Cross-border Service Coming Soon (5)

In practice fbb is far too f to get his foot in his mouth even if it were theoretically possible. Babies seem to manage it!

Why does fbb admit to labial podiatry?

He had assumed that through trains no longer ran from Coevorden to Neuenhaus; the latter being the end of the passenger line from Bad Bentheim. The main reason was this:-

Here is the branch to Neuenhaus and ultimately Bad Bentheim veering off the main line (still only single track but electrified!) south from Coevorden station.

Turn through 180 degrees and this is what greets you:-

You would have to be a very energetic train to leap the canal as there is no bridge!

BUT … follow the track a short way further south and you will find …

… a huge container terminal very much in use. This is Coevorden Euroterminal …

… and that logo looks very familiar. Indeedy doody, that is the same logo as the Bad Bentheim railway company logo.

Surely the trains don’t run all the way on the primitive single track line?

No, generally they don’t, but some do. The majority run through from the Coevorden line thisaway …

… via one of these.

Here it is described in a news bulletin.

So that’s sorted that out. 

Here it is being built.

When the new passenger service starts (scheduled for 2025, NOT 2026 as fbb previously wrote) it will, we are told, involve rebuilding the missing canal bridge.

The new swing bridge points in the wrong direction for egress from Coevorden station.

With that crisis resolved we can explore the existing freight line south of Coevorden.

First stop is Laarvald with a picture of the original passenger station …

… and, can we glimpse the same building from the level crossing today?

Yes we can!

Hoogstede has a large goods shed now disconnected …

… yet it was the site of a celebratory launch for the soon to be revived passenger service.

The last stop before Neuenhaus is Veldhausen. The station building is seen below in its early days …

… and soon after closure to passengers in 1974.

All Streetview allows us to do (restricted by the German government) is to peer pointlessly along Station Road!

The aerial view shows much industrial development around the line …

… but fbb reckons, upon careful comparison with the photos above, that the block just in shot lower left …

… is the station building of old.

Agreed?

Subject to God’s timescale and fbb’s successful avoidance of the harvesting angels (Matthew Chapter 13 verses 41 to 43) …

… fbb will report on the opening of this bit of the line to passenger services due next year.

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Boring or Beautiful Bottom

Old Hornby and Bachmann – Boring! Not much to choose between them.

New Hornby – Beautiful BUT …

… you can’t see any of it when the wagon is on the track!

As part of our weekend variety blogs, fbb will look at tank decoration and, most importantly, price.