Karl Gustav Brescius (25 March 1824 – 4 December 1864) was a German railway engineer.

He was born in Bautzen

Bautzen

Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...

, in eastern Saxony

Kingdom of Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...

, Germany, on 25 March 1824 and studied at the Dresden University of Technology

Dresden University of Technology

The Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...

 in Saxony. Amongst his lecturers were Professor Andreas Schubert

Johann Andreas Schubert

Johann-Andreas Schubert was a German general engineer , designer and university lecturer.- Life :Schubert was born on 19 March 1808 in Wernesgrün in the state of Saxony in Germany...

.

Brescius gained his first practical experience as a railway engineer during the construction of the Saxon-Silesian Railway (Sächsisch-Schlesische Eisenbahn) from Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 to Görlitz

Görlitz

Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...

. For the construction of the Saxon-Bohemian Railway from Dresden to Bodenbach

Decín

Děčín is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region in the north of the Czech Republic. It is the largest town and administrative seat of the Děčín District.-Geography:...

 in 1847 Brescius was already the departmental engineer responsible for the section of the route in the area of Königstein

Königstein (Sächsische Schweiz)

Königstein is a town in the Free State of Saxony in Germany. Königstein lies in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge District and has a population of 2,898 as of 2005. Near Königstein is the Festung Königstein fortress.- Geography :...

.

Albert Railway

In 1853 Guido Brescius signed an employment contract as a master machinist and construction engineer with the Albert Railway (Albertsbahn AG). As a result he was responsible for planning and overseeing the construction of the railway line from Dresden to Tharandt

Tharandt

Tharandt is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden, on the Dresden-Reichenbach railway.It has a Protestant Church, a hydropathic establishment, and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded by Heinrich Cotta in 1811 together with its...

, the Niederhermsdorf and Hänichen coal branch lines.

Windberg Railway

In planning the Hänichen coal line, Brescius took a risk with a route that was artificially long in order to overcome the height difference between Plauenscher Grund and the Gittersee plateau, with inclines of 1:40 on an adhesion railway and with curves of as little as 85 m radius on a standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 main line

Main line (railway)

The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....

. In 1856 it was completed; the first mountain railway

Mountain railway

A mountain railway is a railway that ascends and descends a mountain slope that has a steep grade. Such railways can use a number of different technologies to overcome the steepness of the grade...

 in Germany and only the second to be built in Europe after the Semmering Railway

Semmering Railway

The Semmering railway, Austria, which starts at Gloggnitz and leads over the Semmering to Mürzzuschlag was the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track. It is commonly referred to as the world's first true mountain railway, given the very difficult terrain and the...

 (Semmeringbahn) in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. For this reason King John of Saxony gave the coal line the nickname The Saxon Semmering Railway (Sächsische Semmeringbahn) and rightly so. The Hänichen coal branch still partially exists today as a technical monument, the Windberg Railway (Windbergbahn).

End of his life

His arguments with the supervisory board of the Albert Railway and his study trips to England had a detrimental effect on the health of Guido Brescius. He died prematurely on 4 December 1864 in the mental home at Sonnenstein in Pirna

Pirna

Pirna is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, capital of the administrative district Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge. The town's population is over 40,000. Pirna is located near Dresden and is an important district town as well as a Große Kreisstadt...

.

External links

• There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany