Thanks to TC for the write up and phots
“500 loco’s in a day!”, that was the advert says. Those were Driver Phil’s words to me as we umm’ed and ahhh’ed about which direction to take our hobby in next. The UK in the late 1990’s held little interest railway wise, sectorisation had seen to that. We had seen the adverts for these Belgian Depot tour’s in the magazines before but we hadn’t done one yet. Phil had been to Brussels on Eurostar the previous year and was keen to go back to fill up his notebook!
“Along different Lines” were a group specialising in railtour’s and trips in Europe. After some negotiating a booking was sent in and we were on for a day of “number crunching”.
On the day, Friday 20th February 20th 1998, Phil picked me up late afternoon and we drove down to Dover, via the A1, M25, Dartford Bridge , and the M20 to Dover. Once at Dover we parked the car and met the rest of the group in the coach, around 50 people. We travelled over to Calais on the late ferry and the coach continued on through France and Belgium to arrive at Oostende, probably around 5am.
The Tour’s “Bud units” 136 and 135 seen at Kinkempois later in the day
The tour was booked to depart from Oostende at 07.40, so there was plenty of time for coffee, food and a wander around Oostende station, which surprisingly had a fair few locomotives present, and a few pictures were taken.
2125 at the head of a line of electrics stabled at Oostende station around 5am
The railtour was formed of two electric units, known as “Bud units” due to their stainless steel bodies. These comfortable unikts were ideal for this kind of work as they had steps at each door down to ground level. At the time Belgium still had a lot of stations with low level platforms. The schedule was as follows:
Oostende d 07.40, then via Brugge, Gent St. Pieters, Merelbeke depot (08.32-09.15), then via Denderleeuw and the lines avoiding the main Brussels stations to Schaarbeek depot (10.08-10.50). We continued on through Leuven and Liege Guillemins to Kinkempois depot (12.17-13.18). From Kinkempois it was back through Liege, and then the line up through Liers and Tongeren to Hasselt Depot (14.20-14.56), continuing on via the Aarschot avoiding line to Lier.
7601+7609 at Lier with ADL’s “Grand Belgian Depot Tour” on February 21st 1998. They dragged the silver “bud” units from here to Antwerpen Dam depot.
At Lier diesels 7601+7609 backed on to take us to Antwerp Dam Depot. We were booked on Antwerp Dam Depot from 16.20 until 17.08. We were running a few minutes late by now, it was starting to get dark and starting to rain. The trouble with Antwerp Dam Depot was that it was a huge depot with over 100 locomotives on, and the railtour needed to be away right time to make its connections to get back home, so I know that not everything on Antwerp was listed. A large number of Antwerp’s locomotives work in the docks and come back to the depot on a saturday lunchtime, convoys of around 10 locomotives running back to the depot were a regular sight, so if the tour had done Antwerp first, we would not have seen as much on the depot. Once away from Antwerp, our units ran via Antwerp Berchem, Sint Niklaas, Gent St. Pieters and back to Oostende (booked 18.40).,
The coach was away fairly promptly, back to Calais, and we were back in Dover at the car by midnight. All Phil had to do now was drive home, a tall order considering he had been up since Friday morning. I remember the journey back as far as the Dartford tunnel but after then it was zzzz’s until Phil woke me up back at my house.
I have recently found my tatty notebook from the trip and have listed the locomotives seen, briefly anything listed in the 1xxx’s and 2xxx’s are electric locos’s, anything listed in the 5xxx’s and 6xxx’s are diesel loco’s, the 7xxx’s and 8xxx’s are diesles shunters and local trip engines, and anything in the 9xxxseries is a small depot shunter.
I have split the list into the various depots and what was also seen on route, which adds up to 439 loco’s. I know I missed a few, but it was a pretty good day.
Seen during the day from the train and travelling: 85
1203/06/07/10/12
1503
1601/03/05/08
1801/05/06
2107/16/20/21/25/31/34/35/40/43/44/48/51/52/55/58
2220/31/43
2302/11/13/29/31/35/41/46/50/52/55/62/71/81/83
2504/11
2601/32
2702/03/07/11/12/15/19/20/23/28/29/39/42/44/50/54/57/59
5106/42/62/73
6212
7377/90
7613/19/20/22
8251/65
8433/34/62
Merelbeke Depot: 67
Immaculate 5112 on Merelbeke depot
6311 on Merelbeke depot, one of 67 locos on shed that day
1191
2102/03/04/05/38
2228/50
2321/30/47/70
2730/35/45/53
2801/02
5107/08/11/12/13/15/16/24/28
6201/04/11/16/19/20/30/37/47/52/64/92/93
6304/11/15/22/26/35/92
7350/54/55/59/63/67/68/69/92/93/94/95
8208/42
8437
9123/32/50/52/60
Schaarbeek: 42
2336 at Schaarbeck depot in Brussels, one of 42 locos on shed that February day
2010/13
2149
2336/80
2603/27
2714/25
5101/03/04/22
7603/06/08/14/17/25
8002/06/07/08/20/25/31/32/34/40/45/46/50/51/55/59/62/63/66/69
8457/58/60
Kinkempois Depot: 75
5505 at Kinkempois depot between Luxembourg turns
1502/04/05
1802/03/04
2309/10/12/15/43
2724/58
5502/05/07/08/13/17/18/23/24/28/30/32/33/34/35/36/37/38/41
6010/41
6210/27/60/63/74/89
6302/19/21/24/25/31
7381/82/83/84/85
8203/05/12/15/16/17/18/19/21/22/24/26/28/29/34/38/39/45/48
9143/47/51/55
9211
Hasselt Depot: 32
6268 and 6207 looking good at Hasselt depot
5127/29/36/38/41/42/43/45/52/64/79/80/83/85/89
6207/40/45/61/68/81/83
6312/27
7357/65/66/73/74/75
9205/22
Antwerp Dam Depot: 136
2551, 2556, 2555, 2553, 2552 at Antwerpen Dam depot.
2007
2120/41
2208/27
2358/73
2503/05/14
2551/52/53/54/55/56/57
2633
2723
5109/33/54/56/57/58/60/62/66/67/68/72/74/75/77/81/82
5910
6253/98
7002/03/05
7103
7209
7376/77/78/80/86/88/90
7401/02/03/04/05/07/08/09/10
7501/03/04/05/06
7601/02/04/05/07/09/10/11/12/13/15/16/18/19/20/21/22/23/24
8256/57/59/61/63/64/65/67/68/69/70/73/75
8428/40/41/42/52/53/56/60/61/62/63/64/66/68/69/70/72/74
8501/03/04/06/07/09/10/11/12/15/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25
9107/57
More of “TC’s” excellent phots from the day here
end
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