United small railways

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The United Kleinbahnen AG was founded on December 19, 1889 by the cities of Remscheid , Ronsdorf , Lüttringhausen , Solingen and Cronenberg as well as by 25 private individuals, manufacturers and merchants as the Ronsdorf-Müngstener Eisenbahn- Gesellschaft (RME) based in Ronsdorf.

United West German Small Railways

Participation right certificate for 100 RM from the Vereinigte Westdeutsche Kleinbahnen AG from March 1926

In 1897 it was taken over by the Wermelskirchen-Burger Railway Company , which opened its 11.2 km long meter-gauge main line on April 1, 1890. The remaining routes were soon sold to Barmer Bergbahn AG.

All shares in RME were taken over by Westdeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (WeEG) in Cologne in 1897 . From February 18, 1898, this was also the operator of the railways that belonged to RME. Since November 2, 1900, their company was called Vereinigte Westdeutsche Kleinbahnen AG (VWKA) . At the same time the seat was moved to Cologne.

After the opening of new routes in 1908 , the meter-gauge network was 29.2 km:

  • Wermelskirchen - Burg - 11.2 km - April 1, 1890
  • Remscheid Dam - Remscheid Lenneper Straße - 2.8 km - July 12, 1900
  • Remscheid Lenneperstraße - Lennep - Lüttringhausen - Halbach - 9.7 km - August 14, 1907
  • Burg - Solingen Krahenhöhe - 5.5 km - May 14, 1908

These routes had been temporarily idle since March 1, 1921 and were sold to the cities of Remscheid and Solingen in 1922. Now the VWKA only owned two railway companies that were operated by the West German Railway Company:

In 1927 VWKA acquired the ownership of another four railways from Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahn-AG (ADEA), three of which were still operated by the ADEA subsidiary, Allgemeine Deutsche Eisenbahnbetriebs-Gesellschaft (ADEG):

United Kleinbahnen AG

This geographical expansion of the area of ​​interest led to the change of company to Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG (VKA) on April 26, 1927 .

When the West German Railway Company was merged into the AG for Transport in 1928, the scope of business of the VKA was again considerably expanded. It took over the lease, management and administration contracts that the WeEG had concluded with other railways.

These were the following small railways in the Rhineland:

  • Furthermore, about the Moselbahn AG, which belongs to the AGV Group - standard gauge - 102.2 km - April 2, 1903, which had a certain degree of independence in its management.
  • The standard gauge Mittelthurgau Railway (42 km - December 20, 1911), the shares of which had been transferred from the WeEG to the VKA in 1928, was operated until 1931, but remained closely associated with the VKA until around 1950, when it sold the majority of the shares to the Canton of Thurgau .

The standard-gauge Hohenzollerische Landesbahn - 107.4 km - March 28, 1900 was also operated until 1933 .

For the new tasks, the VKA took over the entire organization of the WeEG in Cologne and in the branch offices. It moved its headquarters to Frankfurt am Main in 1930.

United Kleinbahnen GmbH

At the beginning of 1952, the Vereinigte Kleinbahnen AG was converted into a GmbH, or VKG for short. She still acted as the owner of two railways. But when the Philippsheim-Binsfeld small railroad ceased operations in 1965 and the Neheim-Hüsten-Sundern railroad was sold to the Ruhr-Lippe-Eisenbahnen AG on January 1, 1978 , the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft GmbH took over the management tasks of the VKG. This company, which was identical to DEG in terms of personnel and administration, was therefore dissolved.

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