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Dutch heritage railway operator Het Stoomgenootschap to run first trip in Belgium

Posted by Timothy on

Dutch heritage railway operator Het Stoomgenootschap will organise its first train journey in Belgium in March 2027, using a historic Belgian diesel locomotive that recently returned to service. The trip will be hauled by locomotive 5519, the only preserved Belgian museum locomotive authorised to operate independently on the country’s regular Infrabel railway network.

The journey will mark Het Stoomgenootschap’s first excursion entirely outside the Netherlands and will be one of the rare opportunities to travel on Belgium’s mainline network behind historic traction. The train will consist of locomotive 5519 and a set of M4 carriages.

Built for Belgian national railway operator NMBS / SNCB in the late 1950s, locomotive 5519 belongs to the Type 55 series of heavy diesel locomotives that were once a familiar sight on the country’s railways. It is the only surviving example of the so-called blue Type 55 locomotives and is equipped with a General Motors V16 diesel engine.

The locomotive is managed by Belgian railway heritage organisation Patrimoine Ferroviaire et Tourisme – Toerisme en Spoorpatrimonium (PFT-TSP), which maintains a collection of historic railway vehicles, a museum workshop in Saint-Ghislain, and the Chemin de Fer du Bocq heritage railway.

After years of restoration and extensive work, locomotive 5519 returned to service in 2026. Its authorisation to operate independently on the Belgian mainline network makes it particularly valuable for organising longer-distance heritage excursions.

From Dutch steam trains to international excursions

Het Stoomgenootschap was established in 2021 to organise heritage train journeys on the Dutch mainline network, building on the success of the Den Bosch onder Stoom in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (North Brabant) event. The original event was launched in 2018 by ModeltreinCenter Den Bosch, which organised steam-hauled shuttle services between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Eindhoven. A second edition followed in 2019, with trains running between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg.

The organisation subsequently developed a programme of excursions in cooperation with several railway heritage groups. Its journeys have included steam-hauled services between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Nijmegen, the Bossche Bollenexpress to Haarlem via the Dutch bulb-growing region, and international trips to Cologne and Düsseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany).

In 2024, Het Stoomgenootschap also organised shuttle services between Haarlem and Leiden using electric locomotive 1251, operated by Railexperts, alongside historic rolling stock from the Stoom Stichting Nederland (SSN).

One of its largest projects took place in August 2025, when four days of heritage train journeys were organised around Amsterdam to mark the city’s 750th anniversary and the tenth edition of the SAIL maritime event. The programme featured a steam train operated by the Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij (VSM).

The Belgian excursion announced in October 2026 represents the next step in the organisation’s international activities, bringing its historic train journeys to a country where mainline heritage operations have become increasingly uncommon.

A more successful venture than previous dinner trains?

The arrival of Het Stoomgenootschap in Belgium comes after two recent attempts to establish a different kind of special train experience in the country encountered difficulties. Although these projects are not directly comparable to heritage railway excursions, they illustrate the challenges of launching new commercial train services.

Dinner Train, a Dutch company offering meals on board moving trains, repeatedly postponed the launch of its Belgian operations in 2024. Its Dutch business subsequently ran into financial difficulties, and the companies behind the concept were declared bankrupt in August 2024. The bankruptcy left thousands of ticket holders facing cancelled journeys and uncertain refunds. No restart of the business followed.

A successor concept, The Rolling Tables, was announced in 2025, with plans for dining excursions departing from several Belgian cities as well as destinations in the Netherlands. However, its first advertised Belgian journeys were cancelled in July 2025, with customers receiving refunds. The project’s social media channels subsequently disappeared, casting further doubt on its future.

Het Stoomgenootschap’s plans are different: rather than launching a dining concept, it is organising a heritage railway excursion in cooperation with organisations experienced in operating historic rolling stock. The availability of locomotive 5519, which is already authorised to run on the Belgian mainline network, is an important practical advantage.

Whether the Belgian excursion will lead to further journeys remains to be seen. For railway enthusiasts, however, the March 2027 trip offers the prospect of seeing historic Belgian traction return to the mainline in a dedicated passenger service.

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