Line 18 Part 4

Information

In the autumn of 2004 I photographed this former railway. I used to bike here a lot. There is not much left of the old railway. Rails and sleepers are removed, only a little dyke remains. It runs through a forest and it's nice to bike here. You can find some railway historic objects, but you need to pay attention. In the winter of 2007 I revisited after viewing a report on this railway by the railtrash website. It seems I missed some things that were hidden in the bushes in autumn, so I went back to shoot a few more photos.

History

When the railwaytrack through Eindhoven became elevated the railway to Belgium was about to be closed. Because of pressure from the Belgian government, old contracts and other unknown reasons the railway couldn't be closed. In the end of the fifties the old railway from Valkenswaard to Eindhoven closed and a new connection to Geldrop was build. The transport consisted of coal from the Belgian mines and slags from the Belgian and Luxemburger iron industry. In the Netherlands things changed: Natural gas replaced coal and fertiliser replaced slags. With no passenger and almost no freight transport the line had to be closed during the big \"Herwag\" reorganisation in the seventies. In 1974 the last train drove on the railway. In 1986 the rails and sleepers were removed.