BELGIUM | Dendermonde – Puurs Steam Railway

August 2024. Two weekends in a row, we experienced some Belgian railway heritage. On the 11th, we went to Baasrode-Noord for the Dendermonde – Puurs Steam Railway or Stoomtrein Dendermonde-Puurs over line 52. On the 17th, we travelled all the way to Saint-Ghislain for a special ride over freight railway line 100, organised by Le Chemin de Fer du Bocq, while its own railway line is being renovated.

Since 1986, the non-profit organisation Stoomtrein Dendermonde-Puurs (SDP) runs touristic heritage trains between the station Baasrode-Noord in Dendermonde (Termonde) in the province of East Flanders and the station of Puurs at the Seinhuiskaai in the town of Puurs, part of the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands in the province of Antwerp.

The organisation runs a section of line 52 currently disused by railway infrastructure manager Infrabel and Belgium‘s national train operator NMBS / SNCB. The section is also currently not connected to the main network.

SDP manages quite a collection of rolling stock: steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, historic carriages, diesel units. The railway and its rilling stock is often used for filming, as it doesn’t disrupt regular train traffic.

In the collection of Stoomtrein Dendermonde-Puurs.

Under threat

The whole operation is under threat. The City of Dendermonde wants to use the space to enlarge the N17 regional road in the context of Project Briel.

In recent years, however, the focus has been more on a suburban network with light rail connections based on the Brussels model. As part of this network, there are plans to extend the line from Puurs to Dendermonde as an S-Bahn.

At the beginning of 2018, the Flemish Region included a ‘study with a view to realisation’ for (this section of) railway line 52 in its rail priorities. It was therefore decided to conduct a study, the modalities still need to be filled in.

Both ideas would mean the end of SDP. But no decision has been made.

Our ride for the day

On that summery Saturday, or train consisted of

Tubize n° 2069 ‘Helena’ steam engine. The SDP is very proud of this locomotive from 1927. It even made the journey to France and to Poland for international events.
HLR 8228 ‘Domino’ diesel locomotive from 1965. Built for shunting.
A smaller, narrower 1940s ferry wagon. Built to be used on ferries to the United Kingdom, it was now used to ferry a diesel generator to provide electricity to the carriages.
A 1956 K3 2nd class carriage.
A 1933 K1 1st class carriage.
A larger wagon used as a kitchenette.

The journey

The journey is some 14 km long and it takes 45 minutes to ride them. The train takes it easy and slow to elongate the fun. The 14 km has quite a few level crossing to pass at 5 kph, while whistling doing so.

When the train nears Puurs, the steam engine is uncoupled and shunted as it will be shunted to the other end of the train for the return journey. So for a little while, the diesel locomotive takes over.

On the line, the stations are: Baasrode-Noord, Buggenhout aan de Schelde (a request stop), Sint-Amands, Oppuurs, Sint-Pietersburcht (a recent addition featuring a children’s playground) and Puurs.

This Puurs is not the same Puurs Railway Station used by Infrabel and NMBS / SNCB. This Puurs is located at Seinhuiskaai.

During the rife, you can buy drinks from one of the many volunteers. The whole operation is run by volunteers.

During one of the rides, there was an issue with a door so the train guard had to pull the emergency brake. This was al too familiar. The issue was quickly solved.

A visit of the shed

We rode the heritage train three times that day. From Baasrode to Puurs, to Baasrode and back to Puurs to catch a regular train home.

In between, we could join a short guided tour of the shed and workshop. A handsome young man explained the history of the organisation, he showed us their collection and the workshop and expanded on the challenges. In short: time, money and insecurity regarding the future.