Mainz – Kastel route
The Rhine trajectory Mainz – Kastel was a railway ferry that connected the railway systems of the Hessian Ludwig Railway in Mainz and the Taunus Railway , which were unconnected in and near Mainz on both sides of the Rhine .
Starting position
On the right bank of the Rhine, the Taunus Railway reached Kastel as early as 1840, coming from Frankfurt am Main . The line led to Wiesbaden , where from 1857 the Nassau Rhine Railway to Rüdesheim joined, which was continued in 1862 to Niederlahnstein ( right Rhine route ). The construction of a bridge over the Main from the Taunus Railway to the other side of the Main in order to connect there to the Bischofsheim station of the Main-Rhine Railway to Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg was not approved.
On the left bank of the Rhine, the Mainz – Ludwigshafen line went into operation in 1853 , and the Left Rhine line north of Mainz in 1859 . Since initially there was no Rhine bridge for rail traffic that could have connected the railway facilities on both sides of the Rhine, a trajectory was set up between Mainz and Kastel in 1861 .
business
The Taunus Railway procured three paddle steamers ( Taunus Railway 1, 2 and 3 ). The wagons were loaded onto shells that were docked to the side of the steamers . On the Mainz side , because the high quay wall there should not be interrupted for an access ramp , the vehicles were placed on the formwork with a steam crane . Passengers used the trajectory as a ferry , passenger cars were not transferred.
The End
Already in 1863, after the opening of the Mainbahn railway line (Bischofsheim – Frankfurt) and the commissioning of the Mainzer Südbrücke , there was now a railway connection between Frankfurt and Mainz that did not require a train. However, the steamships remained in use as passenger ferries on the traditional route until the first road bridge over the Rhine in Mainz was put into operation in 1885, today's Theodor Heuss Bridge .
literature
- Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: Railway Rhine bridges in Germany . Freiburg 2003. ISBN 3-88255-689-7
- Hans Schlieper: Railway trajectories across the Rhine and Lake Constance . Düsseldorf 2009, pp. 80-85. ISBN 978-3-87094-369-1
- R. Spaniol: Early railway systems in Mainz (then and now) . In: Railways and Museums 24. Karlsruhe 1979.
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 24 ″ N , 8 ° 16 ′ 37 ″ E