Mercia Charters

"The Learning Curve" - Friday 15th September 2000
"The Last Outpost" - Saturday 16th September 2000

A combined tale of railrover bashing and two more Belgian railtours. Required haulages are shown in underlined in red.

With all the problems in Britain (fuel shortages, road blockades etc) I was quite glad to be leaving for a week or so. A Thursday evening flight would get me to Brussels in readiness for the two Mercia Charters railtours then after them I'd be heading off to Eastern Europe on a business trip.

No hold-ups on the way to the airport I arrived in plenty of time for my British Midland flight from Birmingham to Brussels. An Embraer 145 (G-RXJF) was my home for the hours flight. A late departure meant I did not get to my hotel until about 10.30pm and there was no sign of my colleagues. They arrived about 11.15pm at which point we had a room farce as two of the "triple rooms" we'd been allocated turned out to have a double bed and a single. We're good friends....but not that close! An extra room (at no extra charge) was soon obtained as "compensation" for the error. By this time some of our group were ready for bed. Me? I was ready for a beer!

So, four of us that went out for a beer got back to the hotel about 1am....and the alarm was set for 5am to get some rush-hour moves in before the first railtour! No time to rest when we're on holiday....

No breakfast, first loco was a score (1326) which was taken to Leuven. EMU then to Aarschot to go for the four Class 25 electrics that are out on the morning P-trains. One turned out to be an EMU, otherwise we got 2507, 2512 and 2509. Can't say I was over happy getting three dud ones, especially considering the time I had to get up to cover them all! 2106 got us to Mechelen for an EMU to Leuven.

Our tour train was already in when we arrived - 5168 & 5170 sandwiching the two coaches. Some of our group were already aboard and had "reserved" a seating bay for us. We set off on time and trundled on our way to Ottignies then the short branch to Louvain la Neuve Universite, an unusual destination for a loco hauled train. After a few photos we headed back to Ottignies then reversed to head towards Charleroi. A short way down this line and we curved off onto the freight-only line to Genappe. This line is only used for part of the year to service the sugar factory.

A photo-stop with a difference at Genappe - 5168 was stopped next to the (now redundant) factory shunter - an ex-BR class 03!! 03081 (a sight score for me) was in a bad way but still made for an interesting photo posed next to an SNCB Class 51 diesel!

On leaving Genappe we headed for Brussels via Ottignies, Brussels Schuman and Brussels Ouest. We arrived about 40 minutes down but in plenty of time to bash the evening rush-hour trains. I ended up sampling 2730, 2304, 2240, 2213, 2248, 2136, 2134, 2371, 2511, 2236, 2715 & 1328. A little celebration when I scored 2248 - it was my 300th different SNCB loco haulage!

Back to the hotel and a meal in the cafe alongside. Got interesting when we had a thunderstorm - we sat outside (under cover) watching the passers-by getting soaked!

Saturday - tour 2. 1326 to Leuven where we met up with the Mercia stewards. Long faces though as Kinkempois depot had not sent any locos for the tour! 6246 was turned out to get us away as close to time as they could manage. That didn't go down so well as it is a common 62 on the Neerpelt passenger service so not required by many on the trip.

We got as far as Aarschot where we made an unscheduled stop - to add another loco. 5503 had been sent to intercept us. Slightly happier punters now.

Somewhere about here it started raining....

On the way to Antwerpen Oost we were sent "direct" rather than the advertised route (via Y. Krijgsbaan) so no doubt that upset one or two on board who would have scored some required track.

At Oost station we lost the 62/55 combo in favour of 7001 (south end of train) and 7103 + 7506 on the other end. We set off for Antwerpen south docks with 7001 powering - what a little beast it was too! We reached Zuid Yard where a wet photo-stop was taken (i.e. it was still raining).

7506 +7103 now took over and we headed for Liefenshoek. Only problem was that 7103 didn't seem to be working. After enquiring it became clear that the two locos were not "in multi" and there was not a driver for 7103. In other words, as things stood, we wouldn't actually be able to claim 7103 for haulage! This little situation was solved however at the next set of points - the locos were swapped round so 7103 was leading. OK, no more haulage from 7506 but who cares, it was "dud" now anyway.

As with other outings in Belgium, the traincrew seemed happy to let a couple of punters into the cab to enjoy the thrash from upfront. A quick negotiation with a couple of the Mercia stewards secured me a cabride for later in the day - in 7103. Being a centre-cab loco I was quite looking forward to this as you'd be able to see forward as well as back.

