Chemnitz-Riesa Railway Company

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The Chemnitz-Riesa Railway Company route

The Chemnitz-Riesaer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was a private railway company in Saxony . She was the owner and operator of the Riesa – Chemnitz railway line .

history

First Chemnitz train station building on an early photograph from 1854

As early as 1837, plans were submitted for a rail link from Riesa , an important cargo handling point on the Elbe , to Chemnitz and on to Zwickau , which was important as a coal mining area. After the Leipzig-Dresden railway was opened, connecting the industrialized city ​​of Chemnitz to Leipzig and Dresden was given top priority, even if only through a detour via Riesa.

From 1835 to 1849 the Chemnitz factory owner and liberal politician Bernhard Eisenstuck was chairman of the committee for the construction of the Erzgebirge Railway Chemnitz-Riesa.

Construction work could begin on May 9, 1845. In the same month the Erzgebirgische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , which changed its name to Chemnitz-Riesaer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, ordered six locomotives in England. Construction work progressed rapidly on the northern section from Riesa to Döbeln ; The ELBE steam locomotive carried out its first test drive here on August 3, 1847 . The official opening took place on August 29th. Almost a month later, on September 22nd, the short stretch to Limmritz could also be opened. Döbeln received a train station in the northern town of Großbauchlitz .

The section from Limmritz to Waldheim, however, caused great problems for society. Although construction work began here as early as 1845, the construction costs of the viaducts , retaining walls and earthworks in the Zschopau valley quickly put society in financial difficulties (see bankruptcy mile ). As early as 1845 there were first strikes among the workers due to a lack of wages, the revolution of 1848 made further construction more difficult. Since no profitable rail operation was possible without continuous operation to Chemnitz and a loan did not come about, the Chemnitz-Riesaer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft had to offer itself to the state in 1848. He took over the company on December 31, 1850 and continued construction, so that the entire line could finally be opened on September 1, 1852 as part of the Lower Ore Mountains State Railway.