TTB Day and more...

Train Tram & Bus Day is an annual event held usually on a Saturday at the end of September or beginning of October to encourage the use of Public Transport in Belgium. In recent years these have seen the running of Extra trains using a variety of motive power, sometimes unusual. I've never been able to get over for TTB Day before, but this year's event was held on Saturday 29th September 2001 and being my long weekend I decided to put myself in pole position for any action!

Gen on the internet from the "Spotters Belgie" group and also my own Sncb-gen (via Desmond Langham) filtered out in the week before, there was going to be:

• Neerpelt-Weert (NS) service over freight track which would more than likely be a rancid Type 41 (new plastic) unit but as these were not thought to be passed for NS metals yet it could be hauled

• 07.41 Neerpelt-Oostende extra train - traction unknown.

• PFT shuttle from Marbehan to the Valvert water bottling plant at Etalle (via freight lines 155/289).

Not a vast amount granted but enough to occupy a day. I had already booked my flight some months previously via the Expedia website with Sabena for a very reasonable £79.60 from Birmingham, so at about 06.30 on Friday 28th September I found myself climbing the steps onto OO-DJN for my journey to Brussels. This was my first flight since the terrible events in New York on 11th September so naturally I was a little apprehensive, the crew couldn't have been that worried though as the cockpit door remained wide open for the duration of the flight!

A pair of Break units took me into Bruxelles Midi where I spent the whole morning in a meeting at SNCB Headquarters about the running of the next Mercia Charters tours in Belgium. I grabbed a panini from the "Twister" kiosk on the concourse and made my way to Antwerpen to dump my bags in the pre-booked IBIS hotel.

A rubber ring unit took me back to Bruxelles where I met up with Kev Tipple and Gruntle to cover the Friday's only P Train to Arlon. This produced winning 2372 so I was pleased already! Things just got better with my last type 27 appearing (2707) so I had now cleared all my 21's and 27's (apart from 2130 if it ever reappears from Salzinnes Works!). Bumped into Steve Kemp at Nord, then a 26 appeared, except it was dud 2617, my luck had just run out!

Nothing else new in the peak, even INT1277 (the 18.15 Midi-Port Bou overnight) was dud 2358!  2725 took me back to Antwerpen where some exceptional beers and a pizza were consumed al fresco in the Grote Markt.

FRIDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER 2001

The next day saw me up bright and early for a brisk walk to the station for the 06.19 to Neerpelt in order to cover both the Weert shuttle and the Oostende extra train in one foul swoop. I was fully expecting to have to suffer my first Type 41 DMU this morning, the Antwerpen-Neerpelt service having been fully "plasticised" earlier in the year. It was with some relief therefore on walking up to the newly rebuild platforms on the Eastern side of the station to see a rake of steaming M2 coaches top & tailed with 6294 and 6246.

I dozed most of the way to Neerpelt, there unusually being no grip at all (a shame as I wanted to interrogate the gripper as to what was going on!). On arrival I was greeted with a pair of 41 DMU's on the Weert shuttle and 6268+6298 in a pair on the Oostende extra train. Naturally I flagged the carts (even though the track is required) and took the Oostende train to Mechelen. On route I was joined by Dave Snow and a group of other cranks at Lier and when I alighted at Mechelen a load more boarded including the afore-mentioned Mr. Langham.

Made my way into Brussels and scratched 1354 to Central before covering one of the Arlon extra trains I had noted on a poster at Nord the day before. It turned out to be a double-deck shove rake, result as I was expecting to have to do 2½ hour rubber ring unit move to cover the PFT shuttle. I had the train more-or-less to myself for the entire journey!

Alighting at Marbehan (my pronunciation having been corrected by the gripper!) I had a nose round the PFT sales stand and bought my piece from the Booking Office (a very reasonable 100BEF = approx £1.65). The shuttle was formed of 202.020 (formerly CFL 1602) and 210.077 (aka SNCB 6077) on PFT's M1 stock complete with wooden bench seats!

The journey was pretty uneventful and the terminus at Etalle was reached in the pouring rain. Some brave soul (or mad fool?) ventured out across the concrete apron of the bottling plant to phot the train - it turned out to be Graham Hempsall!

Unit back to Namur for the Namur-Paris across to Charleroi to cover the Couvins. As always they were both dud! Two other people did the leap at Jamioulx - they must be cranks we thought when they did the ballast leap as well as us! Turned out they were two chaps (Jim & Tim) over for the week.

