The past few days have been very sunny and warm. Apart from working in the garden, this is also good weather for spending some time along the tracks. Tuesday evening after work I rushed to Hoeselt. I didn’t expect much, but I found out that HSL Belgium’s 186 383 was scheduled for a train to Antwerp. After parking the car though, I saw that a … Continue reading A colorful evening
The Belgian series 27 locomotives have nearly reached the end of their lifetime. Only 18 more locomotives are running: 15 in their original livery with SNCB, 2 with Certus Rail Solutions in a nice colorful livery, and 1 truly unique locomotive with SNCB in their white-yellow livery. This makes the locomotive very popular with railfans.Last Friday, right before lighting my barbecue, I was able to … Continue reading A rare specimen
Wednesday March 19 2025 was a very sunny day, and I was glad that I was able to take a day off work. Some interesting traffic to and from the stone quarry of Quenast was announced. First of all, TUC RAIL with a train headed to Schaarbeek, hauled by two class 55 locomotives. These locomotives may have lived their last winter, as rumors go that … Continue reading Late winter diesel day
On a misty winter evening, HSL Belgium hauls a train of brand new cars from Zeebrugge towards Magdeburg. For this picture I had a hard time keeping the camera lens free of moist. I had to warm it up in the car until right before the train came to prevent it from fogging. High atmospheric moisture on the cold lens surface risked to totally blur … Continue reading At the tree farm
The weather during the first weekend of January 2025 is bang-on. On Sunday morning I caught this empty car train towards Gent, in crispy winter conditions. The empty train will be loaded again at the Volvo factory in the port of Gent. Later this week, it will head south again. Continue reading Almost at the car factory
Why wait for another train when the weather turns bad? Well, because every once and a while you just get lucky. Like in Ancy-sur-Moselle on April 17, 2024, at 16:12. One hole in the massive rain clouds lit the tracks at the exact right time. Continue reading One hole is all you need
Day 2 of 2025 saw sun and clouds. When this train to Gent passed me, I saw mostly clouds. It wasn’t as bad as a few hundred meters more towards Lokeren. There, sun and rain added some spectacle to the photo.Timing is everything, as a few minutes earlier the foreground scene was also lit by the sun. And a few minutes after this shot, I … Continue reading Timing is everything
A couple of years ago I moved to De Pinte. I was excited to get to live close to a relatively busy railroad. There were some nice photo locations close by, perfect for the few daily freights. Unfortunately, a bit more than 1 year after the move, a bicycle highway was built. Including light masts and a shiny green fence. Fortunately the railroad wasn’t the … Continue reading The spot that used to be
Fall is not only the season of the colored leaves, but also that of the short days. On November 25, 2019, a few minutes before sunrise in Gent-Sint-Pieters, I pictured Lineas 186 346. It is finding its way through the southern entrance of Gent’s main passenger station. Kudos to the maintenance crews keeping this complex installation in good working order. Continue reading Short days of fall
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
Railscapes 