Watch post 15 On the trail of The Duits Lijntje

Conveniently situated near road, water and railway, extensive facilities for caring and education and an industrious population and progressive trades people. Therefore it’s not strange that the county council considered post-war Veghel to be the regional centre of the Middle-Meierij. The village took its task seriously. To promote employment it developed industrial area “De Dubbelen” in the fifties and sixties. On the other side of the Zuid-Willems canal, favourably open to the motorway from Eindhoven to Nijmegen and the Duits Lijntje.

New railway connections

For it moment it seemed as if the Duits Lijntje would get a second life. In 1955 a switch was placed west of watch post 15. This connected a new railway turn (parallel to the Taylor road) for steel company “the Flens” or “The First Dutch Flange Factory and Driessen Pipes”. In 1965 a second railway turn (parallel to Kennedy Avenue) followed , which opened a connection to the Veghel Concrete Company and the Industrial Port. A third turn was planned but never carried out because the transportation of goods by road and water became more important in the long run.

From freight transport to party train

Especially the Veghel Concrete Company kept using the freight transport by railway track for a long time. The characteristic boll-shaped carriages could often be seen along Kennedy Avenue and they transported fine pulverized material like lime and soda. A landing crane from the concrete company took care of both the transhipment by rail and water. By the way, the old glory days of passenger transport sometimes revived when Mars Chocolate Factory put it’s employees on the train for a company outing.

Watch post 15

These railway tracks for freight transport were used until 1922 but have been dismantled by now. Watch post 15 was barely saved from being demolished. Now it’s one of the best kept monuments along the Duits Lijntje. Do you want to take a closer look at watch post 15? Just cross the road and follow the track for twenty yards to the east (direction Veghel).