Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company

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Route network of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company

The Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie (LDE) was a private railway company in Saxony . Among other things, it operated the first German long-distance railway between Leipzig and Dresden, which opened in 1839 . On July 1, 1876, the company was nationalized and went to the Kgl. Saxon State Railways .

history

prehistory

Title page of List's book " About a Saxon railway system as the basis of a general German railway system and in particular about the construction of a railway from Leipzig to Dresden ", Leipzig 1833
The board of directors of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Compagnie (from left to right) : Friedrich Busse (authorized representative), Fleischer (deputy), Haberstadt (deputy), Einert (member), Gessler (meeting secretary), Erdmann (member), Hirzel (member ), Lampe (deputy), Harkort (chairman), Dufour-Feronce (member), Seyfferth (deputy), Preusser (deputy) (Figure 1852)

The idea of ​​a railway that would connect Leipzig with Strehla (on the Elbe) was voiced by the Leipzig junker Carl Gottlieb Tenner before 1830. After the economist Friedrich List published his plans for a German railway system in Leipzig in 1833 , in which Leipzig was intended to play the role of the central hub, Tenner's idea was given new impetus. In the same year a railway committee was founded, which on November 20, 1833 sent a petition to the first Saxon state parliament in Dresden to build a railway from Leipzig to Dresden .

The establishment of the company

In 1835 the Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie was founded by twelve Leipzig citizens, u. a. Albert Dufour-Féronce (1798–1861), Gustav Harkort (1795–1865), Carl Lampe (1804–1889) and Wilhelm Theodor Seyfferth (1807–1881), founded as a private stock corporation. At the Easter fair in 1835, the company's shares (nominal value 100 thaler) were fully subscribed within a few hours, so that a capital of more than a million thaler was available. On May 6, 1835, the Saxon state government approved the construction and operation of the railway as well as the issue of interest-free receipts to the value of 500,000 Thalers. The total capital was thus 1.5 million thalers.

The construction of the Leipzig – Dresden line

In October 1835, the English engineers Sir James Walker and Hawkshaw checked the planned routes and preferred the northern route via Strehla (estimated cost: 1,808,500 thaler) to the one via Meissen (1,956,000 thaler). On November 16, 1835, the acquisition of land for the section between Leipzig and the Mulde Bridge north of Wurzen began. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 1, 1836. The construction management for the entire project was in the hands of the Saxon head hydraulic engineering director Karl Theodor Kunz . But then the Strehla city council rejected the construction of the railway. The route in Riesa, 7 km to the south, was led across the Elbe. On April 7, 1839 the first train crossed the Elbe bridge .

The route was commissioned in several stages:

Provisional station restaurant near Althen with the “steam car” leaving around 1837
Opening of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway
Dresden train station in Leipzig around 1860
  • 1837, April 24: Leipzig– Althen (10.60 km)
  • 1837, November 12: Althen –Borsdorf– Gerichshain (4.32 km)
  • 1838, May 11: Gerichshain-Machern (2.93 km)
  • 1838, July 19: Weintraube –Dresden (8.18 km)
  • 1838, July 31: Machern – Wurzen (8.00 km)
  • 1838, September 16: Wurzen– Dahlen (17.53 km)
  • 1838, September 16: Oberau – Coswig – Weintraube (13.44 km)
  • 1838, 0November 3rd: Dahlen – Oschatz (9.56 km)
  • 1838, November 21: Oschatz – Riesa (13.07 km)
  • 1839, 0April 7th: Riesa – Oberau (28.45 km)
Borsig locomotive of the LDE from 1847

On April 7, 1839, with the completion of the Riesa Elbe bridge, the entire route from Leipzig Dresden train station to Dresden was finally opened. After the construction of the second track that followed immediately afterwards, the line based on the English model was used in left-hand traffic until 1884 (!) .

The construction of further routes

On December 1, 1860, the Leipzig-Dresden Railway put a side arm into operation, which branched off from the main line in Coswig and led to Meißen. On May 14, 1866, it opened operations on another branch that branched off the main line in Borsdorf and initially led to Grimma ; on October 28, 1867 to Leisnig , on June 2, 1868 to Döbeln , on October 25, 1868 to Nossen and finally to Meißen on December 22, 1868, so that a parallel southern route was created between Borsdorf and Coswig.

After the line from Nossen to Freiberg - as part of the Nossen – Moldau railway line - was created on July 15, 1873 , it was extended to Mulda / Sa on November 2, 1875 . extended. On August 15, 1876, the Bohemian border was reached with the construction of this line to Moldau .

From 1851 to 1878 a 5.0 km long single-track connecting railway was operated in Leipzig, which branched off from the Bavarian railway station of the Saxon-Bavarian Railway , circumnavigated the city in a large curve to the east and finally, coming from the north, led to the Dresden railway station.

The Großenhainer branch , which opened on October 14, 1862 , became the property of the LDE on July 1, 1869.

On October 15, 1875, the Leipzig-Dresden Railway opened a connecting line from Riesa to Elsterwerda (since 1815 to the Kingdom of Prussia), which had been connected to Berlin and Dresden since July 17, 1875.

Transfer to the state railway

Railway monument Leipzig, erected in 1878

After the Elbe bridge collapsed in Riesa, the general meeting of shareholders decided on March 29, 1876 to sell the Dresden railway to the Saxon state. On July 1, 1876, the operation and administration of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway was transferred to the Royal Saxon State Railways .

The railway monument in Leipzig has been a reminder of the development of the Dresden railway from its creation as a private initiative by Leipzig citizens to its nationalization .

stretch

Routes operated for the owner's account

Locomotives

The Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie (LDE) began operations between 1837 and 1839 with the successive opening of sections, making it the first German long-distance railway. It remained independent for almost three decades and became part of the Royal Saxon State Railways on June 1, 1876.

The LDE locomotives were only referred to by name.

Name LDE State railway class
(until 1896) 		Railway number (s) Staatsbahn
(until 1892) 		number Year of construction (s) design type Remarks
COLUMBUS 1 1835 B n2 built by Winans (USA), so-called "Crab-Type"; Trade- in for the PEGASUS locomotive in 1842
COMET and FAUST 2 1835-1837 B n2 built by Rothwell (GB), drive wheel diameter 1372 mm; COMET converted to B1 n2 in 1842, retired until 1848
BLITZ and WINDSBRAUT 2 1836-1837 B n2 built by Rothwell (GB), drive wheel diameter 1524 mm; Converted to B1 n2 in 1842, retired until 1848
RENNER to GREIF 5 1837-1839 1A1 n2 built by Kirtley (GB), retired until 1869
PETER ROTHWELL to NORDLICHT 6th 1838-1840 1A1 n2 built by Rothwell (GB), retired until 1864
ROBERT STEPHENSON 1 1838 1A1 n2 built by Stephenson (GB), retired in 1858
EDWARD BURY to ARROW 4th 1838 B n2 built by Bury (GB), retired until 1854
SAXONIA 1 1838 B1 n2 built by Übigau; Running axle removed in 1840/41 (B n2), parked in 1844
PEGASUS 1 1839 1A1 n2 built by the Saxons. Mechanical engineering Comp. Chemnitz, bought in 1842 after a lengthy trial run; retired in 1862
PHOENIX 1 1840 1A1 n2 built by Übigau, not bought after test drives
BRUSSELS 1 1842 1A1 n2 built by Renard (B), retired in 1860
DRESDEN to RIESA 3 1844-1846 1B n2 built by Hawthorn (GB), retired until 1867
WURZEN and OSCHATZ 2 1847 1B n2 built by Borsig, retired until 1868
ELBE to HAYN 5 1848-1849 1A1 n2 built by Borsig, retired until 1868
RICHARD HARTMANN to ZWICKAU 3 1849 1A1 n2 built by Hartmann, retired until 1868
COMET to SAALE B II
from 1886: B IIa		 613-626 14th 1852-1859 1B n2 Mixed train locomotives, built by Borsig
HAMBURG to BREMEN 4th 1854 1A1 n2 Passenger locomotives built by Borsig; 1873–1876 converted into B1 n2t and B1n2
SAXONIA to ALTHEN H VIa, B VIa 544-571 28 1856-1868 1A1 n2 Express locomotives, built by Hartmann and Borsig
BORSDORF to ZITTAU K III
from 1885: K II		 584-603 20th 1866-1868 1B n2 Mixed train locomotives, built by Esslingen
MOLDAU to MULDE K III
from 1885: K II		 604-612 9 1874-1875 1B n2 Mixed train locomotives, built by Esslingen
MANNHEIM to DOLDENHORN K V, Sigl V, Hsch V 514-543 30th 1868-1876 C n2 Freight locomotives, built by Esslingen, Sigl and Henschel
No. 3 to No. 6 W VII T 628-631 4th 1874 B n2t Shunting locomotives, built by Wöhlert
MEISSEN to WILHELM SEYFFERTH Hsch VI 572-583 12 1875-1876 1B n2 Express locomotives, built by Henschel
GROSSENHAIN I and GROSSENHAIN II St II T 635-636 2 1844 1B n2t Taken over in 1869 by the branch railway company to Großenhain
No. 7 to No. 9 B IIa T 632-634 (3) (1873-1875) B1 n2t converted from 1A1 locomotives from Borsig, built in 1854
BREMEN B II 627 (1) (1875) B1 n2t

literature

  • Udo Becher: The Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company. transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1981.
  • The Leipzig-Dresden Railway, beginnings and present of a 150-year-old , ed. v. Fritz Borchert, transpress VEB publishing house for transport, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00354-2
  • Panorama of the railway between Leipzig and Dresden , co-edition of the publishers transpress, Berlin and Tourist, Berlin / Leipzig, 1989, publisher Gerhard Schlegel, ISBN 3-344-00348-8 , reprint of an original from 1839
  • Guide for the shareholders of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company. For use at general assemblies. Wiegand, Leipzig 1842 digitized

Web links

Commons : Leipzig – Dresden railway line  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Friedrich List and the first great railway in Germany  - sources and full texts