Not so forgotten trains, Belgium - July 2011

[thompski]

I wrote a report about German coal mines a while back, and later on in the trip I found myself in Belgium, and one thing I was keen to look at for a while was some of the abandoned rail stuff lurking around. I speak retrospectively because in the last year I've seen pretty much the same if not better stuff in the UK. Four months in the workshops has taught me that the modern train is not a thing of wonder, but mostly frustration, despair and something which turns a soap dodging scruff such as myself into one with alcohol dependency problems. That said, it was still enjoyable, so I'll throw up some pictures of trains from the aforementioned small European country.

Montzen Gare - namely a walk in derelict shed next to the station. Here we encountered families having a sunday afternoon stroll and similar aged gentlemen doing a photoshoot with their scoobies.

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Anyhow a day or so later we ended up at a bigger depot in one of the industrial cities. This one reminded me in scale to Toton however was much busier and the staff indifferent to a British Fiesta trundling into their car park. From what I gather, the redundant equipment comprised entirely of diesel shunters and locomotives which date back to the 1950s.

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