The Duchy of Nassau was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what is now the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine and later of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct, was the House of Nassau. The duchy was named for its historical core city, Nassau, although Wiesbaden rather than Nassau was its capital. In 1865, the Duchy of Nassau had 465,636 inhabitants. After being occupied and annexed into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War, it was incorporated into the Province of Hesse-Nassau. The area today is a geographical and historical region, Nassau, and Nassau is also the name of the Nassau Nature Park within the borders of the former duchy.
Major-General August von Kruse, was a general in the army of the Duke of Nassau during the Napoleonic Wars and an experimental farmer in his retirement.
The Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry was a German train ferry operated by the Rhenish Railway Company from 1870 to connect its right and left Rhine railways. It was the last of six train ferries to begin operations across the Rhine in Germany and the second to last to close.
The term Kleinbahn was a light railway concept used especially in Prussia for a railway line that "on account of its low importance for general railway transport" had less strict requirements placed on its construction and operation that main lines or secondary lines. Even public railway lines built for constructional or industrial purposes were counted as Kleinbahnen.
The Deutscher Eisenbahn-Verein or DEV was founded in November 1964 as the Deutscher Kleinbahn-Verein. Its purpose was the preservation of a working branch line with all its installations as a living open-air museum. The term Kleinbahn was primarily a Prussian concept that referred to light branch lines with lower traffic demands and of more lightweight construction than main lines or normal branch lines, hence the Kleinbahnen were mainly found in northern Germany.
The Märkische Museum Railway or MME is a German railway society that was founded in order to show narrow gauge vehicles in operation on small branch lines.
The Ländchen was a region east of Wiesbaden, Germany that comprised ten villages: Breckenheim, Delkenheim, Diedenbergen, Igstadt, Langenhain, Massenheim, Medenbach, Nordenstadt, Wallau, and Wildsachsen, plus Domäne Mechtildshausen.
The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG (OHE) is a Celle based transportation company with railway network in North-eastern Lower Saxony around the Lüneburg Heath area of over 250 km.
The Lüneburg–Soltau Light Railway Company was founded on 15 February 1911 by the Prussian state, the Province of Hanover and the districts of Lüneburg and Soltau in North Germany. It opened its only line, a Kleinbahn from Lüneburg to Soltau, on 13 June 1913. This 57 km long, standard gauge 'hill railway' (Gebirgsbahn) ran from Lüneburg through the middle of the Lüneburg Heath via Amelinghausen-Sottorf and Hützel. Here it was joined by the Kleinbahn Winsen–Evendorf–Hützel (Luhebahn). Finally, it reached the railway hub of Soltau.
The Soltau–Neuenkirchen Light Railway Company opened the Soltau–Neuenkirchen railway in North Germany on 15 May 1920.
The Celle–Wittingen Light Railway was founded on 21 June 1902 by the Prussian state, the town of Celle and 33 municipalities. On 15 August 1904 it opened the 51 km long, standard gauge line from Celle Stadt (Nord) via Beedenbostel and Hankensbüttel to Wittingen West. This line was also called the Lachte Valley Railway (Lachtetalbahn) because part of it ran along the river Lachte. The journey time on the Celle–Wittingen line in 1906 was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. In 1908 the station at Wittingen West was moved to the east side of the state station in order to enable a common station to be created with the Kleinbahn Wittingen-Oebisfelde, opened in 1909, and the Kleinbahn Bismark-Gardelegen-Wittingen, later the Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG. The new route made the construction of embankments and a bridge over the state railway necessary.
The Wittingen-Oebisfelde Light Railway was a railway company in Germany that operated passenger and goods trains on the 43 kilometre long Wittingen–Oebisfelde railway.
The Nassau State Railway 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.
The Lahntal railway or Lahn Valley Railway is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse, partly following the Lahn valley (Lahntal). 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.
The Aar Valley Railway is a 53.7 km long line between Wiesbaden, the capital of the German state of Hesse, and Diez in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 1985 to 2009, the southern end was operated as a heritage railway with historic trains. The Hessian part of the line is heritage-listed. Currently, two bridges are unusable and several sets of points are defective and need to be repaired. Its northern end is operated with draisines.
The Busenbach–Ittersbach railway is a line in the northern Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The mostly single-track and continuously electrified line branches in Waldbronn-Busenbach from the Alb Valley Railway —with which it is closely linked operationally and historically—and runs as a branch line to Ittersbach. The Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft is responsible for the railway infrastructure and is the only company operating on the 14.4 kilometre-long line. Originally the Busenbach–Ittersbach railway was operated together with the Ittersbach to Pforzheim line, which later became the Pforzheim Light Railway. The whole line from Busenbach to Pforzheim was initially built to 1,000 mmmetre gauge, later the section from Busenbach to Ittersbach was rebuilt to 1,435 mmstandard gauge and the Pforzheim Light Railway was closed. The line has been operated as part of line S 11 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn since 1994.
Eltville station is the railway station of Eltville in the Rheingau in the German state of Hesse, on the East Rhine Railway from Wiesbaden to Koblenz. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.
A number of narrow-gauge lines survive, largely as a consequence of German reunification, in the former East Germany where some of them form part of the public transport system as active commercial carriers. Most extensive of those still employing steam traction is the Harz mountain group of metre-gauge lines, the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen. Other notable lines are the Zittau–Oybin–Jonsdorf line in Saxony, the Mollibahn and the Rügensche Kleinbahn on the Isle of Rügen on the Baltic coast and the Radebeul-Radeburg line, Weisseritztalbahn in the suburbs of Dresden. Although most rely on the tourist trade, in some areas they provide significant employment as steam traction is particularly labour-intensive.
The Dampf-Kleinbahn Mühlenstroth (DKBM) is a voluntarily run 600mm narrow gauge steam railway in Gütersloh, Germany. The railway was opened in 1973 to be able to present the corresponding associations collection of vintage narrow gauge railway vehicles to the public. It consists of approximately 1.5 km of track that is set up to allow different types of operations.
