The aim of this paper is reconstruct the international orientation of the Dutch railway system through time. In this story I will focus on the actions of the railway companies as being the bearers of the system. I will try not only to take in intentions and motives, but I‘m willing to see up to what extent these intentions were realised. During much of the twentieth century the railway network in the Netherlands were run by a state owned company called Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen; NS), but the building up of the system in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was done by various private companies. It is therefore necessary to include these companies in the story as well as just the role of the national government regulating this rail industry from its very first start.