South-North German connecting line

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The kk privileged South-North German Connection Railway (SNDVB) was a railway company founded in Austria in 1856 , whose traffic area was in what is now the Czech Republic . The main connection of the company was the Pardubitz - Reichenberg - Seidenberg route , which, however, due to its difficult topography, did not achieve the significance intended for it as a European main line between Vienna and Berlin .

From 1869, the company was gradually merged with the newly founded kk privileged Österreichische Nordwestbahn (ÖNWB), with the SNDVB continuing to form a special economic body with its own accounting system until it was nationalized in 1908.

history

History and construction of your own network

Priority share for 400 marks of German Reich currency from 1875

The south-north German connection line goes back to the kk privileged Pardubitz – Reichenberger Eisenbahn , for which on June 15, 1856 a consortium around the Reichenberg manufacturer Johann Liebieg received the concession. The concession provided for the construction of a railway from Pardubitz to Reichenberg and a branch line from Josefstadt to Schwadowitz in order to develop the coal deposits there. As early as the summer of 1856, the company operated under the name kk privileged South-North German Connection Railway .

Construction work on the line began on September 22, 1856 near Pardubice. Favorable weather enabled rapid construction progress, so that the first section to Josefstadt could already be opened on November 4, 1857. The routes were completed by May 1, 1859. In Reichenberg there was a connection to the line of the Zittau-Reichenberger Railway Company from December 1, 1859 , which established a direct connection to Saxony.

Saxony, however, was not interested in through traffic in the direction of Prussia, from which it would not have benefited. The construction of a competing railway from Reichenberg to Prussia had been ruled out for a period of 25 years in a state treaty with Saxony. In this situation, the SNDVB sought to extend its route from Schwadowitz to Liebau in order to gain access to the network of the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn (NME). The concession for this route was granted on August 22, 1865, on December 29, 1869 it went fully into operation. Only when Saxony accepted the deletion of the 25-year protection clause in a new state treaty in 1870 did the SNDVB also receive the concession on March 31, 1872 for the extension of its main line from Reichenberg to Prussia and for a wing runway from Eisenbrod to Tannwald. The routes were opened in the summer of 1875.

Opening dates
  • Pardubitz – Josefstadt: November 4, 1857
  • Josefstadt – Falgendorf: June 1, 1858
  • Falgendorf – Turnau: December 1, 1858
  • Turnau – Reichenberg and Josefstadt – Schwadowitz: May 1, 1859
  • Schwadowitz – Königshan: August 1, 1868
  • Königshan – Liebau: December 29, 1869
  • Reichenberg – Seidenberg: July 1, 1875.
  • Eisenbrod – Tannwald: July 1, 1875

The foundation of the Austrian Northwest Railway

At the end of the 1860s, various Prussian business circles planned a railway from Berlin via Cottbus, Löbau, Zittau, Reichenberg, Turnau, Jitschin, Iglau and Znaim to Vienna. At this point in time, the SNDVB had already had preparatory work carried out for a line from Pardubitz to Znaim. In 1866 she asked for permission to build the line, but initially did not receive it. Other interested parties for the project were a committee to build a railway line from Jungbunzlau to Kolin and the city of Czaslau, which wanted a route from Kolin to Iglau. The most serious competitor for this project, however, was the kk privilegierte Staatseisenbahngesellschaft (StEG), which wanted to supplement its own network with a line from Znojmo to Kolin and thus prevent a competitive situation. Only when the Austrian state administration also requested a direct route from Vienna to Znojmo with its own train station in Vienna did the StEG withdraw from this project for reasons of profitability.

In the autumn of 1867, the SNDVB founded a consortium with Hugo Fürst Thurn und Taxis , Franz Altgraf zu Salm-Reifferscheid , Louis von Haber and Friedrich Schwarz, which on September 8, 1868 granted the concession for a " locomotive railway ... starting from Vienna via Znaim, Iglau, Deutschbrod, Czaslau and Kollin to Jungbunzlau with branch lines from Znaim to the Franz Josephsbahn, from Deutschbrod to Pardubitz and from a suitable point of the Kolin-Jungbunzlauer line to Trautenau ”. The new company was named kk privileged Österreichische Nordwestbahn (ÖNWB).

