Badische Hauptbahn
On 12 September 1840 the original terminal station was opened in Heidelberg at the end of the first section of the Baden Mainline from Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. It was decided to build the station as a terminal station so that it could be as close as possible to the city. The station was between today's Poststraße and Bahnhofstraße and the station forecourt fronted the Rohrbacherstraße. The station, which was designed by the architect Friedrich Eisenlohr, consisted of several simply designed buildings in a neoclassical style with romantic and ornamental elements. The main building was built on the side towards the city from red Neckar sandstone and it was covered with a contrasting slate roof. The two-span wooden train shed covered four platform tracks and it was comparatively large for the period at 75 metres long and 28 metres wide. The exit of the station platform was flanked by two gate towers, used as water towers. Within the station there were six sets of points and 15 turntables on which light carriages could be rotated manually. According to the first timetable, four trains ran daily to Mannheim, requiring a running time of 35 to 40 minutes.