The line, which was officially opened in 1904, starts at Rheinhausen station, where it separated at an at-grade junction from the Osterath-Dortmund Süd railway, which was built by the former Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE).
North of Alpen it had a grade-separated crossing over the former Haltern-Venlo railway, a section of the "Paris-Hamburg railway" of the former Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME).