an important railway junction was at bad oldesloe, which was connected to neumünster by the altona-kiel railway company ("altona-kieler eisenbahn-gesellschaft", ake) in 1875. in 1884 the ake was nationalised and became part of the prussian state railways ("königlich preußische staatseisenbahnen" (k.p.st.e)). in 1884, k.p.st.e opened a line to schwarzenbek and in 1897 a line from ratzeburg to hagenow (the kaiser railway), creating two additional connections to the berlin-hamburg line. the opening of the elmshorn-barmstedt-oldesloe line in 1907 created another connection to oldesloe.