60th anniversary of Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne in Belgium

Last weekend was the 60th anniversary of Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne in Belgium.

This is a preserved section of the old Belgian metre gauge Vicinal system.

It's 11.2km long, in the middle of nowhere east of the town of Marloie on the main line between Brussels and Luxembourg. The main station of Érezée (TTA) has a very limited M-F bus service but some years the railway only runs at weekends so can only be accessed by car. For the 60th anniversary, there was a free vintage bus connection at Marloie.

The first free bus was easily accessible from Brussels using the 0732 Brussels Midi – Arlon. The vintage bus produced as promised, there was a helpful piece of paper stuck to the bus stop so you could be confident which one was used. The bus wasn't well loaded with only 3 British enthusiasts and a similar number of locals.

Their station at Erezée was very impressive with 2 museums and a bar and a big children's play area. A burger van turned up later. The line is really pretty, climbing up into the Belgian Ardennes, with much of it well away from any civilisation.

The 1100 from Erezée to Lamorménil was ART90 (not in the stock list on their web site) with two trailers. At Forge-à-la-Plez, we passed AR133 going the other way (1935) also towing trailers. ART90 and AR133 are both diesel (?) power cars that also carry passengers.

Lamorménil had a temporary stall selling drinks and a local delicacy - Matoufè - scrambled eggs with pork on bread. There was also a temporary stall selling what I can only call 'tat'. It didn't seem to get many customers. I hope the lady found it worthwhile being there.

ART90 went back from Lamorménil on the 1330 although sustained a broken window halfway while a driver was trying to fix the windscreen wiper. At Amonines, we passed ART.69 on the 1400 from Erezée which looks just like the other diesel power cars from the outside but apparently doesn't carry passengers. The other British changed trains here even though it's not advertised as a calling point.

The bus back to Marloie was late but comfortably made the train back to Brussels, delayed due to something happening one station further south.

The former route of the line is visible on openrailwaymap.org if you search for Erezée and zoom in far enough.
It doesn't look like there's much prospect for further extension as the formation is built on at both ends. The main town to the west is Hotton (population 5500) and there's an old tramcar by the roadside where the former route entered the town.