8th March 2003

Mercia Charters
The Unnatural Selection

Route :
Z18099 : Gent Sint Pieters - Monceau Form.
Z18100 : Monceau Form. - Monceau Form.
Z18101 : Monceau Form. - Fleurus
Z18102 : Fleurus - Ronet Form.
Z18103 : Ronet Form. - St. Ghislain
Z18104 : St. Ghislain - Gent Sint Pieters

Notes :
(1) 7332 on rear.
(2) 6218 on rear.
(3) Set back to collect pilotman!
(4) Had been requested to go into Ronet yard ("Formation") but not done on the day. Passengers were escorted from the staff platform to the scraplines at the south side of the yard for a walk round.
(5) Majority of passengers detrained for look around PFT museum but some remained on and got the run to the yard (where the locos were changed) and back.
(6) 7005 on rear.
(7) 8524 on rear.
(8) Travelled from St Ghislain to the current end of the former branch to Warquignies. Distance from St Ghislain was approx 2km. Confirmation of the name of the current end of line is required.
(9) Also advertised by Pathfinder Tours who organised a coach connection to/from Belgium for passengers booking through them.

Source : Gary Thornton (on the train throughout, except where marked by note 5).

Tour Review
(by Ian Monkton)

The assembled masses on platform 8 of Gent St. Pieters welcomed the arrival of the familiar green stock behind 2623, to which even the most dedicated Belgian bashers seemed to give their approval. After running round, there was the opportunity for photos, although it was not yet fully light. We set off along line 50a at a sedate pace slowly losing time.

Turning off at Y Brussels Klein Eiland, another spur was covered to Y Kuregem, then we were off along line 28 again, but in the opposite direction to the previous day. We turned east at the end under the north-bound lines out of Brussels for a brief stop at Bruxelles Luxembourg to pick up a few more passengers. Next it was to Etterbeek and round the spur to line 26 at Boondaal. A pathing stop at Y Linkebeek Halle meant we were more-or-less on time when joining line 124 before stopping briefly at Braine l’Alleud to wait for a path through a single line section caused by engineering works.

At Monceau Formation we were expecting a photo stop but we were not allowed off the train because the local staff did not want people wandering over the tracks. However, we did swap the 26 for 6218 on the front and 7332 on the back and set off for Faise Docherie, over a canal and a single-track branch and into the reversing loop. Again we were expecting a photo stop and return to Monceau, but were told that if we stayed on board we would go down the branch that we crossed over to the end for a photo stop alongside the canal. This was something agreed locally on the day, and gained approval from all on board.

We returned to Monceau to reverse and travel over the line through the Charleroi steel works area, noting several industrial shunters en route, joining line 140 at Charleroi Ouest and running wrong line to Fleurus. Again there was time for photos here before reversing and heading off down the recently-renovated and electrified branch to Auvelais.

Rejoining the main line here, and passing through another engineering single-line working section, we passed through Floreffe, on to line 288, before coming to an abrupt stop – it appears we had forgotten to pick up the pilotman at Floreffe! We returned to Floreffe then set off cautiously down the line to Port de Malonne. The branch-line crowd were probably upset that we stopped a few centimetres short of the buffers! The photo stop here included a ‘seminar’ on 7332.

We returned to Floreffe, reversed and continued to Ronet Formation where we stopped in the staff halt, alongside a train containing 3 British china-clay Silver Bullets, probably on their way to Switzerland. We were informed that if we wanted to visit the scrap-yard here, we would have to de-train and be escorted across the tracks and around the scrap-yard as a group. Most people took advantage of this offer, and were greeted by the sight of several dozen withdrawn locos and coaches in various stages of decay, positioned almost as if for an open day photo session! Also noted here was 55011, no, not a Deltic, but the steam loco which was previously plinthed at Namur.

Back on the train, 5217 was now in charge for an uneventful run through Charleroi and Mons to St. Ghislain where we stopped outside the PFT shed. We had plenty of time to look around their collection of locos and units while the next surprise of the day was being prepared. Our train went down to the yard alongside the station and returned top ‘n’ tailed by 270005 and 8524. The driver motioned to us to climb aboard, which we did without much hesitation, and set off down the remains of an old branch to a point which someone’s ordnance survey map identified as Petite Bruxelles, on the outskirts of Boussu, approximately 1.5km from St. Ghislain, although from the pile of redundant distance posts here, you could have had any distance you wanted! More photos were taken here.

We returned to St. Ghislain yard for a swap to 6077, one of PFT’s preserved diesels. Our run back to Gent promised to be interesting as our train was limited to 80km/hr by the buffet and our timings were for 100km/hr. Let’s just say that we were 29 minutes late away from St. Ghislain, and 29 minutes late into Gent St. Pieters, but no-one seemed to mind about this!

Our arrival at Gent was at the same platform as we had departed in the morning and facing the same direction.

The vast majority of the participants seemed well satisfied by the day’s events, particularly by the unscheduled ‘extras’. Personally, I scored all locos for haulage except 6077, and some useful pieces of track, and I’m sure most people would join me in giving a big vote of thanks to the Mercia team for an excellent tour, and to the PFT crew for their well-stocked buffet.

 Ian Monkton

Timings (Booked & Actual)
(by Gary Thornton)

No attempt has been made to verify the distances given. The run from Faisc. Docherie to the end of line 260B and that with 7005 & 8524 were not given timings or distances in the tour brochure.

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