Essen–Bochum–Herne

In 1867, the BME began building a siding from Bochum BME station to the north, mostly to connect to mines. It reached Gußstahlwerk (literally “cast steel works”, now Bochum West) on 16 November 1867, Riemke (now Bochum-Riemke) on 1 March 1869 and Herne on 28 May 1870. At the time this was the northernmost line of the BME.^[2]

On 1 November 1874, it officially opened a section that initially ran parallel with the Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg railway from Essen BME via Wattenscheid BME and Bochum BME to Herne BME for freight, exactly two months later passenger services started.

Essen–Schalke

Starting from Essen BME station (now Essen Hbf) a siding ran in a wide arc north to the Königin Elisabeth colliery in what is now Essen-Frillendorf. A triangle of lines formed by this line, the Essen RhE–Kray RhE line built in 1868 (now the Essen Nord–Essen-Kray Nord line) and the Essen BME–Kray RhE line built in 1905 (now the Essen Hbf–Essen-Kray Nord line); a nearby street in Frillendorf is still called Gleisdreieck (“rail track triangle”).

The siding was extended as a line via Caternberg BME (now Essen-Katernberg Nord) to Schalke BME (now Gelsenkirchen-Schalke Nord), including a branch line from Helene junction to Essen CME (now Essen-Altenessen); both lines were opened for freight traffic on 27 April 1874.^[3][4]

As well as the section between Essen and Herne opened on 1 January 1875, passenger traffic ran regularly from Essen BME to Schalke BME and Essen CME,^[3] but at first non-stop. In 1880 passenger trains stopped for the first time at Caternberg BME^[5] and in 1889 this was followed by a passenger stop at Hessler (which was previously only a junction).^[6]

Finally Stoppenberg station was inaugurated by the mayor of Stoppenberg, Carl Meyer on 8 August 1901. During the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, this station was the only free station in all of Essen. The station building was demolished in 1984 after the entire section was closed for passenger operations in 1969.^[7]

The line was mostly closed in 1970, only the section between Essen-Stoppenberg and Essen-Altenessen remained opened as a station track to a mining-test facility until 1978.^[3]

Schalke–Herne-Rottbruch

Just over a year later, the opening of the section from Schalke BME via Bismarck (now Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck) station to Herne crossing station (Kreuzungsstation Herne, now Herne-Rottbruch) closed the gap between the two branches and the first freight trains ran over the entire line on 10 January 1876.^[3][8]

There were no continuous passenger services, however, as only the western section between Schalke and Bismarck was used by passenger trains, starting on 21 June 1880.^[3] After the Winterswijk–Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck railway, built by the Dutch Westphalian Railway Company (Niederländisch-Westfälische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) was opened for passenger traffic one week earlier, the BME took over its operations and ran its trains through to Essen, which meant that these trains had to reverse in Bismarck.

Caternberg–Oberhausen

This section also emerged from a coal mine siding, connecting the Carl colliery in Essen-Altenessen with Caternberg BME station. The line from there to Oberhausen BME station (now Oberhausen Central Station, then still the terminus of its Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg line) was dismantled by the BME on 23 May 1879.^[9] It started at the location of platform tracks 1-3, which no longer exist, and went along the route now used by the Oberhausen combined tram/bus line, running to the north of the Emscher. Here the line turned in a tight curve to the east towards Osterfeld BME station, which was located in the area of the modern Märkischen Straße.

On 29 September 1879, the first short section from Caternberg BME to Vogelheim was inaugurated. This was followed on 1 June 1880 by the remaining section via Essen-Horl (formerly a freight yard, later a junction, now disused) and Osterfeld BME (now fully incorporated into the Oberhausen-Osterfeld Süd marshalling yard and located in the Märkischen Straße area).^[9]