Libau–Romny Railway was a railway company that built a railway line in the Russian Empire in 1871–74 to connect Romny in Ukraine with the port in Libau ( Liepāja ) in present-day Latvia . To do so it passed through Minsk The objective of the railway was to deliver Ukrainian exports, particularly grain, to the Baltic Sea where it could be further shipped.
10-582: In 1856 a concession to build the railway was granted to the main Russian railway company (Главное общество российских железных дорог), but it failed to gather the required authorised capital. Afterwards the concession was granted to the Libau-Romny railway company which was founded by businessmen who were interested in exporting Ukrainian grain. The company was headed by engineer baron Karl Otto Georg von Meck . Design works started in 1869. On 15 December 1971
20-562: A significant role in the development of Russian railways and worked on the People's Commissariat of Railroads until he was arrested for wrecking in 1928. He was convicted and executed in 1929. Moscow-Ryazan Railway Association The Moscow-Kazan railway was opened in 1893. In 1890 the Moscow-Kazan Railway Association was established after negotiations with the government. In 1891 Nikolai von Meck ,
30-668: The Second World War the line fell into German hands between 22 June and late September 1941. The Gomel-Bakhmach-Romny portion was recovered by Soviet forces in September–December 1943; the remainder was recovered from German hands in June–August 1944 and January–May 1945. Today the railway is located in four countries, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Operation of the portion between the Baltic Sea and Mažeikiai
40-759: The German axes of advance in both world wars. In the First World War the portion west of Smorgon (now Smarhon' ) fell into German hands in the great Austro-German advance of May–September 1915, the rest following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. It remained in German hands until the Armistice of 11 November 1918 , and upon German evacuation was nationalized as part of the Western Railways . In
50-822: The company had been exhausted and the entire operation quickly went bankrupt. Karl von Meck persevered and in 1863 found work with the new Moscow-Ryazan Railway Association . The Chairman of the Board appointed von Meck as the main contractor and the road was built over a year and a half, and made an enormous profit. Karl von Meck participated in several other railway ventures but none with such financial success. However his diligence, tenacity and effort were widely recognised and acknowledged. Karl von Meck died on 26 January 1876, in Moscow. After his death his widow, Nadezhda von Meck , provided invaluable assistance to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky . Karl von Meck's son, Nikolai von Meck , played
60-537: The military defeat in Crimea many people became aware of the importance of rail transportation. Von Meck entered the Saratov Railway Association with the aim of constructing a private rail line between Moscow and Saratov with independent finance. The first phase of construction was the line between Moscow and Kolomna. This site was put into operation, after only two years work, as the funds of
70-962: The railway to the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway . The station in Mažeikiai connected Libau–Romny line to the Riga–Jelgava Railway ; the station in Minsk connected the line to the Moscow–Brest Railway ; the station in Bakhmach connected the line to Kiev–Voronezh Railway ; the station in Romny connected the line to the Kharkiv–Mykolaiv Railway . Railway stations were built every 22 versts without regard to geographic or other conditions. The railway lay at right angles to
80-602: The state finished and approved the design, the new railway line was supposed to cross the Courland, Kaunas, Vilnius, Minsk, Mogilev and Chernihiv governorates. The railway was built in sections: After Meck's death in 1876 his second son, Vladimir von Meck , was chairman of the Libau–Romny Railway until 1881 A branch from Radviliškis to Daugavpils (completed in 1873) and station in Naujoji Vilnia connected
90-534: Was Wilhelmine Hafferberg, a daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm and Catharine Constanze Nott, who in her second marriage was the wife of Carl Ludwig von Veichtner, a son of composer Franz Adam Veichtner . In 1844 Karl von Meck graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Communications and joined the Moscow - Warsaw road upgrade project as a service road engineer. In 1860 von Meck left public service and entered business. After
100-548: Was discontinued in 1990. Karl Otto Georg von Meck Karl Otto Georg von Meck ( Russian : Карл Фёдорович фон Мекк, 22 June 1821 – 26 January 1876) was a Baltic German businessman who was one of the founders of the Russian Empire railways. Baron Karl von Meck came from an old Baltic-German noble family originally from Silesia . His father was major Otto Adam von Meck, a customs officer in Riga . His mother
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