Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden

Steam train on Lake Valkenburg

The Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden (until March 2015: Stoomtrein Valkenburgse Meer) is a narrow-gauge railway around Lake Valkenburg in Valkenburg , a district of Katwijk in South Holland .

history

Passenger train with Orenstein & Koppel locomotive No. 1 Marijnke , 2006

From 1973, a steam train drove through the dunes of Katwijk on a narrow-gauge railway line that had previously been used by the Leiden Dune Water Company ( Leidsche Duinwater Maatschappij ) for freight transport. The company allowed some railway fans of the Dutch Narrow Gauge Foundation ( Nederlandse Smalspoorstichting ) to travel through the dunes with a tram and a steam locomotive from the beginning of the 20th century with self-made cars from the stop in Friesenweg ( Vrieze Wei ) near the village center .

In the late 1980s, the forest administration decided on behalf of the owner of the Katwijker Sea Dunes that tourists were no longer allowed to walk through the dunes and also objected to the railway operation because of the risk of fire. So a new company was formed to build a line for the rolling stock of the Narrow Gauge National Museum. In 1992 the last trip through the south dunes was made and in 1993 the new route around the Valkenburg lake - along the former airfield Valkenburg - was put into operation. In 1995 the National Narrow Gauge Railway Museum was opened. It contains many steam and diesel locomotives, as well as other exhibits related to narrow-gauge railways. Two showpieces are the last steam locomotives on the Gelderse Tram . From 2003 an open-air museum was built with several locomotive sheds for various narrow-gauge vehicles.

Route

Route around the Valkenburger See

The line with a gauge of 700 mm has its starting point at the historic-style station building next to the modern museum. From there, you can take trains pulled by steam or diesel locomotives around the lake to the scenic Wassenaarse Wetering . After maneuvering to move the locomotive, the train ride goes back to the station and the coach house next to it near the museum. From there, trains pulled by a diesel locomotive run to the depot , where vehicles to be restored can be viewed. The route length is approx. 4.5 km. Maybe in the future it will be possible to drive around the lake. This depends on the sand extraction at Lake Valkenburg. The line was initially built as a field railway with a rail weight of 12 kg / m. Since 2004, parts of the line have been renewed with heavier rails with 24 kg / m, which are less susceptible to maintenance.

In 2006, an agreement was reached with the Katwijk municipal council to extend the narrow-gauge railway towards the dunes. This involves a new route several kilometers in length, which became possible due to the closure of the airfield. However, construction work for the construction of the open-air museum and the restoration of some steam locomotives has not yet started.

Timetable

The museum is usually open on weekends from Easter weekend until the end of October. On these days, the steam train usually leaves at 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. There are additional opening days during the school holidays and for special events. B. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Historic locomotives are used with passenger cars or lorries built in the 1980s.