The Löhne–Rheine railway is a two-track, continuously electrified railway main line from Löhne in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia via Osnabrück in Lower Saxony to Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs parallel to the Wiehen Hills to the north and to the Teutoburg Forest to the south. The line opened in 1855 and 1856 and was one of the oldest railways in Germany. History The Löhne–Rheine line is part of the Hanoverian Western Railway, which was built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways in the 1850s to develop the western parts of the former Kingdom of Hanover. The first section of this line, part of the Emsland Railway, was opened on 24 November 1854, between Emden and Papenburg, but it had no connection with the existing rail network. To avoid repeated crossing of the Wiehen Hills, rather than build its own line from the Hanover–Minden line in Minden, the southern section of the Western Railway branched off from the Hamm–Minden line of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) in Löhne. On 21 November 1855 passenger operations started on the section between Löhne and Osnabrück. The former Hannöversche Bahnhof ("Hanoverian station") is now the lower part of the Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof, the upper part of which was built only fifteen years later during the construction of the Cologne-Minden Railway's Hamburg-Venlo railway (Hamburg-Venloer Bahn), which is now mostly incorporated in the Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway. Just six months later the next section was put into operation, closing the gap from Osnabrück to Papenburg via Rheine and Salzbergen. On 23 June 1856 passenger trains ran for the first time between Minden and Emden. Connecting lines The importance of the line and its stations increased with the opening of a number of connecting lines, particularly to Rheine station; which connected with the line to Munster of the Royal Westphalian Railway Company (Königlich-Westfälischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), opened in 1856, the Duisburg–Quakenbrück line of the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), opened in 1879, and the former line to Ochtrup of the Prussian State Railways (Preußischen Staatseisenbahnen), opened in 1905. Two lines connected at Eversburg station, the Tecklenburg Northern Railway to Altenrheine and the Oldenburg Southern Railway to Oldenburg Hbf. In addition, there are other links, such as that of the Teutoburg Forest Railway to Gütersloh, connecting in Ibbenbüren station, and the Ravensberg Railway to Rahden, connecting at Bünde station, or in Kirchlengern to Herford station on the Hamm–Minden line. Development