Lomé–Aného railway

Construction of the railway line began in early March 1904. Construction materials could only be unloaded safely after the completion of the pier. The construction work was entrusted to the Vereinigte Maschinenfabrik Augsburg und der Maschinenbaugesellschaft Nürnberg (MAN), Gustavsburg branch. Technically, the construction was rather modest; groundwork and engineering structures were barely necessary. 1.12 million Mark were approved for the construction. The cost was around 23.000 Mark per kilometer of rail.[4] Thus, the amount granted was nearly sufficient. The initially planned track gauge of 750 mm was changed to meter gauge shortly before the start of construction work.

Almost exclusively Africans were used as workers, which – compared with similar work in the neighboring colonies - received low wages. Generally, indigenous workers received a daily wage of 50 Pfennig for the railway construction, with an additional 25 Pfennig as subsistence allowance. In the neighboring Gold Coast colony, daily wages of the equivalent of two Mark were common. Many workers were only active in the railway construction until they had earned their annual tax sum of six Mark. Therefore, the colonial leadership increasingly resorted to the means of forced labor to ensure sufficient workers for the railway construction. "Pflichtarbeiter" (compulsory workers) received the same wages as voluntary workers, but were forcefully conscripted for half a year.[5] Illnesses and deaths were particularly high among the compulsory labor force. Reasons were the unusual climate, food and workload for compulsory workers from other parts of the country.[6]

The coast railway was opened on 18 July 1905. On the same say, the roadstead in Aného was closed for merchant shipping. Railway operation was initially taken over by Baugesellschaft m.b.H. Lenz & Co. from Berlin. On 1 April 1908, operation was leased to the Deutsche Kolonialeisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft from Berlin for twelve years.

In the palm groves of the coast and the fertile hinterland of Anecho, copra, corn and palm kernels were the main freight goods.[7]

Despite the railway line being built primarily for goods transport, there was soon a surge of African passengers, which already traveled on work trains. However, a timetable for public passenger transport was only introduced from 15 May 1906. A pair of trains ran every working day and covered the route in one hour and 50 minutes.[8] Until 1914, about 38,000 to 40,000 people per year travelled on the coastal railway between Lomé and its eastern catchment area. The average distance travelled by one person was 33.2 kilometers. The boarding at the rural stops was considerable.[9]

Noteworthy operational buildings existed almost only at Lomé station, from which the two other railway lines built later also started, the Lomé–Kpalimé railway and the Lomé–Blitta railway. Warehouses and locomotive sheds located in Lomé are still used today. There were also a turntable, water towers and workshops. The station building in Lomé had two storeys. The stations on the line, like at Porto Seguro (today Agbodrafo), were mostly simple, single-storey waiting rooms.[10]

Initially, two type Bn2T tank locomotives were used, which were delivered from Henschel in 1904 (serial numbers 6885 and 6886). The freight cars and third class cars were mostly delivered from Beuchelt & Co.. First and second class cars were built by Waggonfabrik Uerdingen and MAN.[11] The third class passenger cars consisted merely of empty covered goods wagons – called Aimahu, "land canoe", by the Africans. Simple wagons remained predominant in the following years. At the end of 1912 the Togo-Eisenbahn (Togo railway; TE) had over 20 passenger-, post- and luggage-cars and 174 freight cars.[12]

• Franz Baltzer: Die Kolonialbahnen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas. Berlin 1916; Reprint: Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-8262-0233-9 (preview on Google-Books).
• Franz Baltzer: Togo. In: Freiherr von Röll: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens. Band 9, Berlin/Wien 1921, S. 332–334 (online).
• Kolonialpolitisches Aktionskomitee: Die Eisenbahnen Afrikas – Grundlagen und Gesichtspunkt für eine koloniales Eisenbahnpolitik in Afrika. Verlag von Wilhelm Süsserott, Berlin 1907 (online).
• Wolfgang Lauber (Hrsg.): Deutsche Architektur in Togo 1884–1914/L'Architecture allemande au Togo 1884–1914. Karl Krämer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-7828-4017-8.
• Helmut Schroeter, Roel Ramaer: Die Eisenbahnen in den einst deutschen Schutzgebieten. Damals und heute. Röhr-Verlag, Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3-88490-184-2.
• Peter Sebald: Togo 1884-1914 – Eine Geschichte der deutschen „Musterkolonie“ auf der Grundlage amtlicher Quellen. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-05-000248-4.