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Railtracking

Line 207 STAR

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Line 207 STAR

Information

In april 2007 I tracked some railways in the north of the Netherlands. This railway is partly in use as touristic railway. There are several pieces which are rather easy to track, but othr parts are difficult to recognize as former railway. A part of this railway has the record of shortest time of being in use.

History

This railway was build in 1924 by the Groninsch-Drentsche Spoorweg Maatschappij, also known as STAR, which stands for Stadskanaal Ter Apel Rijksgrens. The railway could have been extended into Germany, but it is not known if there were any plans to do that. There was a station near the border, which was called Ter Apel Rijksgrens. At this station goods were loaded onto trucks for further transportation. This did not really work however and after two years of service the station had to close, together with the railway section from Ter Apel to Ter Apel Rijksgrens, which makes it the railway being in use for the shortest time in the Netherlands. Only 11 years after the line was constructed, so in 1935 the railway was closed for all traffic. In the second world war the line was reopened for a short period. In 1946 STAR reopened the railway for freigth services. This was not a big succes and the company had to stop in 1959. It was taken over by the national railways, which closed the section Musselkanaal - Ter Apel in 1972 and the remainder in 1990. In 1978 the rails from Musselkanaal to Ter Apel were being removed. In 1992 the foundation S.T.A.R. was established. Its goal was to start a touristic service on the line with old trains. In 1994 the section from Stadskanaal to Musselkanaal was reopened for touristic services. In 2006 and 2007 the railway was patched up.

Rating3

Built: 1924
Abandoned: 1972, 1990
Visited by TX: 2007
Demolished: 1978
Reuse: -

Length: 22,7 km


Line number: 207

Map of the railway

overzichtskaart

Sources

  1. Wikipedia
  2. Maatschappij STAR
  3. Reportage van Pieter Bosch 2004
  4. Reportage van Railtrash
  5. Stadskanaalrail
  6. Archief utrecht
  7. Boek: Overzicht van Nederlands tram- en spoorwegbedrijven, J.W. Sluiter, 2002

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