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Description
Gouvy (Belgium), January 2nd 2017

Officially, the steam era or the Belgian Railways ended on December 20th 1966, when the last commercial steam passenger service ran between Ath and Denderleeuw. However, the last actual steam service took place some twenty days later, on January 10th 1967, when the Gouvy depot retired the last of its Type 81 (Prussian G8.1) steam engines. Unfortunately, not a single of the Belgian Railways' 576 Type 81s were preserved.

Even as steam engines started being retired in the 1950s, the railways decided to recycle rather than scrap certain pieces of equipment. Some locomotives either had their boilers removed so these could be used as static steam boilers for engine depots, or in some cases, the locomotives as a whole were used as mobile steam boilers, usually with their running gear removed.

In other cases, tenders were recycled or rebuilt when their locomotives were taken out of service. Some tenders were rebuilt as water carriers, while others like this one were rebuilt as snow ploughs.

It is probably lost to time what identity this Type 24 tender carried during its hey days, or which locomotive it belonged to. Built between 1910 and 1929 as one of 495 Type 24 tenders, these were used on a wide variety of locomotives, including the Type 7.1, Type 7.2, Type 7.4, Type 9, Type 10, Type 31, Type 33, Type 36, and Type 38.

Following the gradual withdrawal of these locomotive classes (Type 33 in 1949; Type 9 & 36 in 1951; Type 7.1 in 1954; Type 7.2 in 1955; Type 38 in 1957; Type 10 in 1959; Type 31 in 1960; and finally the Type 7.4 in 1962), a large number of Type 24 tenders became surplus to requirements, most of which were scrapped along with their locomotives, but a handful of which were converted by depots as snowploughs. These survived into the post-steam era, but were eventually replaced by specially adapted diesel locomotives.

Description
Gouvy (Belgium), January 2nd 2017

Officially, the steam era or the Belgian Railways ended on December 20th 1966, when the last commercial steam passenger service ran between Ath and Denderleeuw. However, the last actual steam service took place some twenty days later, on January 10th 1967, when the Gouvy depot retired the last of its Type 81 (Prussian G8.1) steam engines. Unfortunately, not a single of the Belgian Railways' 576 Type 81s were preserved.

Even as steam engines started being retired in the 1950s, the railways decided to recycle rather than scrap certain pieces of equipment. Some locomotives either had their boilers removed so these could be used as static steam boilers for engine depots, or in some cases, the locomotives as a whole were used as mobile steam boilers, usually with their running gear removed.

In other cases, tenders were recycled or rebuilt when their locomotives were taken out of service. Some tenders were rebuilt as water carriers, while others like this one were rebuilt as snow ploughs.

It is probably lost to time what identity this Type 24 tender carried during its hey days, or which locomotive it belonged to. Built between 1910 and 1929 as one of 495 Type 24 tenders, these were used on a wide variety of locomotives, including the Type 7.1, Type 7.2, Type 7.4, Type 9, Type 10, Type 31, Type 33, Type 36, and Type 38.

Following the gradual withdrawal of these locomotive classes (Type 33 in 1949; Type 9 & 36 in 1951; Type 7.1 in 1954; Type 7.2 in 1955; Type 38 in 1957; Type 10 in 1959; Type 31 in 1960; and finally the Type 7.4 in 1962), a large number of Type 24 tenders became surplus to requirements, most of which were scrapped along with their locomotives, but a handful of which were converted by depots as snowploughs. These survived into the post-steam era, but were eventually replaced by specially adapted diesel locomotives.