Records of the Flensburg, Husum & Tönning Railway Co (Royal Danish Railway Co)

• prospectus 1853
• company statutes 1853
• minute books: 1853-65, North Sleswig Railway 1863-5
• papers re fund held as security against lessees 1853-9
• letterbooks 1853-65
• subscription lists 1854, 1863
• royal concessions: South Sleswig Railway 1854, North Sleswig Railway 1863
• contractors' agreements 1853-65
• directors' share register 1850s
• property plans 1862
• papers re engineers' certificates 1863-5
• sale proposition and articles 1865

Flensburg, Husum & Tönning Railway Co (also known as The Royal Danish Railway or Sydslesvigske Jernbaner) was established on 21 March 1853 and incorporated on 20 March 1854, with authority of the King of Denmark, to construct and work a railway from Flensburg via Husum to Tönning and from Orster-Orsted to Rendsburg, Denmark. George Grenfell Glyn, partner in Glyn, Mills & Co, bankers of London, was chairman of the company which had its head office at 84 King William Street, City of London, and from 1858 at 60 Old Broad Street, City of London. The contractors for the undertaking were Messrs Peto, Brassey & Betts, Westminster, London, who were to construct and open the lines and furnish the necessary rolling stock and equipment.

The section from the Baltic to the North Sea and the Rendsburg branch line were open by late 1854 and the entire Royal Danish Railway with terminal stations by mid-1856, completion having been delayed only by the construction of bridges across the Eyder and junction with another railway. By mid 1858 wharfs had been constructed for handling ships at Tönning and Flensburg and by 1859 a branch line to Sleswig completed. The continued depression of trade in North Europe constrained the company's profits, but improvement was anticipated from the Danish government's own construction of railway lines in North Denmark between 1862 and 1866 and completion of the North Sleswig Railway in 1865 to link the Royal Danish Railway to the Danish state lines. In September 1865 the Flensburg, Husum & Tönning Railway Co was purchased by Erlanger & Sons, bankers of Frankfurt.

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