The station Eslohe

On the occasion of the construction of the railroad line from Finnentrop to Wennemen before 1911, the location of the Eslohe station was chosen about one kilometer away from the village center. Until the construction of the railroad station Eslohe at this place, there were some disputes between different interest groups. In the end, the enterprising factory owner Ferdinand Gabriel prevailed, securing a favorable connection to freight traffic by rail for his factory directly opposite the station.

This industrial site is historically mentioned since 1747 as an iron hammer. Around 1930, the factory became the property of the Koenig industrialist family from Hohenlimburg, and today it is home to the DampfLandLeute - MUSEUM ESLOHE. Extensive building measures were necessary to create space for the station, the tracks and the passing country road. Visible witnesses of this are the high quarry stone retaining wall to the Salweybach and the still recognizable three-arched Helle bridge made of quarry stone masonry over the mountain cut of the former railroad line.

Over the years, other businesses and service providers settled in the area around the station, such as the F. u. J. Padberg building materials store (today Bauking) and the Bäuerliche Bezugs- und Absatzgenossenschaft. In the station, the restaurant continued to operate after the end of passenger traffic from 1966 until about 1990. After temporary use as asylum accommodation, the Eslohe painter Thomas Jessen acquired the building in 2008 and uses it as a studio and exhibition space. The adjacent former goods shed serves local artisans as a presentation and exhibition space.

^{Picture1: Steam locomotive 24 009 carried the last through special train from Finnentrop on 18.11.1972 (Photo: Rolf Schulze)
Picture 2: A train with two locomotives stops at the station of Eslohe in 1911 shortly after the opening of the line (Photo: Archiv Museum Eslohe)
Picture 3: The train is coming soon. Station scene in Eslohe in the 1930s (Photo: Archive Museum Eslohe)
Photo4: In April 1989, diesel locomotive 360 583-9 shunts freight cars for loading wood at Eslohe station (Photo: Klaus Meschede)}