Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
I. Für eine Kulturgeschichte der Eisenbahn / Towards a cultural history of railways - Michael Cotte: Railways and Culture: An Introduction
Michael Cotte lines, the surveying of the building sites, test-controls and the general running of surveys. On one hand, many of the ordinary “Ponts et Chaussées” engineers became worried during the French Restoration. They suffered a kind of declassification after the emblematic times of Napoleon, when they exerted a key function for technology and territorial management under the Empire rule and through a major part of Europe. The rising of private companies managed by civil engineers in the British style, as was Seguin & Co, generated diffused animosity among the local and regional corps members. Frequently some good corps engineers worked for private companies, with the discreet authorisation of the central administration. At the top of the corps, the situation was also complex because Director, Becquey, also a politician close to the government, and his technical right-hand man, Brisson, were favourable to serious private companies like Seguin. On the other hand, high scientific figures like Navier, professor of mechanics at the “Pont et Chaussées” School claimed their ability. The question of the control of private initiatives was the core of the debate. Thirdly, the State engineers remained very well educated in civil engineering but in the classical system of masonry bridges, earth roads, timber and stone construction, horses power etc. They generally had a philosophical mentality of “applied sciences”, mainly mathematical deduction far from the empiricism of new technologies as were steam engines. In one word, a basic engineer of the corps had cultural difficulties in accepting both private initiatives and new technologies that came from abroad and were largely different from the “classical” ones. 3. Building the Railway Line and Organising the Company Making the Porposal and the Illusion of Decreasing the Transportation Costs The official competition involved a general guideline mainly for administrative aspects, aiming to preserve a public use of the railway line. There were some guarantees to ensure enough stations with coal facilities, branch lines for collieries and a sufficient number of wagons for customers. They were generally medium coal-mine companies and coal-traders. Through the first Loire railways, we can see the effect of an almost irrational hope in the deep decrease of transportation rates, shared by coal-miners, local elites and administration experts, and even by the private companies proposing railways themselves. Such an important effect happened in the course of months and was way beyond 54
