neudietendorf to Plaue. In 1984, the Neudietendorf–Arnstadt section was electrified, because there was insufficient capacity available in Erfurt Hauptbahnhof for the nightly changes of locomotives of the Städteexpress ("city express") service from Meiningen to Berlin, as well as the adding of extra passenger coaches and freight wagons. These services ran through the Thuringian Forest with seven carriages and more carriages were needed east of Erfurt. The electrification between Neudietendorf and Arnstadt was taken out of operation in 1996 and later dismantled.
  Between 2003 and 2008 the route was prepared for the use of tilting trains. The upgrade was completed for the December 2008 timetable change. It included, inter alia, the renovation of the Brandleite Tunnel, which had to be closed for nearly a year, and the installation of electronic interlocking in Arnstadt, which monitors the Neudietendorf–Rentwertshausen stretch.
caption: Simplified height profile of the line
exif: {}