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Van Hool AI119/2 #72
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The last trams in the Belgian city of Verviers were replaced by buses on 1 January 1970. This 1975 DAF lasted in service until the regional TEC company took over from STIV in 1995. This is the first time that transport in Verviers has featured on TWB.
Comments: 1
Leyland Olympic EL40 / La Métallurgique #AB955
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The SNCV was the national tramway company of Belgium. What is less well known is that it also ran buses, usually as replacements when tram lines were closed down. This one was built in 1952 and ran in the Namur area. Like most SNCV vehicles, it was specially built. Not the prettiest bus in the world, I think……..
Comments: 1
DAB 11-0920S #3983
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. One for the TWB detectives, I think. This Scania DAB ultra-low-floor bus stands in a corner of the Liege transport museum. It’s in TEC colours, but looks as if it is brand new and has never been registered or operated. It originated from the Danish Silkeborg plant, which (I thought) stopped making buses in 2003 when the company went bankrupt. An impressive bus, though – the floor is only 17cm from the ground, and lowers another 6cm at stops. So what’s the story, I wonder? If it was built several years ago, why has TEC never used it, and why is it in the museum?
Comments: 8
Mercedes-Benz O317 / Van Hool #229
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. I’m not sure, but I think this Mercedes is an 0302 model. It dates from 1963 and was in Liege city service until 1976, when it was moved to the transport museum. Are there any Mercedes experts out there who can identify it?
Comments: 1
Brossel / Paul D`Heure / ACEC #402
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. Two pictures inside the double-ended trolleybus, showing the steering wheels and controls at BOTH ends! This must have been very interesting to drive………
Brossel / Paul D`Heure / ACEC #402
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. For those who missed it when I showed it before – the craziest trolleybus in the world! This amazing DOUBLE-ENDED, three-axle bus from the suburban RELSE company has to be seen to be believed. Several of these buses were operated along a line where there was no room to build a turning place, so they went backwards and forwards like a tram. They carried FOUR trolleypoles, of course!
Comments: 2
FN T54 / ACEC #544
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. A later Type 54 trolleybus from 1954, by which time the city operator had changed its name to STIL and adopted a different colour scheme. A very nice bus.
TN T32 / CEB #432
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. Today, here are some Liege trolleybuses. The city once had two trolleybus operators and three different tramway systems – all gone, now, of course. This is a typical Type T32 trolleybus of 1932 that operated in Liege until 1971. Note the wartime headlamp masks.
ACEC VAU #001
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. This passenger information display inside Car 1 gives a clue to where the Liege TAU would have run – it would have been lit from behind when in use, so it’s rather difficult to photograph. It gives some idea of the original plan, though. They say that at least one tunnel is still there, but closed off. Now Liege is just a city of buses, having scrapped all its trams, too.
ACEC VAU #001
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The control desk in TAU Car 1, which would normally be closed, as operation would have been entirely automatic.
ACEC VAU #002
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. Inside VAU car 2 – like travelling to work in a cupboard! I think the outside dimensions are a little less than a Lille VAL car, which makes them very small indeed. Seven dwarves would fit OK, but Snow White would need to take the bus.
Comments: 1
ACEC VAU #002
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The very odd wheel arrangement of the TAU cars. There were four independent driving wheels per car, each with a small guide wheel, designed to turn corners of only 10m radius. That would have been worth seeing! No VAL-style rubber tyres here, but just steel wheels on steel rails. Current collection was by outside third rail.
ACEC VAU #002
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The second prototype car. These are reported to have run many km on test at Jumet, but the whole project was kept very quiet, and it is difficult to find out much information today. Why was it suddenly abandoned, I wonder? ACEC is now part of Alstom, of course – perhaps they killed off the project when they took over? Now, Liege again has plans to reintroduce trams, or maybe make another attempt to build a metro.
Comments: 2
ACEC VAU #001
5 june 2009 - Liege (BE) – museum Natalis. The ‘secret’ metro that never was…..in 1985, the city of Liege began to construct a metre-gauge light metro, based on VAL principles, called the Transport Automatise Urbain (TAU). Some tunnels were started and a test track was installed behind the TEC depot in Jumet (Charleroi), where these two prototype cars ran for some time- then the project was suddenly (and very quietly) abandoned. The two cars now stand in the Natalis Transport Museum.
Brossel / Paul D`Heure / ACEC #402
11 august 1999 - Liege Transport Museum, Belgium/Belgie. The other end of the RELSE trolleybus is identical, as shown here. This might be the back – or perhaps it’s the front? Luckily, there was only one driver ;-) 
Brossel / Paul D`Heure / ACEC #402
11 august 1999 - Liege Transport Museum, Belgium/Belgie. The RELSE operated an interurban tram route from Liege to Seraing until 1968. In Seraing, a trolleybus line was introduced in 1936, but there was no room at the terminus for a normal turning circle of overhead wires. The solution? A double-ended trolleybus! Believe it if you will – THREE axles, TWO sets of driver controls (including TWO steering wheels) and FOUR trolley poles! This last survivor of these four amazing buses ran until 1963. This picture shows the front – or maybe the back – who knows?
Comments: 4
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