During excavation works for a new bus station near here, totally unexpected an octagonal brick wall surfaced. It turned out to be the foundations of Roermond’s very first water tower. A find dating back to the steam era.
The water in the tower was used by steam engines as they ran on steam. Filling the steam engine was done by the apprentice train driver at the crack of dawn. It was done with enormous pivoting cranes or water columns that were connected to the water tower with a piping system.
The water tower was completed along with the station building for the 4th class In the year 1865. Both were designed by K.H. van Brederode and commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. They were part of the newly constructed railway line E: the Breda-Venlo-Roermond-Maastricht line. Before long, Roermond also became part of the Iron Rhine, a railway line connecting the port of Antwerp via Weert to the German hinterland. It was intended for transporting ore and coal. In 1913, 900 freight wagons would run up and down it each day.
In 1928, a new water tower with pressurized piping went operational. This listed building, designed by the famous architect Sybold van Ravesteyn, still stands to the right of the station.
After the railways were fully electrified in the 1960s, the steam engines and everything that went with them disappeared. Besides the water tower and the station building, a wagon shed and the steam engine shed still exist in Roermond.
PLEASE NOTE: The location of the spear is at the bus station of Roermond at the back of the station.
Find also other Archeo Route Limburg locations