Maldegem Steam Centre

The former SNCB station at Maldegem in northern Belgium is the hub of the activities of an association which has operated steam trains in the area since 1990. Standard gauge trains run eastwards through Balgerhoeke to Eekla, while narrow gauge (600 mm.) trains go westward to Donk along a route that once continued to Brugge. The association has an interesting collection of rolling stock. Most of its steam locomotives are tank engines, and the collection includes one of the 0-6-0 saddle tanks made for the War Department in Britain during the Second World War. Most of the diesel locomotives were used in Belgium. They include No 7408 which was built in the 1970s and carried out heavy shunting operations for 35 years in the docks at Antwerp. There is a single unit diesel railcar No 4403, built in 1954, of a type that was used on branch lines in the Ardennes. There are K3 type carriages introduced by SNCB in the 1950s that were used on long-distance trains within Belgium and on some international services until the 1990s. A Wagons-Lits restaurant car built in France in 1919 ended its career in Austria before moving to Maldegem. One of the attractions of the line is that it gives an opportunity to experience early twentieth-century rail travel on slatted wooden seats, as well as to enjoy the comforts of a Wagons-Lits carriage. The association offers inclusive excursion packages incorporating travel on the lines from Maldegem at summer weekends from the Belgian resort of Blankenberge and from Sluis in the Netherlands.

Maldegem Steam Centre
VZW Stoom Centrum Maldegem | Stoomtrein Maldegem-Eeklo
Stationplein 8
9990 Maldegem
Belgium
+32 (0) 50 - 716852
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