The Flickr Railscapes Image Generatr

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 catch it with a rush hour train to Poperinge. And if the locomotive isn't special enough: also the M5 coaches and the Vierendeel type bridge are becoming rare.

SNCB 2715, P8008 Schaarbeek - Poperinge, seen at Sint-Denijs-Westrem on Friday May 2nd, 2025.

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I ended the day close to the French border. I knew that there was a train scheduled from Tournai to Longeau. It would have to leave on time though, because scheduled departure was only 20 minutes before the sun would be too low. I headed to Froyennes, on the line towards Lille, and set up a shot with the Théâtre Saint-Luc in the background. This is part of a 19th century boarding school, and is now converted to an event location. Then the waiting began. I saw the shadows creeping further and further, until finally, right on time, the Euro 4001 locomotive rented by Railtraxx came in sight. 2 minutes later the tracks were covered in shadows. Sometimes you’re lucky!

This train marked the end of a beautiful, but rather quiet, day, filled with a lot of diesel traction.

Full story on railscapes.blog.

Railtraxx 3981, Froyennes, March 19 2025.

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 they will be put out of service later this year.

Full story on railscapes.blog.

TUC RAIL 5501 and 5506, Ripain, March 19 2025.

Our holiday apartment was located on a 10 minute walk frm Brançon's train station. And I managed to smuggle my photo gear between the numerous bags in the car. So I was able to organize a short après-ski moment during the blue hour of the day, to witness the departure of the daily night train to Paris.

Briançon, March 5, 2025.

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 out the resulting pictures.

HSL 653-04, Bruinbeke, February 5 2025.

Teco Vicálvaro Puerto Seco - Valencia Puerto Sur de CSP Logitren a cargo de la 337.006 "Valencia" y una de las nuevas composiciones de VTG Rail a su paso por las proximidades de Ciempozuelos. 06-02-2025.

The weather during the first weekend of January 2025 is bang-on. On Sunday morning I could catch 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, and later this week it will head south again.

Lineas 1336, train 40379 Mortara - Gent-Zeehaven. Sint-Martens-Latem, 02.02.2025

After a warm 3-hour train ride I got out into the freezing cold morning air, ready for a full day of hiking in the snow.
Through the morning fog in Bertrix station, two series 13 locomotives from Lineas welcomed me with their howling sound, heading north with the first freight I would see that day.

LNS 1328 + 1319, Bertrix 30.12.2020

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.


SNCF 76510, Ancy-sur-Moselle 17.04.2024

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 had to run and seek shelter for the rain.

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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 reason to move here. And fortunately I got some photos before the start of the works.

More here

AKIEM 186 188 (SNCF), Sint-Martens-Latem 31.10.2017

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.

ATLU 186 346 (LNS), Gent-Sint-Pieters 25.11.2019

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Desfilando entre las nubes y con un precioso atardecer de fondo, apareció uno de los que serían de los últimos carboneros entre Andorra de Teruel y Samper de Calanda, en este caso con la 319.203 al frente junto a la 319.240 con el vacío procedente de la central. 12-9-2018.

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 7351 hauling a steel train coming from the Sidmar steel factory, now Arcelor Mittal, to the Gent-Zeehaven yard. The train is running past the Sifferdok, that actually still looks very similar today.

B 7351, Gent Sifferdok, November 4, 1999.

I ended the beautiful day at the elevated track near Hrastovlje, almost halfway the climb from Koper to Črnotiče. The RG1604 to Maribor and Budapest was followed by an uphill container train. It is seen here at the entrance of Hrastovlje station, which is today only served by a bus service. Above the train, on the other side of the valley, the tracks cut through the steep hills. The train will be there in only a few minutes.

SZ 363 025, train 43622 Koper > Dunajska Streda. Hrastovlje, July 12, 2024.

After getting a picture of the yellow 363 005 (here), I wanted to chill ot a bit longer at this location. Sun was perfect and maybe another train would be coming up? This shiny 363 came at the right time, in very beautiful light.

SZ 363 011 with an empty car train towards Ljubljana. Črnotiče, July 12, 2024.

Our yearly family holiday was in the north of Istria, where we could enjoy sun and sea, and visit towns like Poreč and Rovinj. We were also located rather close to Koper, and this led me to spend 1 full day on the Koper ramp between Koper and Črnotiče.

I kicked off the day right after sunrise in Dekani. Here I met fellow holidaymaker Björn, with whom I made photos of the first 3 trains in sunlight leaving the port of Koper that day.

The daily night train from Maribor to Koper, that runs during summer and also carries carriages coming from Budapest, was announced with a delay of approximately 90 minutes. This led to an opportunity in Hrastovlje, at a location where I had not yet made pictures. The hike to the location, which started at the ruin in Zanigrad, was not the easiest. The view was worth it however, and we were treated on a number of freight trains on top of the passenger train.

The report of the full day is published on railscapes.blog.

SZ 363 004 with RG 1605 (Budapest -) Maribor - Koper. Hrastovlje, July 12, 2024.

335.035 "Sara" de Medway a cargo de las nuevas y vistosas plataformas de Tramesa para la futura autopista ferroviaria junto al bobinero Vigo-Sagunto de camino a Valencia. 05-06-2024.

335.009 de Transfesa a cargo del vistoso Teco La Negrilla-León a su paso por las proximidades de Villasequilla. 02-06-2024.

Tras la presentación en Príncipe Pío de la recuperada 269.401, fruto de un acuerdo entre Alsa, AAFM y AZAFT, se procedió a realizar un viaje hacia Chamartín, luciendo su nueva librea retro Mil Rayas junto a la numeración original en el testero "269.324" que ostentó antes de la reforma. Gracias al esfuerzo de ambas entidades, la podremos ver al frente de los futuros trenes históricos. 12-05-2024.