Lomé – Kpalimé railway line
| Lome – Kpalimé | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 119 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 16.7 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 200 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Lomé – Kpalimé railway was the second railway line that was built in what is now Togo . It was also known as the Inland Railway or the Cocoa Railway .
history
The railway line was built during the German colonial era . Planned from 1902, construction began in 1904 and the line opened three years later, on January 27, 1907, on the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II . It was built in meter gauge, was 119 km long and was accompanied by a telephone line . The rail-like level crossings were secured by billboards . The route used the Lomé station on the Lomé – Aného railway line as its starting point . In addition to the removal of cocoa , it also served that of products from the oil palm . From April 1, 1908, both railways were leased to the Deutsche Kolonial-Eisenbahn Bau- und Betriebsgesellschaft (DKEBBG), operated jointly by it and the trains were operationally linked over both routes.
After the First World War Togo was between Great Britain and France divided the entire railway network came to rest in the part of the country, now of France as a League of Nations - mandate was managed. During the period of military occupation until 1922, the railway was under the name of Togoland Military Railway operated (TMR), the rail operations in the hands of the neighboring railway in the Gold Coast , the Gold Coast Government Railways was. It was not until 1922 that the railway received its first French-speaking name: Chemins de fer de Togo (CFT).
Since it was “only” a mandate area whose international legal assignment to France did not appear to be permanently secured, France held back from investing in Togo's railways. The line continued to operate after Togo's independence.
See also
literature
- Franz Baltzer : The colonial railways with a special focus on Africa . Berlin 1916; Reprint, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-8262-0233-9 ( preview on Google Books ).
- Helmut Schroeter, Roel Ramaer: The railways in the once German protected areas. Then and now. Röhr-Verlag, Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3-88490-184-2 .
- Helmut Schroeter: The railways of the former German protected areas in Africa and their vehicles . Frankfurt 1961.