User:Dr Gangrene/Guillaume-Luxembourg

The Société royale grand-ducale des chemins de fer Guillaume-Luxembourg (also: Compagnie Guillaume-Luxembourg or simply Guillaume-Luxembourg), or "Royal-Grand Ducal William-Luxembourg Railway Company", was a Luxembourgish S.A. (limited company) with French capital, which was founded on 2 March 1857 in order to take over the concessions over the railway lines, which the Luxembourg state had granted in 1855.

It constructed the railway network that was termed Guillaume-Luxembourg or just de Wëllem. In order to do this, it took over the concessions of Adolphe Favier and Stephane Jouve on 4 January 1857, which they had obtained through an agreement of 9 November 1855, and confirmed by law on 25 November 1855 and on 7 May 1856. However, it did not manage the network itself. Through a contract of 6 Jun3 1857 with the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est, the latter obtained the right to administer the network for 50 years.

The 11 directors and founders of the S.A. were: de Jean-Guigne-Louis-Marie-Alexis Marquis d'Albon, Gaspard-Théodore-Ignace de la Fontaine, Joseph-Antoine-Alfred Prost, Thérèse-Vendelin Jurion, Pierre-André Arjo-Biétrix, Alphonse de Boissieu, Hippolyte-François-Louis Vicomte Jaubert, Numa Guilhou, Jean-Marie Suchel, Augustin-Marie-François de Roquenave d'Harmière Baron de Thuret and the Comte de Vougy. The first chairman of the board of directors was the Marquis d'Albon.

The network of 159 km (later in total 208,73 km) consisted of 4 main lines, which went out from Luxembourg City. This initially included the main lines as provided for in the concessions, namely one line which was to go from the Belgian border at Steinfort, to the German border, with one branch-off at Luxembourg that was to go to the French border between Dudelange and Frisange. In addition there was the line for which Favier alone held the concession, and which was to connect from Luxembourg station to the line towards Arlon and was then to lead via Diekirch to Weiswampach.

These lines were materialised with the four lines as they still exist today: Kleinbettingen-Luxembourg, Luxembourg-Wasserbillig, Luxembourg-Bettembourg and Luxembourg-Troisvierges.

The Compagnie Guillaume-Luxembourg had to take over all obligations as per the contractual requirements of 9 November 1855 and the agreements of 4 and 28 November 1856, as well as having to apply the legal requirements of 25 November 1855. The compay had its headquarters in Luxembourg and an administrative branch in Paris.

The line towards France was opened on 11 August 1859, and that towards Belgium on 15 September of the same year. The ceremonial inauguration was on 4 and 5 October 1859. On this occasion, the groundwork was also laid for the Adolphe Bridge. Due to differences of opinion about the route of the line, there were delays on the Wasserbillig line, which only came into service in 1861 due to this.

In June 1859 the company received the concession for a line into the Red Lands. The line was to go via Bettembourg and lead to Noertzange, where it would branch into two, with one branch leading to Rumelange, the other to Esch.

The company received the definitive concession for the Northern route on 23 December 1860. In 1862, it took up operations as far as Ettelbruck, and by 1867 the line had been built as far as Troisvierges and the Belgian border. To connect to the region of Liège without going via the Chemins de fer du Nord network, the Guillaume Luxembourg company requested a concession in Belgium, which it was granted in June 1862. It therefore could build a line via Gouvy and Trois-Ponts and Stavelot towards Spa, where it connected to the Spa-Pepinster line. The Compagnie Guillaume-Luxembourg rented this from the Société du chemin de fer Pepinster-Spa. It then had, from Pepinster, a direct connection to Liège, and most importantly, to the coal mines of the region.