Last Easter vacation, we spent a family holiday in Coussac-Bonneval, south of Limoges. There weren’t many local trains to watch, but there is some interesting diesel action near Limoges. Inspired by the excellent picture of BramTrains, I made a plan to go after SNCF’s Infrastructure operation to the quarry of Verneuil-sur-Vienne. I only knew approximately when the first of 2 train pairs would return to … Continue reading All about parenting
A grey morning during a family holiday was used to make some pictures on the diesel stretch of line 24, between Montzen and Aachen-West. Continue reading Foggy diesel
Spreading like a virus in the rail photographer community, it seems, and after resisting for a long time it caught me as well: the use of a light stand for getting your camera higher up there. Light weight and capable of towering above the many bushes along the tracks, I must admit I’m sold. Below the first 2 shots using this new tool. Continue reading Up in the air
Last Sunday was worth getting outside. It was dark and cold, but dry, a recipe for a quiet evening photoshoot. The two freight trains that I could photograph happened to be both loaded with GTS containers. One coming from Switzerland and heading to the Belgian coastal port, the other one doing exactly the inverse. Continue reading To and from the mountains
The daily banana train from the port of Antwerp to Aachen and beyond is seen here in Remersdaal, crawling up line 24 toward Montzen. This train was a daily visitor to this line, and always a pleasure to see. Wishing everyone a fruitful 2022! Continue reading Bananski
It was a cold cold evening, yesterday. During the waiting, I could see the grass slowly turn white. By the time the two freight trains had passed, my tripods were covered with a thin frosted layer.The first train, hauled by a Traxx locomotive, looks like a train from Antwerp to Dourges. The second one is the most intriguing though. Description of the load was “big … Continue reading Frosty white containers
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
Starting January 1st 2000, the coal-fired power plant of Ruien was supplied by ship only. 3 days before the end of the coal trains to the power plant, and before the end of all rail traffic on rail line 85, a friend an I still wanted to try our luck. My dad would be driving us, as we didn’t have our license yet. It were … Continue reading Coal to Ruien: last days
Unforeseen circumstances made this photo happen. I had to work from home to take care of a sick child, and the daily coal train to France was delayed by several hours. Result: during lunch break I could quickly run off to the tracks and make a photo of this train in fall colors. Continue reading Seize the day
Railscapes 