Ruhrort–Homberg train ferry

While the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) was building its trunk line between Cologne and Minden via Duisburg between 1843 and 1847, the shareholders of the Ruhrort-Crefeld District Gladbach Railway Company (Ruhrort–Crefeld−Kreis Gladbach Eisenbahngesellschaft, RCG) were looking for a way to bring coal from the Ruhr to industries on the western bank of the Rhine cheaply.

On 29 March 1847 the RCG entered into a contract with the CME to connect the lines of both companies and for the transport of passenger carriages and freight wagons across the Rhine.

Lack of experience in Germany with train ferries led the RCG to begin the movement of wagons with a simple system of ramps, but using imported facilities that had not been tested in advance.

On both sides wagons were lowered, initially using chains and later ropes, from the top of the river banks down a slope of 1 in 12 to the edge of pontoon docks—these railway basins still exist.

Despite the problems caused by ice and floods and in spite of many breaks of chains and ropes, the ferry initially moved up to 700 carriages and wagons each month.

To increase throughput the railway company decided to build on both banks in addition to the ramps a tower with a hydraulically actuated lift.

After the opening of the new coal line by the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) from Osterath near Krefeld via Rheinhausen to Essen, including the Rheinhausen–Hochfeld train ferry, on 23 August 1866 and especially after the opening of the Duisburg–Hochfeld rail bridge in 1874, the BME’s train ferry lost traffic until the nationalisation of the private railway companies in 1881.