Last Friday and Saturday, wife and daughter were out of the house. With the son sleeping at 7pm already, the men’s night was rather lonely. Never mind, we got to spend some quality time together on Saturday. I took him out to watch some freight trains. Good education can’t start soon enough. The young man didn’t care one bit, as he was or sleeping, or … Continue reading An attempt to education
On with the vintage. On the way back to Ghent, we found 5111 waiting with a coal train at what is today the Ghent Coal Terminal. The light is november-ish, perfect for this beautiful locomotive. Continue reading Ghent coal
Day 3 in this country that we were getting to know and appreciate better every day. We spent the night in Settat, in a hotel that we will remember for a long time. We got to sleep, that’s what counts. At the beginning of the vacation we had still hope to see a French Astride locomotive. After 2 days and some calculated guessing, we realized … Continue reading Morocco day 3: from phosphate to passenger trains
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
During the second day of following the intercity detours (Intercity detours – part 2), again a numerous number of freight trains passed by. Albeit mostly when the sun was going down, which I didn’t mind so much. It was a nice ending of the day. Continue reading Freight during the detours – part 2
That had been a while, snow at home that stays for a few hours. On January 14th there was a little, on January 16th it felt more like a snow storm. I was lucky to catch some freight trains in these wintery conditions. Continue reading It snows!
Besides intercity trains (Intercity detours – part 1), we also got to see quite some freight trains on this normally freight-only route. A selection in the gallery below. Continue reading Freight during the detours – part 1
During the extended autumn break this year I also took some days off to take care of my daughter. Apart from playing at home, we also went out to the tracks one day. This time we went to Zichem. We enjoyed a picknick and the company of friends who live closeby, that we hadn’t seen in real life since a couple of months. There were … Continue reading Social time
During the last weekend of October, train traffic between the Belgian seaports and Germany was diverted over Mechelen, Leuven and Aarschot. This promised some intense freight traffic between Mechelen and Leuven.I decided to take my daughter out for a day along the tracks. Playing with the ball and a bicycle – on safe spots! – and occasionally snapping some shots with the camera. We both … Continue reading Q stands for quality time
On the way back home after a day of work in Antwerp, I needed some air. I decided to spend some time on the Schelde’s left bank, and see what would be coming.I was lucky enough to get one of the first rides of a Vectron locomotive from BLS Cargo. And some other interesting trains. It weren’t the trains, however, that made it a good … Continue reading Beautiful light, after all
