Ludwig's Western Railway
Encyclopedia
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
. It runs from Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
via Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
to Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg is a city in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat.Aschaffenburg is known as the Tor zum Spessart or "gate to the Spessart"...
and on into the former 'Kurhessian' Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
.
History
In the 1840s it was already clear that improvements to the navigation of inland waterways provided by the building of the canal between the rivers Main and DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, fostered by King Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
, had not triumphed over the railways. After the king had given up his opposition to a main railway line, parliament passed the law for the construction of Ludwig's Western Railway on 23 March 1846, the second main line to be built by the Royal Bavarian State Railways
Royal Bavarian State Railways
As a nation-state, Germany did not come into being until the creation of the German Empire in 1871 from the various German-speaking states such as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Württemberg. By then each of the major states had formed its own state railway and these continued to remain...
(Königlich Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen).
Operations were first begun on the Hanau–Aschaffenburg section by the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway (Frankfurt-Hanauer Eisenbahn) and transferred to the Hessian Ludwigsbahn from 1863. The latter also acquired ownership of the section now running through Prussia in 1872. In 1893 the Hessian Ludwigsbahn – and its ownership and running powers – were transferred to the Prussian state railways
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
.
Construction and Operation of the Route
- 1 August 1852 Bamberg–HaßfurtHaßfurtHaßfurt is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Haßberge district. It is situated on the river Main, 20 km east of Schweinfurt and 30 km northwest of Bamberg. In 1852, Ludwig's Western Railway reached the town and between 1892 and 1995 it also had a branch line to Hofheim...
(32.5 km) - 3 November 1852 Haßfurt–SchweinfurtSchweinfurtSchweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...
(24.3 km) - 1 July 1854 Schweinfurt–Würzburg (43.3 km)
- 1 October 1854 Würzburg–Aschaffenburg–state border at KahlKahl am MainKahl am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :...
(105.7 km)
The route runs from Bamberg, the junction with the Ludwig South-North Railway
Ludwig South-North Railway
The Ludwig South-North railway , built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways...
, to Schweinfurt, from Würzburg to Lohr and from Aschaffenburg to Kahl in the Main valley. From Schweinfurt to Würzburg it runs away from the loop in the Main, taking a short cut across the triangle of land formed by the Main over gently rolling hill country. Würzburg Hauptbahnhof
Würzburg Hauptbahnhof
is the central station for the city of Würzburg in the German state of Bavaria.Regional and long-distance trains call at the station; it is the southern end of the Hanover-Würzburg high-speed rail line that carries InterCityExpress traffic...
(main station) was the terminus inside the fortified city until 1869. From Lohr to Aschaffenburg the railway line again takes a short cut away from the Main and crosses the Spessart highlands in a relatively straight line through a tunnel, following the course of the Laufach and Aschaff
Aschaff
The Aschaff is a river in the northern Spessart in Bavaria, Germany.It is a right tributary of the Main and is 21,4 km long. It begins at the confluence of Autenbach and Kleinaschaff in Waldaschaff. Loosely translated the name Aschaff means Eschenwasser. The largest tributary is the Laufach...
valleys. At the state border in Kahl it connects to a line opened by the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway on 22 June 1854, who operated the section from the border to Aschaffenburg as a leased railway. In this way Bavaria had linked the two important commercial cities of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Frankfurt am Main with railway routes.
Structures
Fränkische Saale
The Franconian Saale or is a 125 km long river in Bavaria, Germany. It is a right-bank tributary of the Main, in Lower Franconia. It should not be confused with the larger Saxon Saale , which is a tributary of the Elbe River....
and Franconian Sinn with the river Main at Gemünden
Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg.- Location :...
, the Schwarzkopf tunnel and the two railway embankments at Hain im Spessart, which are part of the famous Spessart ramp
Spessart Ramp
The Spessart Ramp is a 5.4 km long incline on the Main-Spessart Railway in southern Germany between Laufach at one end and the Schwarzkopf tunnel and Heigenbrücken at the other, with an average incline of 20 ‰...
.
Also noteworthy is the station building at Veitshöchheim
Veitshöchheim station
Veitshöchheim station is a regional railway station in southern Germany. It is at kilometre marker 7.0 on the Main-Spessart Railway from Würzburg to Aschaffenburg...
which has been preserved in its original state, and has a particularly representative layout including a royal pavilion in the same style as Schloss Veitshöchheim.
Expansion
The route was planned and laid for two tracks, but only entered service as a single-track line as far as the incline on theSpessart ramp
Spessart Ramp
The Spessart Ramp is a 5.4 km long incline on the Main-Spessart Railway in southern Germany between Laufach at one end and the Schwarzkopf tunnel and Heigenbrücken at the other, with an average incline of 20 ‰...
from Heigenbrücken
Heigenbrücken
Heigenbrücken is a municipality in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft of Heigenbrücken.-Location:...
to Laufach
Laufach
Laufach is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.-Location:...
. The next twin-track section was the stretch from Rottendorf
Rottendorf
Rottendorf is a municipality in the district of Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany....
to Würzburg after the line from Fürth
Fürth
The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....
to Rottendorf was opened in 1865. The second track was laid on the remaining sections by the 1890s.
The line was electrified on the following sections: Rottendorf–Würzburg in 1954, Würzburg–Aschaffenburg in 1957, Aschaffenburg–Frankfurt/Darmstadt in 1960 and Bamberg–Schweinfurt–Rottendorf in 1971.
Significance Today
The section from Würzburg to Aschaffenburg runs today under the name of the Main-Spessart RailwayMain-Spessart Railway
The Main-Spessart Railway is a 110 kilometre long railway line in the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia and the neighbouring state of Hesse in south central Germany. It runs from Würzburg via Gemünden and Aschaffenburg to Hanau...
and continues to be one of the most important stretches of railway line in Germany.
The Rottendorf-Bamberg section, (today KBS 810, Würzburg–Bamberg, in the timetable) lost its importance for passenger traffic between Würzburg and Nuremberg when the direct line from Rottendorf via Kitzingen
Kitzingen
Kitzingen is a town in the German state of Bavaria, capital of the district Kitzingen. It is part of Franconia geographical region and has around 21,000 inhabitants.Surrounded by vineyards, Kitzingen County is the largest wine producer in Bavaria...
to Fürth was opened. The section Bamberg–Schweinfurt–Waigolshausen
Waigolshausen
Waigolshausen is a municipality in the district of Schweinfurt in Bavaria, Germany....
(with a junction to the Werntal Railway to Gemünden
Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg.- Location :...
) is important for goods traffic.
The Schweinfurt–Würzburg section, which had become part of the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
-Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
(-Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
) link via Erfurt with the opening of the Brandleite tunnel in 1884, lost its importance for long-distance services after the division of Germany in 1945.
Sources
- Deutsche Reichsbahn, Die deutschen Eisenbahnen in ihrer Entwicklung 1835–1935, Berlin, 1935.
- Wolfgang Klee/Ludwig v. Welser, Bayern-Report, Bände 1–5, Fürstenfeldbruck, 1993–1995.
- Eckhart Rüsch, Der Bahnhof Veitshöchheim, in: Jahrbuch für Eisenbahngeschichte24 (1992), S. 23ff.
- Bernhard Ücker, 150 Jahre Eisenbahn in Bayern, Fürstenfeldbruck 1985
External links
- There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany