Hückelhoven-Baal station

Hückelhoven-Baal
Through station
Baal station in about 1912
Location	Bahnstr.11, Hückelhoven, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany
Coordinates	51°01′59″N 6°16′26″E / 51.033082°N 6.274014°E / 51.033082; 6.274014Coordinates: 51°01′59″N 6°16′26″E / 51.033082°N 6.274014°E / 51.033082; 6.274014
Line(s)	Aachen–Mönchengladbach Jülich–Dalheim
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	235
DS100 code	KBA
Category	4
Website	www.bahnhof.de
History
Opened	15 December 1911

Hückelhoven-Baal station is in the Hückelhoven district of Baal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the Aachen–Mönchengladbach railway. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station. With its construction as an interchange station on two levels, it became important as a hub for passenger services, but in recent years it has lost this significance due to the closure of the adjacent section of the Jülich–Dalheim railway. Meanwhile, the passenger station has been reclassified as a halt and it was renamed as Hückelhoven-Baal in 2002. Baal freight yard still exists.

In 1852, was the Aachen–Mönchengladbach line was opened by the former Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company and Baal station was at the 41.6 kilometre point, serving passengers and freight. This station was equipped with an entrance building, a ramp for handling freight, a small turntable and a small transfer table.

The station is still commemorated at its original location by the street named Am Alten Bahnhof (“At the Old Station”) and the retaining wall of its old foundations. Today the Baal freight yard is still located at the site of the old station, along with the dispatcher’s signal box and the junction to the connecting curve to Ratheim, which have not been used since 2007.

In 1911, the passenger station was relocated to the west for the opening of the Julich–Dalheim railway. In order to serve the two railways, a “tower station” (Turmbahnhof, that is a station with superimposed platforms on two levels) was built. The line to Dalheim was connected directly by a link at Baal freight yard/Baal West to the Aachen–Mönchengladbach line, which was especially important for freight from the Sophia-Jacoba colliery.

Passenger services between Jülich and Baal were thinned out in the 1960s so that only a few trains remained in the timetable among the many bus services. In addition car-ownership was growing. The consequent decline in ridership prompted Deutsche Bundesbahn to close passenger services between Jülich and Baal on 29 September 1968; freight traffic on this section ended on 28 May 1972. The dismantling of the tracks between Baal and Linnich began in 1974.