The title Royal Prussian Railway Administration (''Königlich Preußische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung'') or KPEV is often mistakenly used to describe the Prussian state railways (''Preußische Staatseisenbahn''). The initials ''KPEV'' are found on cast wagon plaques with the coat of arms, and appear to have been designed by an official of the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

(''Coeln'') division and then unwittingly adopted by the other divisions. No organisation with the name Royal Prussian Railway Administration actually existed, but its German name and the abbreviation ''KPEV'' has been used widely by railway fans since about 1970. The largely independent railway divisions in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

reported directly to the Ministry of Public Works. The correct title for the railways in Prussia was at first the Royal Prussian State Railways (''Königlich Preußische Staatseisenbahnen''). In 1896 it became the Prussian-Hessian State Railways (''Preußisch-Hessische Staatseisenbahnen'') and after the First World War, the Prussian State Railway (''Preußische Staatsbahn''). The individual divisions or "royal railway divisions" (''Königliche Eisenbahndirektionen'') were abbreviated to ''KED'' and later ''ED''. These are found in contemporary official documents, unlike the abbreviation ''KPEV''. The organisation and history of the railways of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: ...

are found in the article on the Prussian state railways.

Sources

* Andreas Wagner, Dieter Bäzold, Rainer Zschech, Ralph Lüderitz: Lokomotiv-Archiv Preußen 1 - Schnellzug- und Personenzuglokomotiven transpress, Berlin 1990, S. 29 {{Authority control Defunct railway companies of Germany Kingdom of Prussia Royal Prussian Railway Administration Transport in Prussia pl:Königlich Preußische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung