The concession for the main line to Altenbeken as well as the branch to Haste was granted to the Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company (Hannover-Altenbekener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) on 25 November 1868.

The railway line was built mainly for the transport of bulk goods (Deister coal, stones and sugar beets from the Calenberg Land).

Finally, the halt of Lemmie was opened on land of the municipal council of Ditfurth on 15 December 1904.

[3] According to recruitment plans of Deutsche Bundesbahn at the end of the 1960s, the line was electrified with financial support from the municipal association of Greater Hanover (Großraumverband, GVH), a legal predecessor of today’s Hanover Region, and was opened with the first operation with an electric locomotive on 31 May 1970.

Only a short section directly west of the station of Weetzen is still single track, as duplication would have caused a significant increase in costs with only a small benefit.

Prior to the duplication, the only passing places on the section between Weetzen and Barsinghausen were in the stations of Wennigsen and Egestorf.

To the south the mine of Klosterstollen was reached and its Schacht IV (shaft 4) lay to the north.

In 2014 and 2015, a road flyover was built in Haste and the pedestrian tunnel in the area of the station was extended.

Many other intersections with roads are level crossings, e.g. at the stations of Weetzen, Lemmie, Wennigsen, Egestorf and Kirchdorf, and in several places in the town of Barsinghausen.

Since a considerable part of the route runs along at the foot the Deister, which are the closest hills to Hanover, rising to a height of 405 m, it is also used heavily at weekends for excursions and walks.

There is now little freight traffic on the line, although two companies in the industrial area of Barsinghausen are served about once daily from Hannover-Linden by gas tankers and flatcars for steel products.

Together with the bus connections, the goal of an integrated timetable has almost been achieved in the area of the Deister Railway.

The line is electrified throughout and in the section from Weetzen (excluding the station entrance) to Egestorf it is double-track and otherwise it is single-track.

In order to compensate for the resulting lengthening of travel time, the section between Bantorf and Winninghausen is to be upgraded to two tracks.