All day the trains had been busy but none uncomfortable - all this was to change when the IC from Charleroi to Brussels produced - dog unit 840 on it's own! The train was full departing from Charleroi and by Nivelles was choc-a-block! In a rare moment of defeat the guard even let people sit in FC!

On arrival at Antwerpen I noticed an engineering work poster declaring that the last few Amsterdam's this evening and the first few in the morning were diverted via an alternative (longer) route not calling at Den Haag CS and Schipol. My move in the morning was the first IC to Schipol to meet Richard Lea! A few SMS were exchanged and I arrange to meet Richard at Amsterdam CS instead, making sure that with the diversion I'd still make the conenction (Hafas does come in useful!)

SATURDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER 2001

The next day I had a bit of a lie-in compared to yesterday, a 0615 alarm and a walk to the station via the baguette shop/delicatessen for breakfast! My train was diverted via Gouda, the Utrecht avoider and Duivendrecht into Amsterdam, this putting about 15-20 minutes on the journey time.

Upon arrival I made my way to the Booking Office to acquire an up to date NS bible. "Do you live in The Netherlands?" asked the booking clerk. "No" I replied. "Well what do you need a network timetable for, they are 11 guilders you know?" he asked! "None of your business", I replied, "I just want one!!". Blown to pieces he buggered off to get me one. If he'd have done that in the first place he wouldn't have had such a long queue!

Richard had flown from Birmingham via KLM to Amsterdam and was picking up the IR to Germany at Schipol. An SMS from him told me that due to the stock being late off depot the train was expected 30-40 minutes late - cheers NS!

By boarding at Schipol Richard had secured the front compo - 1776 to Bad Bentheim for red beast 103.233 forward - hellfire! A new 103 in the book straight away we set off up to Emden to cover the Emden Aussenhafen branch. The gripper on the IR was well sociable when he found out we were staff and stood nattering to us for about 10 minutes about Connex and the fact they want to take over the DB IR network. He didn't seem to impressed and said he didn't want to work for a French company! We told him about the mess Connex got themselves into at home and he groaned!

212.310 and the track to the Aussenhafen was duly scooped and we made our way back to the pre-arranged IBIS hotel at Münster. Had a walk round the town in the evening and found a hellfire steak restaurant, then a good second hand modelshop.

SUNDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER 2001

Up fairly early this morning for a move over to Essen to cover the rabbit turns on the Wuppertal line. Fell straight onto dud 218.150 and was even less happy when the departure was delayed due to a group of 100+ school brats boarding via one door! Missed the leap at Essen Uberruhr so stayed on 'til Kupferdreh. Still managed to score 4 218's so not bad. Weather was poor and we got soaked crossing the footbridge at Uberruhr twice!

Over to Köln via a late running RE1 service and I said farewell to Richard who was off to East Germany for a few days before flying home on the Saturday. Caught the IC to Bruxelles that normally gets banked at both Aachen and Liège. Not today though as we didn't get banked from Aachen (despite being load 12 and the rails slippery) we staggered up the bank out of the station instead!

At Liège however it was a different story as required 2377 buffered up to the rear of the train to bank us up the hill to Ans. Back into Brussels for the peak hour and managed to score...nothing! Now I am only waiting for 23's and 26's to drop out I guess it will be like this more.

Spent about an hour jotting down times and platforms from the A&D sheets at Midi, Central and Nord to compile the new version of my simplifier, but couldn't get hold of the timetable supplement anywhere despite it starting the previous morning!

Got to the airport mega early as Sabena pilots had been staging a strike (surely not, a Belgian industrial dispute!) and I wanted to make sure the flight was operating, if not I'd have a good chance of getting transferred onto the BA flight. The baglet on the check-in desk said that passengers were being accepted but that some flights that afternoon had been cancelled 5-10 minutes before boarding!!

Instilled with confidence I made my way to the departure lounge. The flight left right time and arrived back in Birmingham about 10 late for no reason!

MONDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2001

All in all a good weekend, although I'm now down to scoring one or two engines a day in Belgium. Plenty of new track and some decent company. Looks like TTB day is pretty much a non-event now for the loco enthusiast, I would imagine that next year there will be plenty of plastic filth to go round and the loco hauled extra trains will be a thing of the past.

Matthew Reeves    12th October 2001.