Line 150 or Lesse line

RAVeL line 150 or the Lesse line is a now disused railway line built in 1880 to link the town of Rochefort to Jemelle, a station of some importance on the Brussels-Luxembourg line. The Compagnie de l’État Belge gradually extended the line, in stages, towards Dinant, completing the project in 1898. During the Second
World War, the local Resistance blew up the bridges over the Lesse at Vignée and Villers-sur-Lesse. Rail operator SNCB brought the line back into service in 1950. In 1978, the last cabotage freight train drew into
Jemelle station. By 1985, the last of the tracks had been ripped up, to be replaced by the RAVeL cycling and
walking path we know today. A railway line, of course, needs to be as straight and horizontal as possible, which means building tunnels, bridges, cuttings and embankments. As the geotrail follows this part of RAVeL line 150 to its terminus at Jemelle station, one section runs through a cutting through the rock almost 10 metres in depth. It is one of the finest cross-sections in the whole Geopark for studying Mid-Devonian geology (Givetian and Eifelian stages, i.e. from 393 to 383 million years ago).