Carl Humann, discoverer of the Pergamon Altar and later an honorary citizen of Steele, was involved in the surveying of the line.

They had to overcome, among others, the problem of the steep grade from Steele towards Essen for the still weak steam locomotives.

Another connection came on 21 September 1863 with the opening of the Ruhr Valley Railway to Bochum-Dahlhausen, which was duplicated in 1910.

It served freight traffic to and from the coal mines in the Ruhr valley.

The rail triangle located at Bw (locomotive depot) Steele-Nord had been closed by 1931.

Local transport service N9 was operated by push-pull trains because the line to Wuppertal via Steele Ost was not electrified until 2003.

The tracks from Essen-Steele Ost over the Ruhr bridge are now only very rarely used by freight traffic.

Essen-Steele Ost station is actually located in the westernmost corner of the district of Freisenbruch and is served only by lines S 1 and S 3 of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn.