Altona-Kiel Railway Company
The Altona- Kiel Railway Company (LFS ) was associated with a public company in the Kingdom of Denmark in a personal union Duchy of Holstein, who built the railroad between Altona / Elbe and the Baltic Sea port city of Kiel and operation. At that time, Altona was the second largest city and the railway line opened in 1844 from Altona to Kiel the first under Danish sovereignty.
Formation
Background
The AG was founded in December 1840 at the instigation of merchants from Altona and Kiel, who promised by the combination of the North and Baltic improving the transport and marketing facilities for their goods and had joined forces to promote this objective in Altona- Kiel railway committee. The Kiel initiators included Georg Hanssen and Johann Christian Kruse.
One previously suggested by Friedrich List rail link between the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck had the Royal Railroad Commission, which in 1835 by Denmark's King Frederick VI. had been used, denied the concession, as the heir to the throne Christian VIII wanted to put up a rail link between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea for fiscal reasons only on Danish territory.
Financing
The capital was distributed in 1844 as follows (in percent):
- 27.0%: Danish general government
- 21.6%: Stadt Altona
- 19.2%: private float
- 16.2%: City of Kiel
- 13.1%: Shares held by the Company
- 01.1 %: city of Neumünster
- 01.1 %: Altonaisches Support Institute
- 00.4 %: Elmshorn
- 00.3 %: City Pinneberg
Trace location
With route planning, the English engineer Geo W. Buck was commissioned. He came to the conclusion that because of the lower relief difference, the route should be guided not Segeberg, but about Barmstedt and Neumünster. Having been offered the share capital due to the influence of Elmshorner citizen Klaus Panie greater participation and from there had to make economic development and the further west Holstein route, the General Meeting of Shareholders decided in May 1842 for this western route alternative. Christian VIII granted the concession for it on June 28, 1842. The terminal stations should be built in the immediate vicinity of each port. Other stations were in Pinneberg, Tornesch, Elmshorn, Wrist, Neumünster and Bordesholm to stopping places in Stellingen Eidelstedt, Halstenbeck, Priesendorf, Horst, Dauenhof, Siebenecksknöll, Brockstedt, Pahdenstedt, Fohrde and Meimersdorf ( in the notation of 1844 ).
Construction and opening
Construction of the 105 -kilometer, except in Kiel, Neumünster and Altona first single track was in March 1843; Chief engineer (from 1845 promoted to executive director of the Company) was Edward Dietz, who had previously worked at the Leipzig- Dresden Railway Company. It was opened under the name of Christian VIII Østersø Jernbane ( " King Christian VIII Baltic Railway" ) on September 18, 1844, the birthday of the king. There was a celebration in the car hall of unfinished Altona railway station and the first trip to Kiel in a journey time of three hours. This was the first railway line in the Danish state. For the operation initially were ten locomotives, eight tender, 37 passenger and 50 freight cars available. The maximum speed limit was in daylight 45 km / h, in the dark 30 km / h
To signal the train signal flags were used: Showed the flag in the direction of travel, free travel was required. If the flag stuck in the ground, this signaled caution. The signaling guards were stationed so close to the track that each keeper was able to watch next. At the start of the web man alone, a total of 112 keepers used as a signal of 226. At the Dodge the Damofwagenführer signaled the position of the switch by switch discs in a vertical or inclined position.
The rolling stock was following an international tender ordered: five steam locomotives with the wheel arrangement " 1A1 " came from the company Kitson, Thompson & Lewison from Leeds and Hawthorn from Newcastle, the corresponding Tender of Wöhlert in Berlin, the passenger cars of Röhe & Wienbarg ( Altona), packing and freight cars of Meyer ( Uetersen ) Nibble (Altona ) and Schweffel & Howaldt (Kiel).
Schedule and time
The persons platforms behind the building were covered.
Station plant in Altona 1844.
