vennbahn

Has anyone got news regarding the Vennbahn railway that runs in both Germany , near Aachen and Monshau, as well as the Belgian High Venn. There is a small museum about the history of the line in the Monschau pottery but no up to date news. The forestry lines seemed overgrown in the areas crossed by the main road ( The Stairway to Heaven) with no signs of any movement at Roetgen or Monschau, when I last visited the area. If the line has closed what became of the engines and other rolling stock ?

 

AFAIK the line is closed throughout. When operational the track in Germany was Belgian territory and even now that situation remains although no trains run and track removed on some stretches. No idea what happened to the stock though.

Edit : Just found a German website that says the track is to become a cycle path. Work was scheduled to begin earlier this year.
http://www.vennbahn.de/ has lots on info but it's all in German. The "Fahrzeugbestand" link gives a list of the locos and rolling stock. "Verkauft" means sold, "verschrottet" means scrapped, "neuer Besitzer" means new owner. Happy surfing.

 

Very sadly, yes, this line is no more. I was lucky enough to get to see it before it closed and, one day, I shall get around to scanning the slides I took. When I do, I'll put them on my Fotopic site, so watch this space...

However, I'm glad to see that their class 50 in now in good hands. We should be very grateful to the Dutch for coming to the rescue. Must go there one day.