page_title: Lahn Valley Railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lahn Valley Railway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Main station in Bad Ems, Germany
context_page_description: The Lahn Valley Railway is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse. Its western terminus was originally in Oberlahnstein. Trains now mostly operate between Koblenz and Gießen. The line was opened by the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company and the Nassau State Railway between 1858 and 1863 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
context_section_description: After the Taunus Railway (Taunus-Eisenbahn) from Frankfurt was completed to Wiesbaden in 1840, a private company was founded to continue the line along the Rhine. This was originally called the Wiesbadener Eisenbahngesellschaft (Wiesbaden Railway Company). In 1853 it was renamed the Nassauische Rhein Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (Nassau Rhine Railway Company) when it received a concession to build and operate the Nassau Rhine Valley Railway between Wiesbaden and Niederlahnstein. The Nassau government initially opposed the construction of a line in the Lahn valley because it had invested massively since 1844 in the development of the Lahn as a waterway. In 1855 the company received a provisional concession for the Lahn Valley Railway and it was renamed the (Nassauische Rhein- und Lahn Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company).The permanent concession for the Lahn valley line was issued on 31 March 1857. The first plan for the line was prepared by the Belgian railway engineer, Frans Splingard from 1849 to 1851.
  The first section of the line from Oberlahnstein to Bad Ems was opened on 1 July 1858, but shortly afterwards it was buried by a landslide. Since the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company lacked the will and the necessary capital for the speedy construction of the lines, the Duchy of Nassau in 1857 withdrew its concessions, nationalised the company, and built and operated the lines as the Nassauische Staatsbahn (Nassau State Railway). The Lahn Valley Railway, as it exists today was essentially conceived by the railway engineer, Moritz Hilf in 1860. It was opened in three sections and completed on 10 January 1863. The extension of the line had more than six kilometres of tunnels. The architect and royal railway and operations supervisor, Heinrich Velde was responsible for the buildings, particularly the railway stations, the station master’s houses and the tunnel portals.
caption: Bad Ems station hall
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