Before curfew
Just an hour before curfew, we see Crossrail’s 186 496 conquering the steep slope towards Montzen. It’s hauling intermodal train 43511 from the port of Zeebrugge towards Basel. Continue reading Before curfew
Rerouted beauty
Rurtalbahn’s Vectron is a nice-looking, and often seen, guest on Belgian tracks. Even on Easter it was adding mileage, with a car train towards Gent. After an on-time notification, I was able to make it to Argenteau. Freight traffic from Germany towards the Belgian ports is rerouted through the Meuse valley due to important infrastructure works between Hasselt and Aarschot. Continue reading Rerouted beauty
Ballast, spot on
Interesting as they may be, I wasn’t in Quenast only to make photos of SNCF logos. The ballast train that SNCF hauls to Quenast for a refill is quite nice to see, and not only for the traction used. So we left right on time to drive to this photo spot near Soignies. Everything was there: a nice photo location, the train, sun, we, fully … Continue reading Ballast, spot on
The SNCF logo
SNCF Fret has started up ballast traffic to the Quenast quarry again. Very likely it’s the last season that SNCF will use BB67400 locomotives for this service, as the Infrabel network is gradually equipped with ETCS. Needless to say that many Belgian rail enthusiasts find opportunities to enjoy these beautiful locomotives while we still can. Now that we can’t cross the borders, it makes it … Continue reading The SNCF logo
Vintage beets
We continued the bicycle trip into the port of Ghent, up until Gent-Noord. The old branch of line 77 that once connected Zelzate to Sint-Gilis-Waas was still in use for seasonal beet traffic to Moerbeke. Full trains were hauled from Poperinge to Moerbeke with a mighty class 51 diesel locomotive.On this picture, we see an empty train approaching the Gent-Noord shunting yard. It has left … Continue reading Vintage beets
It’s becoming a habit
Although I believe for the freight operators it’s not the best habit, for railfans it’s interesting when freight traffic to and from Antwerp is rerouted over Mechelen and Gent. Same again this weekend due to works in Ekeren. We found ourselves with several people making photos of the freight trains, but for this photo I was still alone.Wheather was so and so, and traffic was … Continue reading It’s becoming a habit
Cokes!
There were rumours for a while that a new cokes traffic had started between Germany and France, passing over Belgian territory. Yesterday a notification came in right on time, and I decided that it was time for a welcome break from the home office. Lots of wind and clouds, but the sun was coming out every once and a while. So maybe I would be … Continue reading Cokes!
Morocco day 2: one day on the phosphate line
We spent the night at a more than decent hotel in Khouribga. Lots of choice there, as it is a mining city and most likely seeing a lot of business travellers. We didn’t sleep in though: it was still cool in the morning, the sun was out and based on the previous day we expected quite some train traffic. We made the first pictures at … Continue reading Morocco day 2: one day on the phosphate line
Wood and steel
On Saturday I’ve been making a few photos of the weekend detours during daytime (Warm winter light). On Sunday I wanted to still catch some of the detours, and decided to do so in the evening. The moon was beautiful the last few evening, but I was a bit late to get a good photo of it. You can still see it on the top … Continue reading Wood and steel
Warm winter light
Today, the main access to shunting yard of Antwerpen-Noord was not accessible, resulting in massive detours of freight traffic. The portion of line 50 between Gent and Schellebelle was, for one day, the busiest part of railway on the network. Only by evening the sun was breaking through the clouds, right on time for this warm winter shot of a southbound train. Continue reading Warm winter light
Railscapes 