TWO RAILS ON THE “WRONG” TRACK

At the beginning of 2023, during renovation work on the railway line of the “Vulkan Express”, a German museum railway, two rails originating from Rodange (L) were discovered. However, the rails differ in a special, historically conditioned detail. The older of the two rails bears the inscription “Rodange 1928” whereas the second was marked with the inscription “Rodingen 1941”. Both rails were manufactured on the respective dates in the former steelworks in Rodange. During the occupation of Luxembourg by the German forces, which lasted from May 1940 to September 1944, the names of the villages could only be given in German. Thus, the Luxembourgish-French “Rodange” became, without further ado, the German “Rodingen”.

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to find out how these two rails, which were manufactured in Luxembourg and had been used on the railway line of the Brohltalbahn for about 70 to 80 years, found their way there.

At this point we would like to thank Frank Muth, the local operations manager of the “Vulkan Express”, for the photos and the information provided.