The Palatine Railways (german: Pfälzische Eisenbahnen), often abbreviated to Palatinate Railway (''Pfalzbahn'') was the name of the railway division and administration responsible for all private railway companies in the

Bavarian Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...

from 1844 to 1908. The railway division was first located in the provincial capital of Speyer and later relocated to

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...

. The company was inaugurated with the construction of the

Palatine Ludwig Railway A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

(''Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn'') by the eponymous railway company. On the completion of the Palatine Maximilian Railway (''Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn'') the operational headquarters and management of the

Palatine Maximilian Railway Company The Palatine Maximilian Railway Company (''Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft'') was a German railway enterprise that acted as the railway operator when the Palatine Maximilian Railway was built. It managed and ran operations jointly from t ...

was also incorporated. In 1862, it was joined by the Neustadt - Dürkheim Railway Company (''Neustadt-Dürkheimer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''). The same happened to the Palatine Northern Railway Company (''Gesellschaft der Pfälzischen Nordbahnen'') in 1870. In 1869 all the general shareholders' assemblies approved a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

of the administration, whereby the individual companies remained legally independent and separate books were kept. The shares in the Neustadt-Dürkheim company were taken over by the Northern Railway company on 1 January 1870. At the same time, the three remaining companies received new concessions and a uniform interest rate guarantee. From 1905 the

Bavarian State Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

asserted its right of first refusal. On 1 January 1909, what was then largest private railway company in Germany was renamed as the "Royal Bavarian Railway Division of Ludwigshafen"Mühl (1982), p. 36. and incorporated into the

Bavarian State Railways The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...

. With the end of the monarchy the title "Royal" was dropped. In accordance with the Armistice agreements, the division was taken over by a French

field railway A , or , is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry () and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth an ...

unit on 4 December 1918.

References

Literature

* Mühl, Albert (1982). ''Die Pfalzbahn: Geschichte, Betrieb und Fahrzeuge der pfälzischen Eisenbahnen.'' Theiss. 252 pp.

References

Literature

See also