This page is (at the time of writing in September 2023, all but 30 years later) records the first of quite a number of visits across the English Channel/La Manche which seem to have eluded my notebooks. They have come to light through digging through photographs, tickets, others' web pages and all sorts of other ephemera and have led me to the conclusion that on the whole, I didn't record one- or two-day trips in my notebooks as I promised myself in 1991 that I would. So, in common with a number of other such pages there are no notes made at the time, but in the case of this one, at least, there are quite a few pictures. Others may not have fared so well.
Saturday 25 September
Mysteriously there are no notes for this trip, the mystery being that in the same notebook (which I have) there are notes for an earlier 1993 trip immediately followed by notes for a later one. The logical explanation is that I forgot to take my notebook [or deliberately didn't take it - see above!].
The tour was a simple out and back loco hauled (by preserved diesel 201 010) trip from Oostende to Mariembourg and back, with public service trains being used for the Oostende-Brussel Noord section on both out and return journeys. The tour train also ran to Couvin and back before departing for Brussel on the return. The outward route was via Brussel-Zuid, line 124 to Marchienne-au-Pont , line 124A (the Charleroi avoider) and line 132; return was via 132, La Sambre, Marcinelle, line 140 to Ottignies (using the curve avoiding Charleroi Central), 139 to Wavre and Leuven then 36 to Brussel Noord.
At Mariembourg an 8 hour stay allowed time to view all the steam activities at CF3V's steam festival including a cavalcade of steam locos large and small, and to ride on their steam trains eastwards as far as Treignes (their present day line) and west to Chimay and a further 10 miles across the border into France. I only recall getting to Chimay and a letter received from ADL after the event suggests that the onward cross-border stretch to Anor, worked by a single unit railcar, was well-nigh impossible to do because of excessive demand. That certainly tallies with my recollection of stopping short at Chimay.
Again, without notes the remainder of the weekend is a bit of a mystery but as this was early in my mainland Europe trackbashing activities it's quite possible that I took advantage of ADL's suggestions for overnight ferry crossings Dover-Oostende and return, connecting with the tour. These things were a nightmare even then, when I was 30 years younger and a lot more tolerant of lack of sleep! I've always disliked ferry crossings and I wouldn't even contemplate such an outing now.
Mysteriously there are no notes for this trip, the mystery being that in the same notebook (which I have) there are notes for an earlier 1993 trip immediately followed by notes for a later one. The logical explanation is that I forgot to take my notebook [or deliberately didn't take it - see above!].
The tour was a simple out and back loco hauled (by preserved diesel 201 010) trip from Oostende to Mariembourg and back, with public service trains being used for the Oostende-Brussel Noord section on both out and return journeys. The tour train also ran to Couvin and back before departing for Brussel on the return. The outward route was via Brussel-Zuid, line 124 to Marchienne-au-Pont , line 124A (the Charleroi avoider) and line 132; return was via 132, La Sambre, Marcinelle, line 140 to Ottignies (using the curve avoiding Charleroi Central), 139 to Wavre and Leuven then 36 to Brussel Noord.
At Mariembourg an 8 hour stay allowed time to view all the steam activities at CF3V's steam festival including a cavalcade of steam locos large and small, and to ride on their steam trains eastwards as far as Treignes (their present day line) and west to Chimay and a further 10 miles across the border into France. I only recall getting to Chimay and a letter received from ADL after the event suggests that the onward cross-border stretch to Anor, worked by a single unit railcar, was well-nigh impossible to do because of excessive demand. That certainly tallies with my recollection of stopping short at Chimay.
Again, without notes the remainder of the weekend is a bit of a mystery but as this was early in my mainland Europe trackbashing activities it's quite possible that I took advantage of ADL's suggestions for overnight ferry crossings Dover-Oostende and return, connecting with the tour. These things were a nightmare even then, when I was 30 years younger and a lot more tolerant of lack of sleep! I've always disliked ferry crossings and I wouldn't even contemplate such an outing now.
The well travelled Association pour la Reconstitution et la Préservation du Patrimoine Industriel (ARPPI) replica of the 1829 steam locomotive built in France by Marc Seguin for the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway. |
SNCB 4-6-0 64 045 (ex-Prussian P8) making its runpast in the cavalcade.
|
SNCB Pacific 10 018, one of a class of 49 designed by Jean-Baptiste Flamme and built in 1910-1914. 018 is now preserved in the national museum as it can't be restored to running order.
|
CFL 2-10-0 5519, built by Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf in Vienna in 1948, and returned to steam in 1992 after over 20 years dereliction. Since then it's been a popular visitor to a number of countries. |
2-8-0 29 013, one of a class of 280 built in the USA and Canada as part of the Marshall Plan for post-WW2 European reconstruction. This was the last NMBS/SNCB steam loco in normal service, in 1966. It is now in the national railway museum at Schaarbeek. |
0-6-0Ts SA 03 and SA 01 running round their train at Treignes, the eastern terminus of CF3V |
More digging in the photo archive has revealed that I was back in Belgium in November 1993, for a real trackbashing tour in Belgium, taking in some dock lines (and one passenger branch) around Gent, a very complex tour of the suburbs of Brussel (not for nothing was the tour called 'Brussels in Detail') and some branches to the south of the Brussel metropolitan area. There are some photos, and a description of the route kindly provided by a friend who was also on the tour - but it was basically a day trip and didn't come adorned with my usual commentary!
