Notes

According to the german signal book, a white plate with black border and black crossing diagonals, such as here, denotes that the signal it is at is a distant signal, indicating what the next real signal will show. A lack of any signal at such a plate seems odd, but is perfectly legal: It tells the engineer that the next signal will always display a “stop” indication. This one even has a PZB/Indusi track coil to get it’s message across. Of course, the young trees and shrubbery that grow on the railroad might do even more to prevent a train from driving here.

Despite removal of tracks and cessation of international traffic, no part of the Iron Rhine is completely dismantled, most parts are actually still in regular operation, and only a few hundred meters (or yards, whatever you like better) are so overgrown that no train traffic is possible. In particular, these few hundred meters here, between Dalheim and the German/Dutch border. The Aachener Verkehrsverbund, the transit agency responsible, hopes to re-establish local passenger traffic up to Roermond (NL) by 2015. This would take some work, but preparing the line for occasional low-speed trips should be doable in maybe a week. Of course, local passenger traffic is only a small part of the potential this historic freight race track has…