page_title: Black Forest Railway (Baden)
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Black Forest Railway (Baden) / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die beiden Doppelschleifen der Schwarzwaldbahn bei Triberg
context_page_description: The Baden Black Forest Railway is a twin-track, electrified railway line in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, running in a NW-SE direction to link Offenburg on the Rhine Valley Railway with Singen on the High Rhine Railway. Passing directly across the Black Forest, through spectacular scenery, the route is 150 km long, ascends 650 metres from lowest to highest elevation, and passes through 39 tunnels and over 2 viaducts. It is still the only true mountain railway in Germany to be built with two tracks, and is the most important railway line in the Black Forest. It was built between 1863 and 1873, utilizing plans drawn up by Robert Gerwig.
  This line should not be confused with the Württemberg Black Forest Railway, which runs between Stuttgart and Calw in Germany.
context_section_description: Since the central section of the line required an extended planning phase, the Baden State Railway made the decision to initially start construction on the first section, from Offenburg to Hausach, and the last section, from Engen to Singen. The work between Offenburg to Hausach turned out to be relatively uncomplicated, since the engineers were able to utilize the Kinzig valley. The only exception was the necessity to create a new river bed for the Kinzig near Gengenbach.
  Between Engen and Donaueschingen construction met with considerably more difficult conditions. To deal with the watershed between the Rhine and Danube rivers, the Hattinger tunnel had to be dug through the local limestone. In addition, a 240-metre section of the Danube had to be rerouted between the communities of Pfohren and Neudingen.
  Two options were examined to achieve the exit of the Danube valley in the direction of Hegau. One option was to leave the valley near Geisingen, the other choice was to exit near Immendingen. Gerwig chose the latter option, as it turned out to allow for less complex track construction. He chose to artificially lengthen the route with two double slings in the Gutach valley near Triberg. Due to the many tunnels on a curved alignment, the section between Hornberg and Sankt Georgen ended up being the most complicated section of the route, and was completed last.
  In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War markedly delayed construction, since the German construction crews were drafted for military service, and the Italian crews were let go.  Work did not resume until 1871.
caption: Map of the most challenging section
exif: {}