Returning from Liefenshoek we were running about an hour down. A vote was taken to eliminate the depot visit at Merelbeke later in the day - partly because it was raining (harder than ever) and also because it was to be a very "limited" visit, restricted to the walking route only. Is the British safety "disease" now making its way across the Channel I wonder....?

We should have taken the curve to head towards Zwijndrecht Industriezone but instead returned to Zuid Yard. Oh dear, a re-plan of the cabride would be required as this had reversed the train. I soon found out it was more serious than that - we'd missed the third side of the triangle (Y. Beverse Dijke to Y. Steenland) because many of the docks staff were knocking off duty. Our traincrew said we had to head back out of the docks or risk being stuck there when the signalling staff finished their duty!

Much negotiation by Mercias train organiser however convinced them to make the trip to Zwijndrecht Industriezone. Thanks Neil ! Myself and a friend then got a good soaking getting from the leading coach into the cab of 7103. Not a fast run down the branch but quite interesting watching the driving technique. Got even wetter when we got as far as we were going down the branch (Canada Yard) as we got back into the train - the rain was even worse!!

Bit of a farce then as we had to go all the way back to Zuid Yard before reversing and heading out of the docks complex - something about having to get permission from staff at Zuid Yard before we could leave the docks area. This meant we were still running about an hour late. 7103 made a lot of noise powering us back towards Antwerpen Oost, as did 7001 on the back. We passed through Oost station and down the incline into Antwerpen Dam depot.

Still raining? Erm.....

Not many braved the atrocious conditions to photograph the locos (including 2340 which was our new loco to get us to the Gent area). We were granted permission to visit the depot but again only a few "die hards" bothered to go. I had an umbrella with me but still got drenched. The spotters pad suffered too and I had a bit of reconstruction work to do when I got back on the train!

For those interested, I managed to get most of what was at the depot (I know I did miss a handful of locos though, including preserved 5910 in a shed I didn't look into);

2235, 2247
2311, 2319, 2333, 2348, 2358
2503, 2505, 2510, 2512, 2514, 2553, 2554, 2558
2611
DMU's 4903 & 4905
5102, 5125, 5133, 5142, 5154, 5158, 5178, 5183
7004
7102
7379, 7390, 7391
7401, 7406, 7409, 7410
7503, 7504, 7505
7702, 7703, 7704, 7708, 7705, 7706, 7709, 7711, 7714, 7713, 7715, 7716, 7717, 7718, 7719, 7720, 7721, 7722, 7723
8256, 8257, 8259, 8261, 8262, 8263, 8265, 8266, 8270, 8272, 8273, 8274
8452, 8453, 8461, 8470
8503, 8511, 8515, 8524
9157

I was pleased as 2503 & 2554 were the last two Class 25's I needed for sight. Also scored the majority of the shunters as they are rarely seen other than at the depot or in the docks. This was also the frst time I'd ever seen one of the new Class 77's - in about 15 minutes I almost cleared all those so far introduced!

The above list includes a great convoy of shunters appeared that from the north docks just as we were leaving, something like 9 or 10 locos long!

2340 took us to Gent Sint Pieters. It had almost stopped raining but I don't think anyone was so bothered about missing out the depot visit at Merelbeke. As soon as we got off the train...it started raining again. A last farce of the day - we were supposed to get another electric here (Class 26) but nothing seemed to have been arranged so we ended up having 2340 run-round the train and head us home to Leuven via Mechelen. Engineering works further delayed us and our eventual arrival back as 92 minutes late! That said it was still a decent day out. Our group headed back to Brussels (behind 1608) for a meal and a beer or three at the same cafe as we'd been in on Friday evening.

Shame about the rain! The days only "real" complaint was that the buffet did not have any decent food - only chocolate bars and waffles. This was not the fault of the buffet staff however as they had all the fillings ready but the local baker let them down and hadn't opened at the time when they had to leave...or miss the train altogether!

Gary Thornton.

Route, Distances and Timing's (Booked & Actual)

Railtour Operator : Mercia Charters

Friday 14th September
Locos used : 5168 & 5170 throughout

Mileages courtesy of Stuart Clarke.

Saturday 15th September
Locos used : 2340, 5503, 6246, 7001, 7103 & 7506

Mileages courtesy of Stuart Clarke. Distances in Antwerpen Docks are approximate as there were very few km posts. Best estimations used!

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