Moresnet

I spent part of today over in Belgium, taking pictures of the railway viaduct in Moresnet. Moresnet itself is a rather uninteresting village, save for this huge and impressive bridge. It is part of the Montzen route, one of two railroad connections from Aachen to Belgium. The route was built during the first world war, as the other route was to steep for long freight trains, and all other connections required passage through the neutral Netherlands. These days, 70% of the freight traffic between Belgium and Germany takes this route.

The bridge itself is the most remarkable building on the entire railroad line. It was built in 1916, then destroyed during World War 2 (but quickly rebuilt), then destroyed again during World War 2 and rebuilt five years later. The last important change was a complete renovation in 2004.

You'll see that there are poles for electrification, but no overhead wires. The Montzen route isn't electrified on the belgian side yet. The german side is electrified, but this does not really help anyone. Electrification of the belgian side is planned and should happen this year. During the time, trains will be diverted over the other Aachen-Belgium route, but only in direction Belgium to Aachen, which is downhill.

The village of Moresnet itself has an interesting history, by the way. Netherlands and Prussia couldn't agree who would get it with it's important mine, so it was a neutral territory, jointly controlled by both. Later, as Belgium was invented, it took over the Netherland's part. This only ended following the first world war, when it was handed over to Belgium, along with some german towns in the vicinity. While the territory had a railroad line, this one, it never had a station, though.