Lomé–Aného railway
Lomé–Aného railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Locale | metre gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minimum radius | 300 m | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Lomé–Aného railway was the first railway in the
products were often transport goods.Transport before the construction of the rail line
Planning
The construction of the pier in Lome 1900–1904, should provide the country with a safe landing for ships from overseas. At the same time all customs formalities could be concentrated there. The existing roadstead in Anecho (formerly Klein-Popo) should be closed. To compensate, a railway connection should be built between Lomé and Aného, with which the goods traffic that previously took place in Aného could easily be transferred to Lomé. The alignment was primarily in line with the economic interests of European merchants, but also partially compensated for Anecho's impending loss of importance. The route followed the shortest route along the coast. Another reason for the chosen alignment could have been the influence of the Pflanzungsgesellschaft Kpeme, which operated a plantation in Kpeme and an agricultural farm in Baguida. Like this, it was avoided to traverse the actual main area of origin of the export products northeast of the Lake Togo.[3]
Construction
Implementation
Construction of the railway line began in early March 1904. Construction materials could only be unloaded safely after the completion of the pier. The construction work was entrusted to the
Working conditions
Almost exclusively Africans were used as workers, which – compared with similar work in the neighboring colonies - received low wages. Generally, indigenous workers received a daily wage of 50
Operation
Traffic
The coast railway was opened on 18 July 1905. On the same say, the roadstead in Aného was closed for merchant shipping. Railway operation was initially taken over by Baugesellschaft m.b.H. Lenz & Co. from Berlin. On 1 April 1908, operation was leased to the Deutsche Kolonialeisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft from Berlin for twelve years.
In the palm groves of the coast and the fertile
Despite the railway line being built primarily for goods transport, there was soon a surge of African passengers, which already traveled on work trains. However, a timetable for public passenger transport was only introduced from 15 May 1906. A pair of trains ran every working day and covered the route in one hour and 50 minutes.[8] Until 1914, about 38,000 to 40,000 people per year travelled on the coastal railway between Lomé and its eastern catchment area. The average distance travelled by one person was 33.2 kilometers. The boarding at the rural stops was considerable.[9]
Operational buildings and fleet
Noteworthy operational buildings existed almost only at Lomé station, from which the two other railway lines built later also started, the Lomé–Kpalimé railway and the Lomé–Blitta railway. Warehouses and locomotive sheds located in Lomé are still used today. There were also a turntable, water towers and workshops. The station building in Lomé had two storeys. The stations on the line, like at Porto Seguro (today Agbodrafo), were mostly simple, single-storey waiting rooms.[10]
Initially, two type Bn2T
Development after the First World War
At the beginning of August 1914, the
As a mandate holder, France was reluctant to invest in the railways because the return of the area could not be ruled out.[15] An initially planned parallel line from Tsévié to Tokpli, about 50 kilometers north of Aného, was not realized.[16] The integration into a continuous railway network of French West Africa, the Regié des Chemins de Fer de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (RCFAOF), was also not realized.[17]
After Togo gained its independence in 1960, the railways were promptly and completely switched from steam- to diesel locomotive traction. The German car fleet was continued to operate for a long time. Old, German two- and four-axle cars were still to be found during the 1970s. At that time, four pairs of trains ran daily on the coastal railway, which took just over 80 minutes to travel the 44 kilometers.[18]
Lomé station was rebuilt in 1970. The warehouses and locomotive sheds from the German colonial period remained almost unchanged.[19]
The line to Aného was shut down in 1985.[20] Today, most parts of it have been dismantled.[21]
Still, since 1961, a 22 kilometer long private meter-gauge line is located at Kpeme, handling phosphate-transport for Société Nouvelle des Phosphates du Togo (SNPT) from its mine at Hahotoe north of Lake Togo to a pier on the coast.[22][23]
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ Deutsches Historisches Museum: 1871-1914 - Die deutsche Kolonie Togo.
- ^ Bapio Rosaire Barna: Das Trägerwesen in Togo vor dem Eisenbahnbau, in: Rev. CAMES, Serie B, Nr. 1, 1999, pp. 52–63. (Artikel als pdf)
- ^ Sebald, p. 333.
- ^ Baltzer, p. 62.
- ^ Sebald, p. 338.
- ^ Hans Peter Hahn: Eisenbahnen in Togo - Zwischen kolonialer Ideologie und historischer Wirklichkeit, in: Spektrum, Nr. 1, 2004, pp. 48–52.
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 103.
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 103.
- ^ Sebald.
- ^ Lauber, pp. 122–127.
- ^ Hannes Schneider: Die Eisenbahnen in den ehemaligen deutschen Schutzgebieten in Afrika (PDF; 725 kB). Museum deutsche Eisenbahn - Balingen.
- ^ Sebald, p. 337.
- ^ Rhadern, Ferdinand. "Togos Existenzkampf in Krieg und Frieden" (PDF). traditionsverband.de. Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz- und Überseetruppen - Freunde der früheren deutschen Schutzgebiete e.V.[dead link]
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 109
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 109
- ^ Lauber, p. 24.
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 112f.
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 111ff.
- ^ Lauber, p. 50.
- ^ Lauber, p. 124.
- ^ "Togo". Fahrplancenter.com (in German, French, and English). 2003. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020.
- ^ Schroeter/Ramaer, p. 115.
- ISBN 2-84586-643-7
Literature
- Franz Baltzer: Die Kolonialbahnen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas. Berlin 1916; Reprint: Leipzig 2008, ).
- Franz Baltzer: Togo. In: Freiherr von Röll: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens. Band 9, Berlin/Wien 1921, S. 332–334 (online).
- Kolonialpolitisches Aktionskomitee: Die Eisenbahnen Afrikas – Grundlagen und Gesichtspunkt für eine koloniales Eisenbahnpolitik in Afrika. Verlag von Wilhelm Süsserott, Berlin 1907 (online).
- Wolfgang Lauber (Hrsg.): Deutsche Architektur in Togo 1884–1914/L'Architecture allemande au Togo 1884–1914. Karl Krämer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-7828-4017-8.
- Helmut Schroeter, Roel Ramaer: Die Eisenbahnen in den einst deutschen Schutzgebieten. Damals und heute. Röhr-Verlag, Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3-88490-184-2.
- Peter Sebald: Togo 1884-1914 – Eine Geschichte der deutschen „Musterkolonie“ auf der Grundlage amtlicher Quellen. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-05-000248-4.
External links
- Leo de Haan: Die Kolonialentwicklung des deutschen Schutzgebietes Togo in räumlicher Perspektive (pdf; 1,3 MB). In: Erdkunde. Archive for scientific geography 37. 1983, pp. 127–137. ISSN 0014-0015