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Belgian Coastal Tramway


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  • 1 month later...

The segment was well presented, I thought, though I was vaguely irritated by his attempts at the place names. I would be interested to know if anyone has attempted to model De Kusttram in the smaller scales. The exhibition in connection with the anniversary last year had some very good G Scale models.

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  • 1 month later...

Anyone ridden this tram line? Any recommendations? Interesting/boring bits, scenery/architecture/engineering?

Any idea if the lifting bridges by Zeebrugge operate very often?

Tempted by the €5 dagpas (day pass) when I'm in Belgium later this year.

Found a few photo sites, but they mostly concentrate on the tram vehicles.

Thanks in advance

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  • 1 month later...

Well, just back from Belgium, and rode the tram between Oostende and Zeebrugge. Although it's the coastal tram, you don't see too much of the seaside, at least on that stretch, as you're either behind dunes or in built-up areas. You see more water at the dock areas in Oostende and Zeebrugge. Plenty of choice of environment for modelling purposes: on-street running, segregated on a dual carriageway road, sharing bridges over locks and docks, segregated in town with grass planted between the tracks, some stops are tiny halts without even a seat, and others are purpose-built stations. And I only rode half the line.

 

Anyway, a few photos...

 

The ramp up from Oostende station to the railway and canal bridges:

post-6971-0-07951000-1317030662.jpg

 

De Haan tram stop was pretty, and the town wasn't bad either, although I might have been in a mellow mood by then due to beer at lunchtime:

post-6971-0-60838800-1317030666.jpg

 

Zeebrugge is a bit run down, but does have a Russian submarine as a tourist attraction, as well as this derelict fishing boat acting as a signpost to the seafront:

post-6971-0-79491400-1317030669.jpg

 

In a few places, the tram has a choice of routes over the swing/lift bridges at either end of a sea lock into the canal system - if one bridge is open, the other is available for the tram. On one I caught, the driver got out with a pole to change the points. Here, in Zeebrugge, one of the canal sea locks has a pair of bridges at each end, and one of a pair is under repair, clad in scaffolding:

post-6971-0-20487900-1317030673.jpg

 

The other sea lock in Zeebrugge has a rail line/siding as well as the tram running over one of the bridges. I was waiting for the lock to fill, and a container barge to set off, when a diesel (7723 for those who are interested) appeared from nowhere, presumably to pick up some freight:

post-6971-0-11866900-1317031087.jpg

 

Also at Zeebrugge, a tram approaching a bridge, with another bridge in motion in the background:

post-6971-0-69535100-1317030678.jpg

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One for DM and any Dutch/Flemish speakers - in the back of that tram depot was an old one with the destination "Op Sleep". My first thought was couchettes on a tram?! But knowing a bit of German, I guess it's related to schleppen = to haul or tow something. It also had a board in the cab reading "Sleeptram". So Op Sleep = on tow or towing? An old one they use to rescue breakdowns?

Tried googling "op sleep" but all I get is things about post-op sleep in hospitals!

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The other thing I meant to mention is all the trams I saw in service were single-cab with doors only on one side, using loops to turn at the ends of the line. There were intermediate turning loops too, including one which crossed two lanes of a fast dual carriageway road (google maps aerial view here )

Annoyingly, the seats in the non-driving end face forwards, away from the rear-facing window, so you'd need to kneel up on them to take a rear-facing photo or video. Might be a good counterpart to Big Jim's timelapse Marylebone-Birmingham masterpieces.

Edited by eastwestdivide
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Thanks DM for the confirmation and extra tram and language info.

 

The language thing was interesting - the name you use might depend on how nationalistic (regionalistic?) you are. One waitress was talking to some Americans behind me in a restaurant and corrected them when they mentioned Dutch, "no, Flemish, it's a completely different language". She also said the dialects vary a lot from town to town. Meanwhile I was amused that Belgian TV stations put subtitles on programmes from the Netherlands (or was it the other way round?), despite well over 9 out of 10 of the words being the same. Doesn't the Belgian constitution call the language "Nederlands" anyway?

As a speaker of English and German, I can still work out the meaning of maybe half the sentences of written Dutch/Flemish. But I can't tell Flemish apart from Dutch by looking.

I'm reminded of that saying along the lines of "a language is a dialect with an army".

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My best friend at uni married a Flemish woman & shortly afterwards they went from Gent (where they live) to Ieper for a weekend. He was surprised that she was using English all the time - she said it was because she couldn't understand the Ieper version of Flemish, nor would the locals get her Gentish dialect.

 

There is a good selection of preserved cars in the shed at De Panne, the society have a range of events each year, Tramalant at De Haan being the headliner. There is serious talk about rebuilding some of the closed branches of the Kusttram, especially that to Veurne and maybe the old route 10 in the direction of Brugge - the Dutch would like to see cross-border link route 14 reinstated to Sluis and the French keep muttering about a southern extension, maybe along the mothballed rail route towards Dunkirk. Don't anyone go holding their breath though.

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  • 1 year later...

Dear all, 

 

another input : the official Dutch language was called ABN or Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands. It is supposed to be used in the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders).

 

This is what you will find in grammar books. This is the way you are supposed to speak or write. In practice, people do speak various forms of dialects, but do write more or less according to the rules. 

 

Flemish is in essence a series of dialects. Somebody from Ostend is not understood in the Netherlands (or a little bit in Fries islands), nor in most parts of Belgium. hence subtitles. An exemple : for the word "bottle " in English, you say also "bottle" in Ostend, while you would say "fles" elsewhere. But in Ostend newspapers, you would read "fles". Pull-over = Boiye (Ostend) = trui (Dutch)

 

I own a dictionnary Oostends / Dutch : 700 pages !!!! 

 

Regards, Philippe

Edited by pdussart
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  • 8 years later...
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I had no trouble communicating in Belgium or Holland as English is widely spoken. Even children as young as nine or ten speak passable English which they like to practice on you when they discover that you are a Brit.

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1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

I had no trouble communicating in Belgium or Holland as English is widely spoken. Even children as young as nine or ten speak passable English which they like to practice on you when they discover that you are a Brit.

I found that when we were there some years back.

In Brussels everybody understands English.

So they dont have to learn the opposition's language?:D

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We had a day trip to de Kusttram about 8 years ago in January. Luckily we live about 10 minutes form Eurotunnel and had Frequent Traveller ticket. We got to Vuerne and parked the car, asked for 2 day tickets and the man said €12. Each? Not bad. No, that was for 2 of us!

 

It was a wonderful sunny day and we just about managed a trip the whole length of the line with a couple of stops off for lunch and a look round some shops. One of the vintage trams had a quick foray out of the depot at de Hanne but I didn't manage to get a picture of it.

 

Something to beware of is that not all trams go "through" even though the timetable says they do. We had to get off one and get on the one in from somewhere along the way. But it was a nice day out, very sunny but cold. Plenty of free parking just across the border at Vuerne and a nice bar opposite the staion where we had a bite to eat and hot chocolate before coming back.

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