Patrimoine Ferroviaire et Tourisme (PFT) are a society dedicated to the preservation of Belgian railway heritage. They cover a number of aspects of railway enthusiasm, operating charter trains, maintaining heritage locomotives (

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

) and operating a museum at

Saint-Ghislain Saint-Ghislain (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1 January 2018 the municipality had 23,335 inhabitants. The total area is , giving a population density of . The municipality consists ...

Charter Trains

PFT use to operate charter trains on the Belgian railway network. They have their own train of carriages and fleet of locomotives which are passed by

Infrabel Infrabel is a Belgian government-owned public limited company. It builds, owns, maintains and upgrades the Belgian railway network, makes its capacity available to railway operator companies, and handles train traffic control. Infrabel was cr ...

for these operations. Both steam and diesel locomotives were used. PFT were often called upon to run trains celebrating railway milestones, e.g. they organised the final workings for the recently withdrawn Class 15 & Class 16 locomotives. Since 2013, SNCB was not allowed to "host" heritage trains on his own security certificate. A new Belgian rail regulation to allow those historic trains is not yet adopted as of 2018.

Preservation of Belgian Railway Heritage

This takes place at their museum in Saint-Ghislain and until end 2018 at their site within SNCB's Schaerbeek depot. Maintenance of the operational fleet use to takes place at Schaerbeek, and vehicle restoration is centred on Saint-Ghislain. The museum is host to a number of

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are Model building, modelled at a reduced Scale (ratio), scale. The scale models include locomotives ...

events each year. A small depot has been built in Spontin for railcar and infrastructure engines usual maintenance.

Fleet List

Source:

Steam Locomotives

* CFR 230 084 (numbered SNCB 64.169) * PKP Ty2-3554 (numbered SNCB 26.101) * Krupp Knapsack Cn2t 3113 (ex Westfälische Almetalbahn Nr 10) * Cockerill Bt 2331 (small shunter with vertical boiler) * La Meuse Bt 3235

Diesel Locomotives

2011-08-15 diesel loc 210077 from PFT heritage-railway leaving Dorinne-Durnal station with M1-M2 carriages

SNCB Class 51 The NMBS/ SNCB Class 51 is a class of Co′Co′ diesel locomotive formerly used in Belgium. Disposition No class 51s remain in service with NMBS/SNCB The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway compan ...

: 5128, 5149, 5183 and 5117 (the later was kept as source of spares, repainted in blue delivery as former 5001, and has been sold in 2017) *

SNCB Class 52 The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de V ...

: 5205 *

SNCB Class 59 The Class 59 is a diesel locomotive of the National Railway Company of Belgium. The locomotive features dual-ended operation with end-of-train red marker lights. The hood features cantilever doors. In the mid-1960s, they were given a green live ...

: 5927, 5941 * SNCB Class 60/61: 6077 (numbered 210.077 on one cab, as of the pre 1971 numbering scheme) and 6106. Prototype loc 6003 was scrapped at Ronet in December 2010. 6010, 6019 for spare parts. * SNCB Class 62/63: 6289. 6266 was bought for spare parts and has been scrapped after unmounting any useful equipment. *

SNCB Class 70 Class 270 (later reclassified as Class 70) locomotives were the first diesel shunters used by NMBS/SNCB. Three were initially ordered as prototypes of diesel-electric traction. Three diesel-hydraulic Class 271 locomotives were also ordered for ...

: 7005 (numbered 270.005) *

SNCB Class 71 The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de V ...

: 7103 *

SNCB Class 73 The Class 73 is a class of diesel locomotives operated by SNCB/NMBS in Belgium. The class formed the backbone of the NMBS/SNCB shunter A switcher locomotive (American English), shunter locomotive (British English), station pilot (British ...

: 7305, 7322, 7324, 7325, 7341 *

SNCB Class 74 The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de V ...

: 7409 *

SNCB Class 80 The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de V ...

: 8061 *

SNCB Class 83 The National Railway Company of Belgium (, NMBS; , SNCB; ) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Ve ...

: 8320 * SNCB Class 84: 8428 * SNCB Class 85: 8524 * SNCB Class 91: 9135 (9101 for spare parts) * SNCB Class 92: 9209 * CFL Class 16: 1603, 1602 (repainted as SNCB 202.020) * CFL Class 8: 802, 806 * DB Class 236: 42.550, CCB 215, CCB 216 (the last two have been offered for sale in 2018 following a reduction of storage space and scrapped in 2019 as no purchase proposal was received)

Electric Locomotives

* SNCB Class 15: 1504 * SNCB Class 16: 1608 * SNCB Class 18: 1805 *

SNCB Class 20 Class 20 is a class of electric locomotives formerly operated by SNCB, the national railway of Belgium. Prior to the introduction of the Class 13, Class 20 was the most powerful NMBS/SNCB electric locomotive class in Belgium, a distinction it h ...

: 2021 * SNCB Class 22: 2201 * SNCB Class 23: 2309 * SNCB Class 25: 2551 * SNCB Class 28: 2801 * SNCB Class 29: 2913

Electric Multiple Units

* SNCB Class AM54: 027 (offered for sale in 2018 following a reduction of storage space) * SNCB Class AM54: 082 * SNCB Class AM54: 002 "postal service" (finally not acquired from SNCB historical patrimony, due to lack of storage space)

Diesel Multiple Units

* SNCB Class AR40: 4006 (sent back to SNCB Patrimony service in 2021 due to lack of storage space), 4001 (acquired in bad condition, scrapped in 2017) * SNCB Class AR43: 4333 * SNCB Class AR45: 4506 * SNCB Class AR46: 4602, 4605, 4618 (numbered 554.18) * SNCB Class AR49: 4906 (numbered 553.29) – under restoration as of 2015 *Class 551: 551.26 – under restoration as of 2015 *ES: ES 102 (former catenary maintenance railcar – proposed for sale in 2018)

Chemin de fer du Bocq

PFT have taken over the 21 km long Ciney – Spontin – Yvoir railway line (also known as line 128) and operate it as the Chemin de fer du Bocq (CFB)

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

. It retains a connection to the national network at Ciney, which facilitates PFT using main line locomotives at their events. A gala is held every year around 15 August. During 2012

CrossRail AG Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, akin to the RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries, known as the Elizabeth line, ...

provided a class 66 locomotive as a feature. In 2015, 16 kilometers (between Ciney and Evrehailles-Bauche) are operational. In 2016, the terminal section between Ciney and Braibant – which is parallel to the Bruxelles – Luxemburg main line then undergoing a track / overhead renewal – has been rebuilt. Connection with the national railway network at Ciney was suspended for two seasons. Modernization of the main line is continuing and

plans to free some unused space in Ciney in 2021–2023. This would allow the Chemin de fer du Bocq to have its own separate 2-tracks platform with a connexion to the Infrabel network. In 2019, rotten sleepers and 40 kg/m rails were removed from the 2.6 km section between Evrehailles-Bauche and the Yvoir tunnel. COVID crisis and maintenance tasks with higher priority on the operated section and in Ciney have delayed the track reconstruction schedule that slowly restarted during the summer of 2021.

''En Lignes''/''Op De Baan''

PFT produce a bi-monthly commercial magazine aimed at the Belgian rail enthusiasts, produced in French (''En Lignes'') and Dutch (''Op Der Baan'') versions. The name translates to English as ''On the line''.

References

External links

Official website PFT
{{Authority control Rail transport preservation in Belgium 1988 establishments in Belgium Organizations established in 1988 Heritage railways in Belgium