Talk:Vennbahn

Notes for article creation

From Image:Vennbahn bridge buetgenbach.JPG:

This line was opened in 1912 ([1]) and operated for passenger trains until 1952 and for freight trains until 2003.

Slambo (Speak) 16:03, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

i added approximate coordinates somewhere near the middle of the railway. if there is a better approach, i'd be happy to find out :) --Richlv (talk) 09:24, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

It would be nice to have coordinates for the former counter-enclave also. —Tamfang (talk) 02:34, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Added coordinates 50°37′34.643″N 6°14′5.2″E Jeff in CA (talk) 15:10, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

Is it all in Belgium?

I'm confused about this, the wiki mentions that the Vennbahn is all in Belgium, but both openstreetmap and google maps point to the north portion between Belgium and Aachen as being in Germany, and the French Wikipedia (which also claims it's all Belgian) has a map showing the Belgian trail going through Germany in red but then the aforementioned North portion is not marked in red. --Trougnouf (talk) 16:25, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

A blogger named Hugh back in 2007 documented his journey exploring the Vennbahn enclaves from south to north, along with photos and video. At http://borderhunting.blogspot.com/2007/07/vennbahn-roetgen.html, he says, "Heading north up the B258 my final Vennbahn stop was at Himmelsleiter where the Vennbahn makes its northernmost crossing of a German road." Himmelsleiter is near the Roetgen enclave. So to the north of that point, any continuing part of the former railway that emerges from Belgian and goes to Aachen is not in Belgium. That comports with my previous understanding as well. I think it comes down to defining exactly what is meant by the term "Vennbahn" today. Jeff in CA (talk) 20:19, 8 June 2018 (UTC)

The article as it stands contains a number of geographical errors:

• The Vennbahn as constructed in 1885-9 ran not – as currently stated – from Eupen (then in Germany) to Trois-Ponts (in Belgium) but from Aachen (Rothe Erde) through what was at the time wholly German territory, to Troisvierges just inside Luxembourg. (Trois-Ponts lies some 30 km NNW of Troisvierges.)
• When the German districts of Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith were transferred to Belgium in 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, almost all of the Vennbahn (from the new German-Belgian frontier at Wahlheim just north of Raeren to the now Belgian-Luxembourg frontier just north of Troisvierges) found itself in Belgium and was taken over by the Belgian state railways. The few kilometres of the line and its installations south of Wahlheim that still passed through Germany following the border shift also became (and remain) Belgian territory, producing the situation which still obtains today.

I will make the necessary amendments to the article as soon as I have time. -- Picapica (talk) 13:18, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

And is there then a counter-enclave? S C Cheese (talk) 18:21, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

There is no existing counter-enclave today. As the article explains, there was at one time a traffic island at Fringshaus that was Belgian, surrounded by German highways from 6 November 1922 until 23 April 1949. This counter-enclave was extinguished in 1949 when Belgium annexed the German roads that intersected at the traffic island. In 1958, when Belgium returned the east–west road to Germany, this traffic island also became part of the Roetgener Wald enclave. Jeff in CA (talk) 21:02, 20 July 2022 (UTC)