Rauendahl Slide Path

The Rauendahler sliding path near Hattingen, south of Bochum, was built in 1787 in the Ruhr area as the first of a series of horse-drawn coalways modeled after the British example of the time for transporting the mined hard coal to the transshipment point on the Ruhr. The name was adopted from the sliding paths with running carts. As was customary at that time, the rails were made of wooden planks; from 1794, they were covered with cast iron plates to reduce wear. Due to the construction of the railway operated with iron-clad rails, the Rauendahler sliding path is considered one of the first railways in the German-speaking area, with a length of about 1,600 meters.

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