In November ’99, there were no signs yet of the big changes that the Belgian rail freight scene would undergo during the next 5 to 10 years. There’s no sign yet of any private operators, nor any modern traction. Crossrail would only start running 4 years later, and the 77 series diesel locos were still in an early stage of testing & delivery.We see SNCB … Continue reading Steel from the past
The port of Antwerp is origin and destination of many container trains. I got to shoot a few at the end of August, beginning of September 2022. Operation of the trains was very diverse.First highlight are the regular Transfennica container trains, connecting the Combinant terminal in the north of the port of Antwerp to Bayonne, near the Spanish border. Except for the last mile, the … Continue reading Johntainers
Be it in Ghent or Antwerp, you can’t escape Railtraxx and their class 66 locomotives. In recent years the company has their fleet with a lot of these engines. On December 7th I got to photograph two of them. The day was shorter than expected: the Combinant shuttle was still partially hidden by the shadow. The container shuttle from Kalishoek to Antwerpen-Noord was running completely … Continue reading Railtraxx in the ports
We expected a lot of this day of railfanning. With beautiful weather announced, all that was needed were a few trains. Both elements didn’t work out as expected. But a short dusk photo session in the port of Antwerp turned out interesting. We expected a container train from the Krommenhoek terminal and wanted to make a low light photo of it. Right when the train … Continue reading Class around the container
Honestly I thought this picture was lost. I had a dark, grainy, 20 years old print. And a negative. It took some time in Lightroom and Photoshop, but honestly I’m surprised about the result I’ve been able to get out of it. The pictured train is running north on line 26A, between the Schaarbeek shunting yard and the docks of the port of Brussels. I … Continue reading The digital revolution
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
Hard to distinguish if this is a train on Storstockholms Lokaltrafik’s line T17, T18 or T19, but that doesn’t really matter I guess. Södermalm borough is a nice place to wander around. It’s steep hills offer some nice views over the old town, and the cruise terminal as is the case here. This part of the city is also less touristy, and has some nice … Continue reading Södermalm view
A few hours later than previous photo. Fingers frozen, and getting tired. On the way back to the highway we came across a Captrain engine waiting to leave the Alaska section. This would have been a nice one to follow, but me and my friends lights were fading out so it was time to head back to our respective homes. Continue reading A final effort
For some reason, we always decide to go out for night shots during the cold months of the year. If we would start at 7 or 8pm that would make sense, but usually we start around 10 or 11pm. *Mental note to go out for night shots during the warm summer months. The night from january 22 to january 23 was a beautiful one. Light … Continue reading A cold and foggy winter night
Trains also rest sometimes. Not too long, of course, who wants an expensive pile of metal just standing there… So consider us lucky to catch this Europorte locomotive resting right where we just witnessed the delivery of some freight cars, and even more lucky that it did so close to the sign of the owner of the site, Euroports. Continue reading Europorte @ Euroports
Railscapes 