ASVi museum

The ASVi is a tramway museum in Thuin in Belgium, which specialises in the history of the Belgian narrow gauge Vicinal system. The museum includes an operating museum tram line which runs from Thuin to Lobbes.

10308 "Standard Métallique" maneuvering at the museum
Tram map of Tramway Lobbes Thuin

The metre gauge historic tram line is made of two sections :

  • a part of the former vicinal tramway line Thuin - Anderlues (lines 91 and 92). This line was part of the famous and extensive Belgian vicinal tramway network which once covered the whole country ;
  • a part of the SNCB normal gauge line (line 109 Mons - Chimay) which was converted to metric gauge and equipped with an overhead line for power supply.

Description of the historic line

Leaving the Thuin museum, the line follows first the former SNCB line, and then follows the "avenue de la Couture" towards the cemetery of Thuin and a bridge to cross the Sambre. Then it goes down along the SNCB railway and reaches Lobbes Pont du Nord where it crosses Route Nationale 559. Then it goes around Lobbes along a western itinerary to reach the station Lobbes Hôtel de Ville. From there, the line turns again towards RN 559 to reach it at the level of the station Lobbes Entreville ; from there the line is on the west side of this road to the terminus of Lobbes Bonniers. This northern section is one of the last electrified roadside sections of tramway which remains in Belgium.

From avenue de la Couture, a section of the former vicinal also allows to reach the lower part of Thuin on the banks of Sambre.

In August 2010, a 3 km extension to Biesme-sous-Thuin has been inaugurated. It is established on the platform of the former SNCB line from Mons to Chimay.

Rolling stock

In the museum - from left to right, 10409 "PCC", A.9073 and HL303

The collection also includes a PCC streetcar which has quite an uncommon story. It is part of a first series of 24 cars built for Belgium in 1950, which were transferred to Belgrade in 1960. One model of this iconic vehicle was brought back to Belgium in 1986.

In working order

ASVi #TypeManufacturerYear
AR.86RailcarSNCV Brabant1934
ART.300[1]RailcarSNCV Andenne1947
A.9073M2Electricité et Hydraulique1901
A.9515M2Le Rœulx1918
9924M2La Dyle à Louvain1931
9974 "Type SE"M4SNCV Brabant1958
10284 "Type Eugies"M4Braine-le-Comte1936
10308 "Standard Métallique"M4Baume et Marpent1942
10409 "PCC"M4La Brugeoise & Nicaise & Delcuve1949
10480 "Type N"M4SNCV Cureghem1954
HL303Type 7La Métallurgique à Tubize1888
A.9385 "Type Manage"M2Franco-Belge1910
9063 "Type S"M4SNCV Brabant1956

Out of order

ASVi #TypeManufacturerYearCondition
9598M2SNCV Eugies1951To be restored
9603M2Seneffe1919To be restored
9888M2Franco-Belge à La Croyère1930Under restoration
9963 "Fourgon-moteur"M2Godarville1916Under restoration
9984 "Standard Bois"M4Braine-le-Comte1932To be restored
10393 "BLC"M4Braine-le-Comte1949To be restored
gollark: BEE Grafana.
gollark: Well, this is extremely awful.
gollark: Oh, okay then.
gollark: Am I safe if there's no unauthenticated access to any graphs?
gollark: It wasn't very clearly documented.

References

  1. "Train SNCV-NMVB in Thuin - photo 1939". Lesrails.com. Retrieved 2018-12-08.



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