Royal Westphalian Railway Company

The Royal Westphalian Railway (German: Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn, KWE), was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways. The network eventually extended about 315 km from Rheine via Hamm to Warburg and from Welver (near Hamm) to Oberhausen.

The Royal Westphalian Railway was initially established only to fill the 32 km-long gap between Hamm and Lippstadt, connecting the Münster–Hamm line of the Munster–Hamm Railway Company (Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) opened in 1848 with the line being constructed at the same time by the Cologne-Minden-Thuringian Connection Railway Company (Köln-Minden-Thüringischen-Verbindungs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, KMTVEG). The latter company, however, went bankrupt in 1848 and further construction and the line's later operations were taken over by the Prussian government.

The cause of the bankruptcy of the KMTVEG was the difficulty of building a 600-metre-long tunnel at Willebadessen under the main ridge of the Eggegebirge range. The tunnel, which was never completed, was designed to avoid bridging the valley at Altenbeken. The remains of the site are still visible after more than 150 years; these ruins are known as the Old Railway (Alte Eisenbahn).

The main line of the Royal Westphalian Railway ran from Hamm via Soest, Lippstadt, Paderborn and Altenbeken to Warburg. It was opened on 4 October 1850 to Paderborn and on 21 June 1853 to Warburg. The line was first railway in western Germany to cross mountainous country. The Altenbeken Viaduct was a significant achievement of the early German railways.

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