Toruń 2025-03-08

The Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway. 1862

The Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway is one of the first historical railway lines, which was built in the period 1860-1862, i.e. at the same time as the Warsaw-St. Petersburg Railway. However, the line to Bydgoszcz was built using existing sections of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. The line was opened on December 4, 1862. The line is 143 km long.

The initiator and manager of the line was the Joint Stock Company of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. The line used the Skierniewice – Łowicz branch, which was built in 1845 as the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. From Łowicz through Kutno – Włocławek – Aleksandrów Kujawski – Toruń it reaches Bydgoszcz, where it connects with the Germanic Ostbahn (Prussian Eastern Railway). In reality, it was the second railway line that allowed the Muscovite and Germanic brothers to connect with each other, i.e. Petersburg – Warsaw – Bydgoszcz – Berlin. It was the first connection of the Kingdom of Poland with Pomerania. The line was built in a standard gauge.

The construction of such a connection was sought as early as 1840. In 1849, serious talks between the brothers took place. On one side was the Prussian minister von der Heydt, on the other side was the bandit governor of the Kingdom of Poland Ivan Paskevich. The talks were about the connection Petersburg – Gdańsk – Szczecin – Berlin. Behind the talks were merchants from Gdańsk, who were interested in trading grain, which came from the Kingdom of Poland.

It was a time when the Germans had already built hundreds of kilometers of railway line. For example: The Bydgoszcz – Gdańsk section, 156 km long, was put into service in 1852. In 1853, the Malbork – Elbląg – Królewiec section, 134 km long, was put into service. So the Muscovites were far behind. It was already impossible not to see the benefits of the functioning of the railway. In the Muscovite state, after many efforts and arguments of a military nature, in 1842 a short section of the railway was built from Petersburg towards Moscow. It was a demonstration of the possibilities of the railway, not a utility railway.

In March 1852, the Eastern Railway Directorate in Bydgoszcz developed a preliminary design and cost estimate for the construction of a section of the line in Prussian Pomerania. As one might imagine, the tsarist policy, which kept its subjects in darkness and poverty, stood in the way. The tsarist treasury had difficulty finding funds for the construction of the Warsaw-Petersburg Railway, which was built in 1862.

It was not until 1855 that the Prussian government came up with a project to build a Bydgoszcz-Warsaw line. On 15 December 1856, after long negotiations, a government agreement was concluded to build the Bydgoszcz-Łowicz line. According to the agreement, the parties undertook to issue permits, conduct rail traffic, and possibly provide financial support for the construction. The town of Młyn near Otłoczyn was designated as the border point. It was agreed that the sections on both sides of the border would be opened at the same time.

Work on the Prussian section.

The Prussian parliament ratified the agreement on 19 February 1857. On 2 July 1959, an act was issued on the construction of this railway on the Bydgoszcz-Toruń-Młyn section. On 10 April 1860, earthworks were started on the entire route from Bydgoszcz to the town of Młyn near Otłoczyn. In Toruń, the city authorities tried to build a station within the city, i.e. on the right bank of the Vistula. Such a route would require the construction of two bridges over the Vistula. There were not enough funds for such investments. As a result, the station was placed in Podgórze on the left bank of the Vistula, in a fortified area.

During this investment, the station in Bydgoszcz, which was built in 1851, at the time of the opening of the Krzyż Wielkopolski – Piła – Bydgoszcz line, was expanded. The track layout of the Bydgoszcz station was expanded.

On October 24, 1861, rail traffic was opened on the Bydgoszcz – Toruń section, 49.70 km long. At the same time, the Portowy Bridge in Bydgoszcz was opened on the Brda River. The section of the Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway from Toruń to Otłoczyn, 14.9 km long and the border, was opened on December 5, 1862.

The Port Bridge in Bydgoszcz on the Brda River.

This bridge was launched on October 24, 1861. However, in the 1870s, the bridge was rebuilt and moved eastward by about 100 m. This was during the construction of the timber port. A causeway (peninsula) was built at that time, which was used to route the railway line. The bridge was originally made as an iron truss bridge, 54.14 m long. The bridge consisted of two spans, each 27 m long. There was one pillar mounted on a caisson in the riverbed and two abutments. The pillar and abutments were made of brick, while leaving room for a second track. The second track was put into operation in 1910. In 1920, the Wood Port received a new name – the Regatta Track.

The war operations of the Great World War completely bypassed Bydgoszcz and Toruń. In 1945, the bridge was partially destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1949. At that time, the bridge received its current steel truss spans. They are supported by a renovated pillar and two abutments. The individual spans are not symmetrical, so that they are adapted to the pillar and abutments. In 1984, the railway line on the bridge was electrified. The peninsula was modernized in 1999, during the modernization of the Bydgoszcz Water Junction.

The current bridge is 52.20 m long. The bridge has two railway tracks and four steel truss spans with a roadway placed at the bottom. The distance of the bridge from the water surface is 3.80 m.

Work on the Muscovite section.

In the Kingdom of Poland, the chief engineer of the railway construction was Stanisław Wysocki (1805-1868). From 1839, he was employed as a manager in the construction of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. From 1844, he was a member of the board and head of the technical department. In the period 1857-1865, he served as the chief railway inspector in the Kingdom of Poland. He was a fervent supporter of the construction of railways.

Construction on the side of the Kingdom of Poland progressed much slower. For the construction of the line, the Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway Company was established, which was closely linked to the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Joint-Stock Company. Due to the lack of funds, Belgian loans were used. Rolling stock in the form of 18 locomotives and 50 wagons was brought from abroad.

