page_title: Alster Valley Railway
section_title: Construction and operation
hierarchical_section_title: Alster Valley Railway / History / Construction and operation
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Baureihe 474/874 der Hamburger S-Bahn am Bahnhof Poppenbüttel English: train type 474/874 of the Hamburg S-Bahn at station Poppenbüttel
context_page_description: The Alster Valley Railway is a railway line in Hamburg, which is nearly six-kilometre long. It is entirely double track and is served by line S1 of the Hamburg S-Bahn along its entire length. It leaves the extension of the Hamburg-Altona link line at Ohlsdorf station and runs to Poppenbüttel. The original plans envisaged an extension to Wohldorf or Volksdorf.
context_section_description: A Berlin-based company, Julius Berger AG was commissioned in 1913 to carry out the works. However, since the First World War began a year later, work was quickly brought to a halt by material and labour shortages. ABAG also had difficulties in selling its land and thus got into financial difficulties. The planned start-up date thus could not be met.
  Under the difficult conditions the line—originally single track—was completed and authorised to operate by the state police. Temporary operations began on 15 January 1918, but operated with petrol-powered railcars, rather than electric railcars. Not enough copper was available for overhead wires. The remaining work was completed on 10 July 1920, six months after the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. By this time ABAG had runs out of funds and its main shareholder liquidated it on 10 November 1920. In 1922, the Stormarn district, in which the villages were located, took over ABAG’s shares and continued construction of the line. Electric operations were fully commissioned on 24 March 1924.
  On 22 April 1940, the electrical system was partially converted. In addition to the existing system of electrification with 6.3 kV at 25 Hz alternating current, a third rail was installed at the side of the track with 1.2 kV direct current. Parallel electrical operations continued until 1955, when the overhead line was removed. The Alster Valley Railway was therefore the first line of the Hamburg S-Bahn to operate on its current electrical system.
caption: Class 474 EMU in Poppenbüttel station at the end of the line
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