Hessian Ludwig Railway

Because the state was not active in this area, there was an opportunity for private involvement in the shape of a joint stock company (Aktiengesellschaft).

In addition, the pioneer of the German railways, Friedrich List, personally championed the building of a line from Mainz to Worms.

The grand ducal government in Darmstadt however, initially remained opposed, especially as it had passed a law in 1842 for a state railway system.

Whilst the city of Worms would have preferred a station in the vicinity of the port, the HLB, after a degree of toing and froing, built it further west where it is today.

Initially the Rhine river was crossed by a train ferry east of the railway station Mainz Neuthor (today: Mainz Römisches Theater station) until a newly designed Rhine bridge was constructed by MAN-Werk Gustavsburg and given to traffic on 1 of December 1862.

Over the succeeding decades the following lines were added to the network and the HLB became the major provider of rail services within the two southern provinces of the grand-duchy (Rheinhessen and Starkenburg) as well as one of the largest privately owned railways of Germany.

The Hessian Ludwig Railway began operations with 6 steam locomotives from the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen; these sported (as was then common) illustrious names: Schenk (after Freiherr von Schenk, director of the Hessian Finance Ministry), Dalwigk (after Freiherr von Dalwigk, then Hesse's Ministerialdirektor and ex Territorialkommissär for Mainz - this engine hauled the first train on the Mainz - Oppenheim line), Gutenberg (after Johannes Gensfleisch called Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press), Arnold Walpoden (after Arnold Walpoden, the initiator of the Rheinische Bund in 1254) as well as Mainz and Worms.