Notes

This old signal is standing on the no longer used line from Stolberg to Alsdorf-Zeche Anna (now Alsdorf-Annapark). It’s a modern light signal, probably installed not that long before the line closed down in the eighties, but now it’s rusty and the lights and the back of the signal are missing.

Enjoy this scene of hopelessness and despair while you can: The line will be rebuilt and re-opened by the end of 2009, creating a circle line in the greater Aachen region. I don’t think they’ll actually hit that date, since many details (grade crossings, where the stop points will be and so on) are still unsolved, but they’ve got the one thing that counts, and that is federal money.

While all the rails, ties and probably ballast will be replaced, EVS, the infrastructure company for all those branch lines in the region, has a habit of keeping all sorts of old signals, including old semaphores, so chances are that it’ll see service again.