The Railways of the Rhineland.

Germany has been to the fore in the news of late, and the turn of events has directed particular attention to that portion of the country known as the Rhineland. The railways of the Rhineland form a most efficient transportation machine, with the working of which your correspondent is especially familiar. During the Armistice period following the Great War, it was my good fortune to serve as Railway Traffic Officer at Cologne, and other Rhineland points, and the efficiency of the German railway machine and its workers will ever be an outstanding memory.

The Rhineland is served by two principal railway routes, one on either side of the Rhine, as well as by important east and west routes crossing the river by massive bridges. The main-line between France, Belgium and Germany enters the zone at Herbesthal, and makes its way via Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, as the Germans call it) to Cologne; crossing the Rhine by means of the famous Hohenzollern Bridge, completed immediately prior to the Great War as part and parcel of the work of preparation for that conflict. Cologne Central is one of the principal stations in the area, and it is between this point and Berlin that there is operated that unique fast daily passenger service, the “Flying Cologner.” This Diesel-electric train covers the Berlin-Hannover section of its run at a speed of 82 ½ m.p.h. There are, of course, many long-distance expresses routed via Cologne. Probably the “Nord Express” (Paris-Berlin) is the best known of all these daily travel links.