The Schmallenberg train station

On May 1, 1887, passenger service was opened on the railroad line from Altenhundem to Schmallenberg. The station there was thus the terminus of this line until November 15, 1889. On that day, the extension to Fredeburg was inaugurated. On October 1, 1911, it was then extended to Wenholthausen. In addition to passenger traffic, the station also served freight traffic. In particular, the hosiery factories in Schmallenberg should be mentioned here, which also provided for considerable passenger traffic. The unfavorable alignment between Altenhundem and Fleckenberg on the side of the road, which the builders had chosen for cost reasons, later became a boomerang.

The timetable period summer 1953 showed passenger trains on Sundays for the last time. Subsequently, operations were reduced to three pairs of trains per weekday. Rationalization by means of rail buses, as practiced on many other railroad lines in Germany, was unfortunately omitted. The remaining traffic was handled by buses. From the 1960 summer timetable onwards, the passenger train service was reduced to one pair of trains per day, in the morning in the direction of Altenhundem and in the afternoon to Wenholthausen. After passenger service had already been discontinued on May 30, 1964, freight service in the direction of Altenhundem ended a year later on May 29, 1965.

This left only the freight service to Wennemen, which was fed by the stocking factories and the local agricultural trade, among others. This ran for the last time on December 31, 1994. The old station was partially demolished on August 24, 1967 and replaced by a new building. The demolition of this building took place on May 31, 2006, and a shopping center is now located here. The SauerlandRadring was laid out on the old railroad line in the direction of Gleidorf when construction began in 2004 and opened in 2007.

^{Image1: Gü̈ter train at Schmallenberg station on May 26, 1976 (Photo: Klaus Meschede).
Picture2: Schmallenberg with its railroad facility at the top left around 1955 (Photo: Klaus Meschede collection).
Picture3: The station of Schmallenberg around 1897 (Photo: Collection Helmut Voß)}