Bavarian branch lines

Bavarian branch lines comprised nearly half the total railway network in Bavaria, a state in the southeastern Germany that was a kingdom in the days of the German Empire.

The most important routes were established first, of course, and became the 'main lines', the backbone of the Bavarian railway network which has lasted to the present day.

This was a legal term and envisaged the costs of real estate acquisition and line construction being raised locally, whilst profits would be shared between state and district, in accordance with the statuted dated 29 April 1869.

By the 1880s, the Bavarian main line network was largely completed and attention now turned to its expansion into the hinterland.

This went back to the premise that funding for land purchase and construction would be a local affair, although earthworks would be paid for by the state.

This led to the widespread use of standard buildings and structures; nevertheless branch lines and their stations still retained a lot of individual character based on the region and local material available for construction.

The average time to build was four years and the construction cost worked out at about a fifth that of main lines per kilometre.

Everyday speech saw the introduction of another name in Bavaria for the Vizinal-, Sekundär- and Lokalbahnen: the Nebenbahn, the usual German word for a branch line.

But the aftermath of World War I, the state of the economy and rampant inflation brought a halt to any significant further expansion.

Around half the original branch lines had closed by the mid-seventies and the trend has continued since, albeit at a slower pace.

One side handled the passenger traffic, with a waiting room, ticket office and earth toilet.

In the early days, a standard cubic shape, the so-called Würfel was common, later the design was more variable.

Station names could be painted in large letters or carved into long sandstone ashlar slabs on the walls of the building.

There was a work table and vice, an office with the duty roster, regulations, operating instructions and other reference material as well as clothes lockers and washing facilities for the staff.

Photographs suggest that this system took time to develop and was not fully established until after the Bavarian Ostbahn had been merged into the State Railway in 1877.

continued to capital letters to indicate the overall category of vehicles, but changed the meanings in some cases to make them more 'intuitive'.

So a modern covered goods wagon with over 15 ton maximum load was designated Gm München.

Epoch Ic ended with the merging of the state railways into the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the aftermath of World War I.