Chemins de fer Prince Henri

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The Chemins de fer Prince Henri (German: Prinz-Heinrich-Eisenbahngesellschaft ) was a private railway company in Luxembourg. The company, which was founded in 1869, was withdrawn from all licenses in 1877. In the same year, the routes and vehicles were transferred to the Luxemburgish Prinz-Heinrich-Eisenbahn- und Erzgrubengesellschaft SA.

Surname

The Prince Heinrich Railway Company is named after the governor of the Dutch king ( Wilhelm III , Grand Duke of Luxembourg 1849–1890) (the personal union with the Netherlands was dissolved in 1890 ).

history

Share over 250 lfr of the Cie. Royale Grand-Ducale des CdF Prince Henri SA of November 10, 1873

With the Wilhelm-Luxemburg-Eisenbahngesellschaft a railway company was founded in Luxembourg in 1857. In the mid-1860s they wanted to create an independent railway network.

In 1868/69 Belgium and Luxembourg signed a corresponding law on the formation of companies. Five routes were planned:

As state support for all routes, the company was to receive 5 km² iron ore deposits for its own exploitation. The Prince Heinrich Railway Company was constituted in April 1869, and the share capital of CHF 12.5 million was subscribed almost entirely by the Belgian railway company Société des Bassins Houillers du Hainaut . The first concession was granted on July 15, 1871, and the State Treaty with Belgium gave the Prinz-Heinrich-Gesellschaft permission to build the Küntzig-Autell-Bas border line and, according to the law of October 26, 1872, was allowed to connect to the Belgian rail network ( approved by Belgium on April 23, 1873). The line was put into operation on June 3, 1874.

However, there were problems with the granting of concessions to Prussia and France, initially the company only received concessions for the Luxembourg routes and the connection to Belgium. On August 1, 1873, the first sections of the route were opened:

three more followed in 1874, one last in 1875. Even before the first line was opened, the company presented a new plan for a more extensive route network, for which Luxembourg was to cede a further 3.5 km² of iron ore deposits to the company.

However, in 1875 the company got into financial difficulties when the consortium of Simon Philippart , to which the main shareholder belonged, collapsed. The company should therefore only receive the other agreed concessions after a deposit has been deposited.

Since various restructuring plans failed and the emergency situation worsened, the company's license was withdrawn in 1877 and it was placed under compulsory administration. In April 1877 the Prince Heinrich Railway Company dissolved. A total of around 100 km of railway line was completed, and another 50 km were already under construction.

As a successor company, the anonymous Luxembourgish Prince Heinrich Railway and Ore Mine Company was founded in 1877 , which completely took over the railway lines and the vehicle fleet.

The main user of the railway line from Steinfort was the Steinfort ironworks . In 1876, 8,000 minette wagons , 2,700 coke wagons and 2,400 cast iron wagons were transported (a total of 13,100 wagons of approx. 10 tons each). The transport costs for a tonne of minette were 1.95 francs, although this amount was considered too high by the iron and steel works. When these ceased operations in 1932, the railway line began to decline. On May 29, 1967 the passenger traffic and on May 19, 1969 also the freight traffic was stopped. The tracks that were no longer in use were removed in the summer of 1971.

literature

  • Ed Federmeyer: Railways in Luxembourg - Volume 1 , Wolfgang Herdam Fotoverlag, Gernrode 2007, ISBN 978-3-933178-21-3
  • Erny Drouet: "Schmelz" Steinfort , The Collart Family , Steinfort 2013, Center d'initiative et de gestion local Steinfort, ISBN 978-99959-0-007-6 .

Web links

Commons : Chemins de fer Prince Henri  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Erny Drouet: "Schmelz" Steinfort , p. 141.
  2. ↑ a b Only after a license has been granted to continue to the Saarbrücken – Trier railway through Prussia.
  3. ↑ a b c Erny Drouet: "Schmelz" Steinfort , p. 149.
  4. ↑ Ed Federmeyer: Railways in Luxembourg - Volume 1 , page 43
  5. ↑ Ed Federmeyer: Railways in Luxembourg - Volume 1 , p 50
  6. ↑ Erny Drouet: "Schmelz" Steinfort , p. 152.