News
SIX STEAM locomotives – five standard gauge, one narrow gauge – will be in action at Stoomtrein Maldegem-Eeklo’s annual steam festival on May 3/4.
Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST WD No. 196 Errol Lonsdale (Works No. 3796 of 1953) will be operational, as will 1893 St Leonard-built 0-4-0T Yvonne, which will be working trains between Maldegem and Eeklo double-heading with Cockerill 0-4-0VBT Works No. 3098 of 1926, visiting from Haaksbergen in the Netherlands.
Resident 1926-built Le Meuse 0-6-0T Bebert will also be in service, having recently returned to steam following a major in-house overhaul at Maldegem. The final standard gauge locomotive in the line-up will be Krupp-built ‘Hannibal’ class 0-6-0T Tom, which is now entering her third year on loan to Maldegem from the suspended Ijmuiden Steelworks steam train.
On the narrow gauge line, Maldegem’s own 1906-built Hanomag 0-4-0T Yvonne will hopefully be joined by a second steam locomotive, for which negotiations are ongoing. As 2025 marks the centenary of the first public bus services in Belgium, there will be approximately 15 preserved buses on display.
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