Negotiations on the route of the route lasted a long time. Initially, a route was established from Łowicz along the Przysowa River to Gostynin. Then through dense forests, along lakes, to Włocławek. But the Society filed a motion to move the line west, through Kutno, Lubień Kujawski to Włocławek. These were better inhabited and more urbanized areas, without dense forests. It was easier to recruit workers. The Włocławek – Aleksandrów Kujawski section was brought closer to the Vistula River. Consent was given to build a siding from Aleksandrów Kujawski to Ciechocinek. It was not agreed to run the line through Nieszawa, where there was a large river port on the Vistula. The border between the brothers ran along the Tążyna River, which is a left tributary of the Vistula. On July 23, 1859, consent was obtained to change the route. On 18 September 1860, the Society entrusted the construction of a 138 km line from Łowicz to Aleksandrów Kujawski to the Belgian company of the Riche brothers. 4,000 workers were employed for earthworks. On 1 December 1861, the Łowicz – Kutno section was put into operation. On 4 December 1862, the Kutno – border section was opened. All works were completed on 17 December 1863, and the line was officially opened for use on 24 December 1863. On 1 July 1867, the Aleksandrów Kujawski – Ciechocinek branch line was opened.

The line had a single track, with a normal gauge of 1435 mm. 106 bridges and culverts were built on the line. The iron bridge structures came from August Borsig’s plants in Berlin, which were founded in 1837. The rails, on the other hand, came from the Bankowa Steelworks in the Dąbrowa Basin. The assembly of the entire structure was carried out by specialists from the Warsaw-Vienna Railway. 

The border station was initially called Trojanów, after the landowner Trojanowski. In 1860, a station was built here according to the design of the architect Stanisław Trembiński. The station housed a customs chamber, restaurants for passengers of all classes, ticket and luggage offices, railway and customs service rooms, and apartments for a scout and a restaurateur. The station had warehouses, a toilet building, storage yards, a scale, and more. Due to the planned meeting of Tsar Alexander II Romanov and Emperor Wilhelm I Hohenzollern, a western wing was added to the station. The expansion was carried out according to the design of the architect Czesław Domaniewski. The brothers met on September 4, 1879. At that time, the settlement of Trojanów was renamed Aleksandrów Pograniczny, while on February 4, 1919, when the town obtained city rights, the name was changed to Aleksandrów Kujawski. It was the railway that caused the development of the town. There were 7 stations on the line, in the Kingdom of Poland. However, the station equipment was poor, there were no warehouses, good access roads, and high transport fees. Therefore, the Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway had little influence on the development of the surrounding area. In 1889, the line had 36 steam locomotives, 65 passenger cars and 574 freight cars, and the transport amounted to 374,000 people and about 430,000 tons of goods. In 1911, 1.7 million tons of goods were transported. On January 14, 1912, the Warsaw-Vienna Railway was nationalized. It is worth mentioning that in 1860, the Preußische Ostbahn reached the town of Eydtkuhnen (now Chernyshevskoye in the Kaliningrad region). The line ran from Kaliningrad and Olsztyn, connecting in Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk in the Kaliningrad region) and reaching Eydtkuhnen station. Eydtkuhnen station and Wirballen station on the Muscovite side were border stations. The line on the St. Petersburg side had a gauge of 1524 mm, and on the Prussian side it had a standard gauge of 1435 mm. Therefore, passengers had to change trains, and goods had to be reloaded. This was the first direct connection between the brothers. The Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway was the second connection, not counting the connection via: Granica (Maczki) – Jaworzno (Austrian partition) – Mysłowice (in Prussia) stations. In 1877, another connection was created via the Vistula Railway.Kolej Warszawsko-Bydgoska nie odegrała ważnej roli dla Gdańska i jego portu. Towary wysyłane za morza ekspediowano do portu w Szczecinie oraz Kołobrzegu. Dużą rolę odgrywał także Królewiec ze swoim portem i linia kolejowa do Petersburga. 

The differences between the Prussian and Moscow railways were significant. As early as 1850, regulations for the transport of goods were jointly developed. This concerned road, water (river), sea and rail transport. For passenger transport, appropriate regulations did not appear until 1865. However, it turned out that there were major problems in coordinating rail transport at border stations. When the Germans sent another train, the Muscovites had not yet unloaded the previous train. Therefore, on April 1, 1875, the German-Muscovite Union was established to coordinate transport between the two countries. The coordination was entrusted to the Preußische Ostbahn, which had much greater experience, and its management was located in Bydgoszcz. Timetables were established in Bydgoszcz, accounting, forwarding and transport was settled.

In 1918, the Republic of Poland regained independence. The entire Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway found itself in Poland. The importance of the line increased significantly. The lines were mainly used for transporting hard coal from the Dąbrowa Basin to the port in Gdynia. It was long, but essential until 1933, when the coal main line was completed. Investments were made in the Łódź junction, and the Zgierz-Kutno line was also built, which improved the situation. The construction of another line; Kalety – Herby Nowe – Wieluń – Podzamcze (Wieruszów) – Kępno, improved the situation even more. This line was launched in 1926. In the following years, subsequent sections of the railway routes were rebuilt into double-track. Since 1937, almost all coal transport was directed along the coal main line; Herby Nowe – Gdynia.

Currently, the former line of the Warsaw-Bydgoszcz Railway is part of Railway Line No. 18; Kutno – Włocławek – Toruń – Bydgoszcz – Piła. The entire line is electrified with 3 kV DC. The line plays an important role in the transport of goods and passengers. The line connects Warsaw with two important cities; Toruń and Bydgoszcz. In Kutno, the line connects with LK No. 3, which leads to Warsaw, and also with LK No. 16 towards Łódź. In Bydgoszcz, on the other hand, there is a connection to the north, with LK No. 131 (coal trunk line).

Written by Karol Placha Hetman