Nassau State Railway

The Nassau State Railway (German: Nassauische Staatsbahn) took over the privately built railway lines on the Rhine and Lahn rivers in the Duchy of Nassau from the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company in 1861 and extended them further. It was taken over by the Prussian State Railways in 1866.

After the Taunus Railway (Taunus-Eisenbahn) from Frankfurt reached Wiesbaden in 1840, a private company was founded to continue the line along the Rhine. This was originally called the Wiesbaden Railway Company (Wiesbadener Eisenbahngesellschaft); from 1853 it was called the Nassau Rhine Railway Company (Nassauische Rhein Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft); and after 1855 it was called the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company (Nassauische Rhein- und Lahn Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). The company was given a concession on 23 June 1853 by the Duchy of Nassau for the construction of the Nassau Rhine Valley Railway from Wiesbaden to Rüdesheim and Oberlahnstein. On 31 March 1857, this was followed by the concession for the Lahn Valley Railway from Oberlahnstein to Wetzlar.

Only parts of the 188 kilometres of lines covered by the concession were completed due to insufficient funding. Therefore, on 14 October 1858, the Duchy of Nassau withdrew the company’s concession and took over operations on the lines. The state formally took over the concession on 2 May 1861 on these lines:

On 20 November 1861, the company was reconstituted as the Nassau State Railway.

The Nassau State Railway completed the 56.6 km long gap in the Rhine Valley line between Rüdesheim and Oberlahnstein on 22 February 1862. The remaining 78 km of the Lahn Valley Railway to Wetzlar was completed in three sections on 10 January 1863. This work was directed by the railway surveyor and engineer, Moritz Hilf.

In Wiesbaden the Nassau state railway connected with the Taunus Railway from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden, opened in 1839 and 1840. At the end of the Lahn Valley line in Wetzlar, it connected with the Deutz-Giessen line completed in 1862 by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn).

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