I took the Wayfarer out for a quick explore a couple of weeks back, looking for the old station in Neuhausen, to the south of us. Neuhausen used to be a terminus for the local metre gauge rural tramway from Esslingen, and a railway from Stuttgart: The line from Stuttgart was diverted to become the S-Bahn (Metro/Interurban) to the airport. Of course the local government promised that it would be rebuilt the last 5 kilometres to Neuhausen, and of course they lost interest after the airport was done and it didn't actually happen. The skulduggery surrounding the closure of the tramway would have done credit to
Ernest Marples.
The old railway is now a cycleway for most of the route. After branching from the current alignment which goes directly under the airport it follows a road into Bernhausen to the south, which is now the end of the S-Bahn. On the edge of the town it passes some older factories which look like they were rail served. I'll photograph those another time.
The alignment/cycleway the othe side of Bernhausen looks pretty promising at first...
But Neuhausen
apparently doesn't like cyclists and I had to follow my nose to find the alignment again. The bike is on the old trackbed here:
The old terminus is like closed British stations in the 1980's; dismal, but interesting. I'm guessing this is because there are always plans to reopen the last few kilometres of the line so they can't just demolish it and put something else there.
There are
three of these sheds with track going through them, I'm not sure what traffic they carried but I'm guessing it was agricultural as the area around Neuhausen is predominantly used for market gardening, and cabbages.
The third of the sheds is the building at the left.
I'm guessing the one behind the bike was the old general goods shed, now a helpful medium for people with an urgent need to express themselves, but no original thoughts to express.
It'd make a lovely cafe and arts centre.
I'm not sure what that platfoirm was for, possibly cattle and/or wood loading. Currently it's a display shelf for a local tile company. As you can see from the buildings across the road, this waste space is in a fairly well-to-do area. Local businesses include such essentials as a horse and riders outfitters and pet undertakers.
There is still a plan to reopen the line, in fact a study was commissioned in 2018 which produced a suggestion for rebuilding the station for the S-Bahn. It's in German but it has lots of pictures and you can compare it with the Google Maps view above to see what they are aiming for.
It'd be an improvement to be sure but I'd be sad to see the old buildings razed to make the space...
ETA: The
English Wikipedia page on the line says that reopening was scheduled for 2019. The German version says the project to reopen the line was delayed, with construction from 2017 and opening in 2021. Judging by the pictures above this hasn't happened...