Carl Railway

Carl's Railway

Overview

Native name

Carlsbahn

Locale

Hesse

Termini

Bad Karlshafen (right bank)
Hofgeismar-Hümme

Operation

Opened

1848

Closed

1986

Technical

Line length

16.5 km (10.3 mi)

Track gauge

1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge

Route number

ex 198d

Route map

Operating points and lines

Bad Karlshafen (right bank)Solling Railway

Weser

16.44

Karlshafen left bank(until 1966)

16.30

from Weser port (until 1966)

13.70

Helmarshausen(until 1966)

9.55

to manor (1902-1966)

9.50

Wülmersen (manor)(1899-1966)

9.00

Holzape viaduct (50 m)

7.60

Deisel tunnel (202 m)

4.42

from quarry

4.38

Trendelburg

4.10

2.80

Stammen(1895-1966)

1.45

Frederick William Northern Railway from Warburg

0.00

Hofgeismar-Hümme

Frederick William Northern Railway to Kassel

Carl's Railway (German: Carlsbahn) is a disused railway line along the Diemel river between Hümme and Bad Karlshafen, which was opened on 30 March 1848 and finally closed on 27 September 1986. It was built as part of the northern section of the Frederick William Northern Railway; the rest of the northern section is now part of the Kassel–Warburg line.

The 16.5 km-long single-track line was the only line in the Electorate of Hesse (Kurhessen) connecting to a port on the Weser. At that time the Fulda river had not yet been channelised and river boats could not reach Kassel. The Carl's Railway together with the Grebenstein–Hümme section of the Northern Railway was the first railway in Kurhessen and it was one of the oldest railways in Germany.

On 6 August 1846 the body responsible for building the line was named the Elector Frederick William Northern Railway Corporation (Kurfürst-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn Aktiengesellschaft). The line was named Carlsbahn after Bad Karlshafen, which was called Carlshafen until 1935. Its name means "Charles' Port" and it was named after Charles I (Hesse’s ruler from 1670 to 1730) on its foundations by French Huguenots in 1699.

The states of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prussia and Kurhessen began negotiations in 1840 on the establishment of an east-west rail link between Westphalia and Halle. The main line would run between Kassel and Bebra through Kurhessen from Gerstungen in the east to Haueda, 14 kilometres west of Hümme on the border with Westphalia. Negotiations were completed in the autumn of 1841 and in 1844 the Elector Frederick William Northern Railway Corporation received the concession to construct the line. The concession stipulated that the company build a horse-hauled branch line from Kassel to Carlshafen. At that time river transport on the Weser was a major means of transport. In 1846 it was decided, however, that operations on the branch line would use steam locomotives, instead of horse-haulage.

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Wikipedia