From the geographical location of range endpoints Altona and Kiel arose as to the precise astronomical local time, a difference of about 40 seconds. Depending on which local you should have adopted would be a train between Altona and Kiel in each case by almost a minute arrived " too late " to " early" or. To address this problem, it was determined in collaboration with the Altona Observatory and its director Heinrich Christian Schumacher an artificial medium time for the information in the timetable. The then remaining maximum time difference of 20 seconds to the local clock was no longer perceived as flashy as the apparent delay.
This problem that occurred with increasing distance distances and travel speeds with other railways, incidentally, was a cause for convening the International Meridian Conference in October 1884 in Washington, DC, agreed at the to divide the earth into 24 time zones, each of which independently should be used by the accurate astronomical local time that is applicable to all cities located in this zone " unit time ". After the necessary preparations was then introduced in 1893 in Germany, " Central European Time ", the local and transnational correct time information allowed in the schedules.
The Elmshorn Station 1844
The train station in Tornesch 1850
Expansion of the railway network
Immediately after the completion of the main line to build a connection from the low-lying banks of the Elbe began to Altona station, where the freight cars by cable lift on a 210 meter long inclined plane the height difference of 30 meters overcame (see Haddock Tunnel / Altona Hafenbahn ). The plant was commissioned in 1845. The port railway in Kiel, however, where the train station is not as high above the harbor, had taken up the traffic already on 1 September 1844.
Also in 1845 the company expanded its network, when she took over the management of the 34 -kilometer stretch of Rendsburg- Neumünster 's railway company that ran over Nortorf and Bokel Holm. While trying the English railway entrepreneur Sir Samuel Morton Peto, to bring this railway by purchase in its sphere of influence; however, managed the LFS to buy from him this valuable cut on January 1, 1864. From then on Peto moved more and more from Schleswig -Holstein back, and the LFS here was the most important railway company.
The construction made as part of the Senate of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the Hamburg- Altona connecting track and the train station monastery Thor led the route of the LFS to the vicinity of the Berlin railway station in the Berlin- Hamburg Railway and the " Lübeck train station " Lübeck - Büchener railroad. At this end point came in 1872 after the completion of the Hamburg Elbe bridges the Venlo train station added to the Grasbrookhafen island. The freight was taken on September 30, 1865 and the passenger on July 16, 1866.
From node Neumünster almost 90 km distances were on May 31, 1866 opened in East Holstein, namely Neumünster - ash mountain Eutin -Neustadt in Holstein, together with a local port railway, and the interconnection of Kiel Preetz after ash mountain. On December 10, 1875 nor was added in the 45- kilometer route Neumünster - Segeberg - old RST.
The railway line from Altona to Blankenese was opened on 19 May 1867, the 18 kilometer-long extension to Wedel on 2 December 1883. This route was from 1907 part of the Hamburg- Altona City and Suburban railway and adjacent to the freight (up to 1997) from 1934 part of the S -Bahn Hamburg.
Operational management and investments
The LFS led to 31 December 1862 the operation of the railway line from Elmshorn to luck city, which was founded in March 1844 Gluckstadt - Elmshorner Railway Company had opened on 20 July 1845. The track was twelve years later, extended on 15 October 1857 to Itzehoe.
From 1870 to 1884, the LFS led the operation of Schleswig 's railways, where she was also involved in terms of capital.
Even on the Kreis Oldenburg Eisenbahn AG, the LFS was significantly involved. She led the operation, since the first distance Neustadt in Holstein -Oldenburg was opened on September 30, 1881.
The LFS also owned shares in the West Holstein Railway Company and later acquired by this Wesselburen - Heider Railway Company.
Nationalization
As a result of the German -Danish War Holstein in 1867 became Prussian. Beginning in 1883, began negotiations for the purchase of the Altona- Kiel railway across the State of Prussia, of their administration and management by the Royal Railway Directorate Altona has already taken over from 1 March 1884 involved the temporary premises of the city of Altona. For a purchase price of 70.65 million Mark the Prussian state railways (or July 1, 1887 ) was on January 1, 1887 the owner of the LFS. The corporation was dissolved.
Today's railway Hamburg- Altona- Kiel is owned by Deutsche Bahn AG (2009).
Personalities
- Johann Christian Ravit (1806-1868), Director