A Further Western European Miscellany

This afternoon’s meeting presented by Rob Freeman was a Western European miscellany of the railways in France, Germany and Belgium during the 1980 & 1990’s. Starting in Paris, where else in Olympics week, we visited the feeder depots just outside of the two main Paris stations, the Gare de Nord and the Gare de l’Est, seeing some of the express loco’s that worked across France and on into Europe. We then travelled to Belgium, where Rob had photographed several of the old Benelux units. now in store, along with some the powerful Class 20 electric locos and the multi-voltage Class 18’s. A visit to Antwerp shed on a weekend saw around 130 diesel shunters on shed, mostly returned from working in the docks during the week and here for maintenance and re-fuelling. Moving on into Germany, at the Gothard Tunnel depot was an original “crocodile” loco, now in Germany Rob’s focus was on freight movements, many of these trains had originated from or were going to Italy, Switzerland and France. It was interesting to see the use of the engines here that we know as Class 66, some of those shown have now moved here and are working for GBRF. We finished today with some videos of a few narrow-gauge lines in the German countryside. A full and varied afternoon’s entertainment.

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary