From 15 November 1891, the line had been used for freight to and from the factory of W. Spindler (a dye works and laundry), after which the entire surrounding area is named.

From 15 August 1903, overhead electrification with AC power (6 kV, 25 Hz) was tested on the line by the company Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (UEG), which merged the following year with AEG.

Parallel with the trials on the Spindlersfeld line, tests were carried out by AEG and Siemens & Halske, under a joint venture called Studiengesellschaft für Elektrische Schnellbahnen, with AC on the Royal Prussian Military Railway (Königlich Preußische Militär-Eisenbahn) between Marienfelde and Zossen.

The trains were operated on working days as traction group F (called Friedrich), running via the northern Ringbahn and the Berlin Stadtbahn to Friedrichshagen.

An underground extension of the branch from Spindlersfeld to a station in Köpenick was, however, mentioned, but the proposal never progressed beyond the planning stage.

In the Second World War the line was only slightly damaged, and it took only three months to put it back into operation even in 1945.

The dispatcher, who was responsible for the section and had caused the accident by human error, was sentenced to death by the Soviet occupation forces.

From 1952 trains continued past Schöneweide again: they operated as traction group N (called Nordpol, that is North Pole) via the northern Ringbahn to Spandau West.

Trains to and from the railway repair shop or to Spindlersfeld would no longer block each other and conflicts such as that which led to the accident of 15 December 1945 would be avoided.

The traction group was originally cut back to run to Schönhauser Allee and after the completion of a separate pair of tracks on the curve to Pankow the service was extended to Blankenburg.

To avoid confusion, Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) designated the operations on the East Berlin section of the route as traction group O.

In addition, in 1952, the S-Bahn took over two-carriage sets (ET + ES) from the railway workshop of the Peenemünde Army Research Center.

To accommodate the growing population, DRG restored the second track to Karow station, which had been removed un 1945 as war reparations to the Soviet Union, in order to allow trains to run at 10-minute intervals.

Until the extension of the 10-minute cycle over the weekend, trains ran through from Buch to Spindlersfeld, under the traction group name of Schöneweide.

This was followed after Die Wende (the changes accompanying German reunification) by the removal of the freight facilities and the Rewatex siding.

Today, apart from some fragments of the tracks in the ground, few signs of the past importance of the freight infrastructure remain.

In 2006, the platform was moved to Oberspreestraße, shortening the route for passengers transferring between the S-Bahn and trams to Köpenick or Adlershof.

A two-track development of the station, however, is not in sight; even if the proposed duplication of the whole line goes ahead, the terminus will still have only one track.