Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne

Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne (TTA)
TTA diesel railcar AR 133
Route of the Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne
Route length:	11.2 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend Pont d' Erezée Blier Amonines Forge-à-la-Plez Dochamps Lamorménil

The Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne (TTA) has been one of the oldest museum railways in Belgium since 1966 . It runs between Érezée and Lamorménil in a rural area in the Belgian province of Luxembourg , mainly in the Aisne Valley.

founding

The non-profit association Tramway Touristique de l'Aisne (TTA) was founded on September 18, 1964 by members of the Association pour le Musée du Tramway (Amutra), which has managed a small railway museum in the old Schepdaal station since 1961, which mainly consists of meter- gauge vehicles the Societe nationale des chemins de fer vicinaux (SNCV).

After negotiations with the SNCV, a contract was concluded on April 1, 1965, in which the SNCV sold the TTA the right to use the 11.2 km section of Pont d'Érezée Lamorménil, provided that it pays repair and maintenance costs.

history

From 1965, the renovation of the line began and two AR 133 trams were parked on the siding in Blier. These trams were restored in the SNCV Cureghem workshop in 1966 . The museum railway operation began on June 25, 1966 on the 6 km long section from Erezée to Forge-to-the-Plez.

In 1967 a four-track stone coach house was built in Blier and a small wooden reception pavilion in Pont d'Erezée. The La Scarpe steam locomotive and a type 18 (HL 1076) small train steam locomotive were acquired, so that the first trains pulled by steam locomotives were running as early as 1968.

Signaling between Pont d'Erezée and Blier was restarted in 1970, and the following year, 1971, a second type 18 (HL 1075) steam locomotive was acquired. After a major overhaul, the La Scarpe steam locomotive was put back into service in 1973.

A severe storm destroyed the light signals in 1976. With the acquisition of the royal Ardennes car (A 165) in 1978, the TTA expanded its vehicle collection. In 1985, for the 100th anniversary of the SNCV, the general overhaul of the second type 18 (HL 1075) small steam locomotive was commissioned.

TTA diesel railcar AR 133

In 1989 steam operation had to be stopped because of the old age of the boilers. As a result, in 1992 the club members focused on repairing the section between Forge-to-the-Plez and Dochamps. In 1994 only 300 meters of track were missing between Dochamps and Lamorménil. The route could then be driven to the bridge over the Lue .

In 2005 the new station building in Pont d'Erezée was inaugurated. It has a counter hall, a room for the local tourist information, a cafeteria and sanitary facilities, and a large exhibition area on the first floor. The following year, 2006, a bypass road was built in Dochamps, enabling operations between Forge-to-the-Plez and Dochamps. Since then the navigable route length has been 9.4 km, and only a 1.8 km long section had to be rehabilitated to reach the end of the railway line in Lamorménil. In 2009, only the route between Pont d'Erezée and Forge-to-the-Plez was operated on schedule.

The clean-up work on the route between Dochamps and Lamorménil began in 2013. As a result, the route between Dochamps and Lamorménil was renovated in 2014 with a total budget of € 873,000. The work of the Socofer-Sotralux company was financially supported by the Région Wallonne , the Province of Luxembourg and the municipalities of Érezée and Manhay.

Lamorménil terminus

In 2015, Prince Laurent of Belgium officially opened the route extension from Forge à la Plez via Dochamps to Lamorménil on June 21, 2015. Since then, the route has been 11.2 km long.

Rail vehicles

No	Type	Manufacturer	Construction year	photo	Remarks
ART. 50	Autorail	SNCV Cureghem	1934		Formerly Sablières in Mol leased to ASVI in 2010
ART. 69	Autorail	Nicaise and Delcuve	1934		Formerly Sablières de Mol
AR.93	Autorail	SNCV Leuven	1933		From Brabant. Museum of Transport in Liège
AR.133	Autorail	Baume & Marpent	1935		From the Ardennes. Operational
ART. 123	Autorail	SNCV Leuven	1934		From the Ardennes
HL.1000	Steam locomotive	JJ Gilain, Tirlemont	1915		Type 18 (18 t)
HL.1075	Steam locomotive	Grand-Hornu, Mons	1920		Type 18
HL.1076	Steam locomotive	Grand-Hornu, Mons	1920		Type 18 Formerly a sugar factory in Wavre
A.1208	Passenger cars	Tyberchamps	1907		Operational
A.8944	Passenger cars	CCC	1916		Operational

Web links

Commons : Tramway touristique de l'Aisne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.tta.be (Official Website)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le Tramway Touristique de L'Aisne, conservatoire du tramway vicinal ardennais, asbl TTA, 2009
2. ↑ Avancez svp! Cent ans d'histoire vicinale en Belgique, Ovrage Collectif, Éditions De Nederlandsche Boekhandel , Kapellen, 1985

Coordinates: 50 ° 17 ′ 19.1 ″  N , 5 ° 32 ′ 54.3 ″  E