Notices of Railways in Germany.

From the London Railway Magazine.

Although the first railroad in Germany intended for the transportation of passengers and goods, that from Budweis to Lintz, had been undertaken already in 1824, it was not until the last five years that this line of internal communication has been somewhat generally introduced in this part of the European continent. But in this short period a great deal has already been accomplished, and after a few years more, Germany will boast of a railway system by which its principal and important cities will be connected. A description of the different railways already completed, or in course of construction, made from authentic data collected on the spot, will perhaps be of some interest to the readers of the Railway Magazine, not only because England is so much interested in those works, for which it furnishes the iron, machinery, &c., and sometimes even the engineers, but also by making the English traveller acquainted with the means of internal communication of which he can avail himself, on his tours through the continent. In the following series of articles on the above subject the different railways are described in the order they have been examined, and no regard is paid as to which has been first executed. The Taunus Railway.—(From Frankfort-on-the-Main to Ment: and the Wiesbaden.)

This railway derives its name from the Taunus Mountains, along which it extends; it connects the commercial city of Frankfort-on-the Main, with the steam navigation on the Rhine, the important city and fortress of Mentz, and the much frequented watering place of Wiesbaden, and passes through the territories of the free city of Frankfort, of Hesse Darmstadt and of Nassau. The Company for the construction of this railway was formed in 1836, and the capital of three millions of florins (or £250,000 sterling) subscribed; owing to the high value of the lands in this section of country, and the circumstance of the railway being located through three different territories, great difficulties were experienced in the procuration of the right of way, which, at the same time, has cost the Company an enormous sum. The construction of the railway was commenced in 1837; in September, 1839, the section between Frankfort and Hochst, of five miles, was opened for public use, and in April, 1840, the whole line from Frankfort to Mentz and Wiesbaden.

The principal object of the Taunus railway is the conveyance of passengers between the above mentioned places, and from its favourable position, it will always command a passenger traffic, and may be classed amongst the important and profitable lines of internal improvement in Germany. Frankfort, with a population of 50,000, is the centre of a considerable intercourse; there are constantly from 10 to 20,000 strangers in the city, coming from, and continuing their journey to, every part of the continent. Mentz contains 36,000 inhabitants, besides a garrison of 20,000 men; and the population of Wiesbaden is 12,000. The river Main, on which Frankfort is situated, and which empties itself into the Rhine at Mentz, is not navigable

for steamboats, owing to the shallowness of its water during summer. At Mentz the steamboats from the upper and lower Rhine meet, and the railway trains run in connexion with them. Still more important and prosperous the Taunus railway must become, when its projected continuation to Heidelberg on the one, and to Hanover and Hamburg on the other side, shall be executed.

The railway traverses a very interesting country. In passing over it, the Taunus Mountains are constantly in sight. It follows the course of the river Main to Cassel (or Castel) opposite Mentz, and then turns off to the right towards Wiesbaden. About midway between the latter two places a short branch leads off from the main line to Biebrick, the beautiful residence of the Duke of Nassau, on the river Rhine. There are many curves in the line of the railway, which, however, are generally very gentle, the smallest radius of curvature is 2,300 feet. The branch to Biebrick is connected with the main line by two short curves of only 328 feet radius. There is a straight line from Frankfort to Hochst, of five miles, and another from Hochst to Florsheim, of seven miles in length. The total length of the railway is as follows, viz:—

There are, in the whole, forty changes in the gradients of the railway, which vary from level to an ascent of 28 feet per mile. The railway descends from Frankfort to Wiesbaden, but undulates to conform with the natural surface of the ground.

The construction of this road resembles that of the English railways, of which it is an imitation. The excavations and embankments were made for a double track, the width of the road bed is twenty-four feet, and is divided as follows:

From centre of road bed to centre of inner rail,
From centre to centre of rail,
From centre of outer rail to edge of slope,

Half width of road bed 12 feet.

The clear width of the track is, as in England, four feet eight and a half inches; the bridges and culverts were all built of stone, with the exception of two over the fortifications at Cassel, which have a wooden superstructure. The longest bridge is that over the Nidda, which has three arches of thirty-three feet span each. The embankments, erected principally from earth taken alongside of the railway, are generally very low, the highest being twenty-nine feet; the deepest cutting is only thirteen feet. At an average, the Company has paid 2d. per cubic yard of earth excavation, and 9s. per cubic yard

of masonry. The wages of a common labourer were, at the time of the construction of the railway, from 10d. to 1s. per day; those of a mason, or carpenter, 1s. 6d.

The superstructure is made in the following manner:-upon the surface of the road bed is a layer of broken stone, or gravel, ten feet wide for each track, upon which are put stone blocks, where the railway is in cutting, or even with the natural surface of the ground, and cross wooden sleepers on embankments. The stone blocks are of red sand stone, brought from Ashaffenburg, in Bavaria, about forty miles from Frankfort, and measure twenty-six inches square by thirteen deep. Their sides parallel to the line of rails, five under each rail, (of 15 feet in length,) but so that those nearest to the joints of the rails are two feet ten inches from centre to centre, and those under the middle of rail, three feet three and a half inches. The wooden sleepers are of oak timber, half round and flattened on the top only, where the chairs rest, eight and a half feet in length, and seven inches high; they were put at the same distance from each other as the stone blocks. The price of a sleeper, delivered to the railway, was 4s. 6d., that of a stone block, 4s. 3d., or nearly the same. The iron rails are of a pattern similar to that on the London and Birmingham railway, weighing fifty-two pounds per yard, rest in chairs fastened upon every block, or sleeper, and are kept fast in the same by wooden filling pieces driven in outside the track. The chairs at the joints of two rails weigh twenty-four pounds, the intermediate ones, twenty pounds. A piece of felt is laid between the stone block and the cast iron chair, to diminish the bad effect occasioned by the roughness of the former. The space between the stone blocks, or sleepers, was filled out with broken stone, or gravel, up to the lower edge of the rail, and to a width of five feet on each side from the centre of the track. The remainder of the space between the gravel bed and the slope was filled up with earth to the same height as the gravel, with a fall of five inches to the slope. At intervals, from fifteen to thirty feet small channels were made in the banquette, and filled with gravel, in order to drain the foundation.

The Company has erected very spacious station buildings at Frankfort, Cassel, and Wiesbaden; shops for the repairing of locomotives, and carriages, are at Frankfort. Intermediate stations, where passengers are taken and left, are at Hochst, Hattersheim, Florsheim, and Hochheim. Water is always taken in at Hattersheim, and serves for two half trips.

There are at present, on the railway, six locomotive engines, from the manufactory of Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne; they have twelve (some thirteen,) inch cylinders, eighteen inch stroke, and six feet driving wheels; 100 passenger carriages of four different classes; the first and second class carriages are closed, and contain each eighteen seats, in three departments; the third and fourth class carriages are open on the sides, and have room for thirty to forty passengers. The carriages were manufactured partly in Hochst, and partly in Frankfort; the price of a second class carriage is £170, that of a third class one, £125.