In an operating contract concluded in 1869, the SNDVB and ÖNWB agreed on a joint operating and central service, whereby the networks of both companies were to remain separate economic entities with their own accounting. For cost reasons, however, the management of the SNDVB was dissolved and it was merged with the general management of the ÖNWB in Vienna. In Reichenberg only an operational management remained, which was later converted into an inspectorate. Its head Dr. Groß took over the general management in Vienna in 1870, which resulted in a merger of the two railway companies. The SNDVB were henceforth (in addition to the main network and the supplementary network of the ÖNWB) one of three business areas of the ÖNWB. A complete merger failed in particular because of the objection of the shareholders of the old Pardubitz-Reichenberger Bahn.

Nationalization

As early as 1895, the Austrian state sought to nationalize the ÖNWB and thus also the SNDVB. In March 1896, however, the Reichsrat rejected an agreement with the ÖNWB to take over state ownership. The main obstacle to rapid nationalization was primarily the different redemption periods for the three economic entities. For the supplementary network in particular, it did not expire until June 26, 1902. Ultimately, the Reichsrat approved the nationalization in July 1908, which came into effect retrospectively on January 1, 1908. For the movable and immovable property of the SNDVB plus 107 locomotives, the Austrian state paid the shareholders a redemption price of 79 million crowns . On October 15, 1909, the Northwest Railway Directorate of the kk Staatsbahnen (kkStB) took over operations.

The routes

Route network of SNDVB (red) and ÖNWB (black)

The route network of the south-north German connecting line had a length of 280.419 kilometers and was divided into three independent routes. The operating network also included the connecting lines on Prussian territory to the border stations in Liebau and Seidenberg, which were leased by the Prussian State Railways. For the local railway Königshan – Schatzlar of the Austrian Local Railway Company (ÖLEG) and the Reichenberg-Gablonz-Tannwalder Railway (RGTE), the SNDVB took over the management on behalf of the owners.

Own routes
Lease operation
Routes operated for the owner's account

The routes still exist. Today they belong to the network of the state-owned Czech infrastructure operator Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC). On the cross-border line Tschernhausen – Seidenberg (today: Černousy – Zawidów) and the local railway Königshan – Schatzlar (today: Královec – Žacléř) the tourist traffic is stopped.

Driving resources

Freight locomotive SNDVB class XIII no.205

In 1857/58, the SNDVB acquired twelve double-coupled passenger locomotives from Maffei in Munich and 28 triple-coupled freight locomotives from Hartmann in Chemnitz as initial equipment . They were named after places, rivers and mountains in the traffic area. The tenders were delivered by Ringhoffer in Prague. In 1870, four more machines were rebuilt from the freight locomotive, which were given different names after important personalities in the railway industry.

Shortly before the conclusion of the operating contract with the ÖNWB, the SNDVB ordered six quadruple-coupled freight locomotives from the Floridsdorf locomotive factory in Vienna. They were intended for the transport of heavy freight trains on the inclined Schwadowitz – Liebau and Reichenberg – Seidenberg routes. When they were delivered they were designated as row VI in the common numbering scheme with the ÖNWB .

The operations management of the ÖNWB procured special types for the SNDVB only in a few cases. One example is the Xd series locomotives , which differ from the Xa and Xb series locomotives in that they have a larger water supply and a significantly larger service weight. However, they worked so well that they were later built for the ÖNWB. The locomotives of the series IIb and IIc , which were procured in 1883 and 1887 to replace the outdated passenger locomotives of the series IIa, were another of their own designs . In contrast to the ÖNWB, the SNDVB never had express locomotives. Their job was carried out by three passenger locomotives , which were procured as the XVIId series from 1907 .

literature

  • Alfred Horn: The Austrian Northwest Railway (= The Austrian-Hungarian Railway. Volume 1). Bohmann Verlag, Vienna 1967.
  • Peter Wegenstein: The Northwest Railway Line, Verlag Peter Pospischil, Vienna 1995

Web links