Travels 2022 – Part II

A trip to the 50 year celebrations of the ASVi museum in Belgium resulted in visites to various systems en-route at the end of September and early October:

Wuppertal Schwebebahn (DE) -includes a few trolleybuses from Solingen near their Wuppertal-Vohwinkel terminus where they meet the Monorail

Hotton and Lierneux (BE) – two ex Antwerp trailers have been repurposed as monuments to the old SNCV lines there (green tram = Hotton / at Lierneux the old station and depot also survive)

Pont d’Erezée and Blier (BE) – the TTA museum did not operate on the day we visited but we had a quick look at the terminus and the nearby depot (the two work cars outside the Blier depot seem to have originated at the Rhätische Bahn in Switzerland)

Grottes de Han at Han-sur-Lesse (BE) – this amazing survivor of the old SNCV diesel lines (originally steam of course) that once served most of Belgium was the main reason to come to the Ardennes

Thuin (BE) – the ASVi association celebrated its 50th birthday with a grand parade on their two museum lines around Thuin (on a sunny Friday) and a special timetable operation on Saturday and Sunday where almost everything they have ran in service

The grand stars were three visiting vehicles from Luxemburg (tram 34), the Coastal Tramway (baggage motor tram 9965) and a steam locomotive 1/”AISNE” from the French Chemin de fer de la baie de Somme railway museum (locomotive à vapeur 130T Corpet Louvet ex réseau départemental de l’Aisne built in 1906 by La Courneuve, Paris) – this shows all the visiting vehicles (which included various buses that connected the site with parking on Saturday/Sunday) during the whole three day event:

Here we see the trams on the electrified line from Thuin to Lobbes (with some depot views):

The re-gauged old SNCB railway line to Biesme-sous-Thuin sees diesel and steam trains (most of the non-electric vehicles the museum has can also go on the electrified line but did not do so during this special event):

Charleroi (BE) – the nearby metro (really a tramway that runs partly as a light rail system) was also visited again (once there was a line connecting the Thuin museum line with the remnants of this once large SNCV Hainaut interurban network centred on Charleroi)

Nancy (FR) – during our last visit only the northern section of the line was in service: this time the whole line was running again / this last TVR line in the World (it actually serves Nancy and Essey-lès-Nancy, Saint-Max und Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy) will close in 2023 and will then be replaced with a normal trolleybus operation (the only other TVR line thast existed was in Caen – it was converted into a tramway and the vehicles went to Nancy for spare parts only) – these vehilces will arrive in 2024 and we will probably go there to see them / by the way, the TVR was “just a new name” for the old Bombardier GLT that was tested in Han-sur-Lesse (BE) where it met the diesel trams (see “Grottes de Han” above)

Saarbrücken (DE) – on the way back home we had another quick look at the Saarbahn but time only allowed a short visit to the French terminus in Sarreguemines and then about an hour in the city center