A Freight Train Passes

Shortly after I arrived in Aachen, about a year ago, I feared that I would never be able to take a picture of the belgian class 55 units. These days, I have managed to take a few, but more can never hurt. I'll be open with you: I don't like this unit. It's yellow-and-green livery, it's odd shape, this all just screams "ugly" to me. I do find them very interesting, but I do not think they are beautiful.

This picture now was taken in the station of Montzen, the more-or-less midpoint of the Montzenroute, a railway line I talk about a lot since it's the most interesting thing, railway-wise, that happens in Aachen. The fastest way to get from the industrial area in the Rhein-Ruhr region to the belgian harbor of Antwerp has to cross the Netherlands, and such a railway line was built and is known as the Iron Rhine. The problem started in world war one, when german forces had occupied Belgium, but the Netherlands, citing their neutrality, closed the Iron Rhine. In a very short period of time, a new railway line was built that circumvents the Netherlands, staying rather close to it's border, and starting instead of Möchengladbach now in Aachen, which is more to the south. The line is 50 km longer than the Iron Rhine, but is free of the influence and, these days far more important, the fees of the Netherlands. For this reason, it has become the main route for German-Belgian traffic, while the Iron Rhine is no longer used for this purpose at all.