A section of the line north of Heide, a few kilometres long, is now part of the Heide–Büsum railway.

The line runs branched off from the Marsh Railway in Heide station and later passed under it.

The route of a section of the line is now used by part of federal highway 5 running between the end of Autobahn 23 at Heide-West via Hemme to the Eider bridge at Tönning.

It was built and operated by the West Holstein Railway Company (Westholsteinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft).

Passenger services were cut back to Hemmerwurth on 1 November 1942 and to Weddinghusen at the timetable change on 23 May 1954.