Things have evolved since the summer: a call for tenders for their demolition was launched and it was Pieter Vyncke of Vymetal recycling in Anzegem who received the best offer, he acquired these 10 Diesels with a view to decontaminating them, remove the asbestos, and recycle them on his friend Casier’s construction site in Deerlijk.
All 55 locomotives were therefore grouped together for a transfer to the Port of Brussels, the night of October 21 to 22.
During the days of Thursday October 24 and Friday October 25, the Vymetal company cut out and removed all the underbody equipment located between the bogies, in order to separate the body from the bogies, then lifting it slightly in order to rest it on wooden blocks.
The major operation of installing the locomotives on two barges took place in two phases from Wednesday October 30, delayed due to a breakdown immobilizing a lock located downstream.
Between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., 4 locomotives were loaded onto the first barge, on Thursday October 31, in less than 2.5 hours, the other 6 locomotives were transferred to a longer and wider barge.
At 10:30 a.m., the platforms were empty and all the locomotives had been evacuated.
On Monday, November 4, 2024, in Stasegem, the locomotives were loaded for a short truck ride to Deerlijk, with each of the 10 locomotives being completely recycled per day.
Why a river transfer?
This is a great first in fact, if new machines had already been transported by water, notably the M7 railcars, this time they are machines at the end of their life, and have been depreciated for a very long time. , which went through the channels to the recycling company.
It was the company that acquired the 10 locomotives that decided to transport them to Deerlijk in this way via the canal, since the seller does not care about their transport once sold to the recycling company.
Pieter Vyncke explains that it was the best choice: by road, it would have monopolized 10 exceptional transport convoys from Brussels at night, with complicated itineraries to follow, sometimes accompanied by the Police. It also seems that it was no longer possible for safety reasons to transfer these 10 locomotives by rail to Deerlijk, even if a line passes near the Casier site.
The opportunity to test the complementarity between rail and water in order to relieve congestion on the road. A successful operation without much publicity, and which could result in better access to the docks of the port of Brussels from the rail network.
The Port of Brussels is indeed an asset, provided it is not isolated by road and allows access to all suppliers and customers who come to bring or seek goods transported by river.
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