On Sunday, the Prinz Guillaume steam train, otherwise known as the 5519 locomotive, operated between Luxembourg gare and Kleinbettingen.
The 65 year-old locmotoive pulled four carriages, with passengers paying €15 for the return journey. It attracted train enthusiasts and members of the public lookign for somethign different for a day out.
In the 1920s-60s, Kleinbettingen was popluar with people travelling out by train on a Sunday and eating at one of the many restaurants in the town; nowadays just a couple remain, the Brailaiffel and the Paparlapub. Today, the fare was simpler, with a couple of tented stands erected to offer a barbecue and a bar, operated by 5519 asbl, members of which also sold mementoes from the train station's ticket office / waiting room. The steam train stopped off at Bertrange-Strassen, Mamer and Capellen railway stations, in both directions, three times during the mornign and afternoon.
Locomotive 5519 was built in Vienna in 1948, and was allocated the number 42 2718 as it was intended to be used on the Reichsbahn, but it was never used as such. It was delivered to Bettembourg in January 1949 and was commissioned as a passenger locomotive the following month; it was decommissioned in 1961, when it was transferred along with 20 sister locomotives to transport coal and iron ore from the mines in the south-west of the country, to France and Belgium.
In 1964, however, the diesel locomotive arrived on the scene and steam locomotives were consigned to history. Locomotive 5519 made it last commercial trip on 21 July 1965 to Bettembourg and lay on a siding for almost 22 years, after which the 5519 asbl was founded and locomotive 5519 was restored (in Pétange) aover a period of four years - including a stint in Meiningen, the far side of Frankfurt. In April 1992, locomotive 5519 was back operational again has has served as a special train service in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany since then. From time to time it has been taken out of service temporarily, for repairs.
Photos by Geoff Thompson
