On a beautiful Friday morning beginning of July, I drove to the north of France. Very early, because I wanted to see the morning rush of trains to the terminals in Somain, Dourges, Lille. Many trains leave these terminals southbound in the evening, their counterparts arrive north in the morning. I chose the line from Amiens to Arras. Unfortunately, northbound trains were held in the Paris region for some reason. I only saw 1 northbound freight: Hexafret 75460 with a train from Saleux to Somain.

With no long-distance trains on the way, I concentrated on finding a spot for the train serving Inveho UAB, a freight wagon maintenance facility located in Achiet. Wagons are brought in from Somain before noon. The return train with serviced wagons arrives back in Somain around noon.

I expected the train serving Achiet to return to Somain, so I drove to Feuchy to look for a spot. On the map it looked good, but in reality I had to look really good to find the position from where a minimal amount of bushes would be in front of the train. First I got an empty Lineas grain train headed for Tergnier.

Almost 2,5 hours after 60023 brought some cars for maintenance to Achiet, I captured it with some freshly maintained cars. After capturing the Lineas grain train to Tergnier, I looked for still another spot, as I expected the train from Achiet to be rather short. This new location gives a better view on the town of Feuchy, with the Roman-style Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Conseil church towering above.

After the photos in Feuchy, I was informed of an infrastructure train that would run from Lille to Tergnier. I should be able to make it right on time in Landas. However, right on time meant that upon arrival on the spot the level crossing gates closed and the train passed. No luck.
So I took my time to drive to the Somain – Cambrai line, because I was expecting some traffic there starting in the afternoon. I was really surprised to see the missed Infra train pass by while I didn’t even try catching it up.

After the SNCF infrastructure train I didn’t really know what to do next. I didn’t expect another freight train to Cambrai soon, so I was looking for something else to do. Too late I thought of the Eurocity to Paris, whic would be positioned well for the sun south of Busigny. But there was also a freight from Aalst heading south, so I gave that a try. Found an interesting location that would look really good with the camera on the pole. However, while setting up, the train already passed me. I should have had this idea 5 minutes earlier, then it would have worked. Will be for next time.
In the meanwhile, some train were on the way from Cambrai towards Busigny. Looking on the aerial views, I found a spot behind a graveyard in Bertry. It turned out to be a usable spot so I set up my gear. Good decision making, because in 1 hour time I got to see 4 trains. 2 of them would turn east in Busigny, 2 of them turned south towards Tergnier.

After the pictures in Bertry I headed to Escadoeuvres for ending the day. I set up the gear  in a field and started waiting. It took a while, but in the end 3 freights passed me. The evening rush of south and southwest bound trains from the northern hubs does run via multiple itineraries and it’s not easy to know which one. A few years ago it used to be very busy on the line over Amiens. Now I found that the Somain – Cambrai line sees quite some traffic, however this day traffic wasn’t very dense. It also seems that the northeast corridor via Thionville sees more traffic these days.

An unhealthy diner was the traditional end of the day. The day did, as always, turn out different than imagined beforehand. Having the freedom to change plans is priceless and resulted in a memory card full of nice pictures.