Maldegem Steam Gala 2019 (B)

This year’s Steam Train Festival will be held at Maldegem, Belgium, on Saturday and Sunday 4th and 5th of May, 2019.

There will be 7 locos in steam on narrow and standard gauges including 2 narrow gauge locos from the UK.

Patrick Keef’s Bagnall 0-4-0st “Woto” and Baguley 0-4-0t “Rishra” making a first time visit to the continent. This is the only survivor of the small number of steam locos built by the firm and was rescued from a water works in Calcutta, India. Maldegem’s own Hanomag 0-4- 0wt “Yvonne” from 1906 will also be operating.

On the standard gauge, 3 of Maldegem’s own locos will be in service: Austerity 0-6-0st WD196, Avonside 0-4-0st “Fred” and St Leonard 0-4-0t “Yvonne” from 1893.

There will also be a visiting loco on the standard gauge. After some negotiation, Belgian Railways have agreed to allow their Canadian built 2-8-0 29.013 to attend Maldegem Festival and to work trains. This is the locos first public appearance for four years. She has recently been fitted with modern safety systems required for the mainline, but since these are not yet certified, she is unable to run mainline without a pilot loco. The festival will be used for crew training.

Several items of modern rolling stock have been promised for display including a Class 55 diesel used as a “Thunderbird” on the TGV lines.

As usual, there will be an international selection of trade stands present and live steam, electric models, Lego trains, … in operation.

Maldegem lays about 14km from Bruges on the Belgian –Dutch border.

Stoomtrein Maldegem Eeklo
Stationsplein 8
9990 Maldegem
BELGIUM
+32 50 71 68 51
http://www.stoomtreinmaldegem.be