Railtours and Freight in The Netherlands | 8th & 9th September 2023

The last thing I did in The Netherlands this year was spend the evening of Friday the 8th and all day on the 9th seeing a few railtours around the country and whatever freight passed me whilst doing it.
On the 8th there was a charter around the docks and harbour lines of Rotterdam using preserved Plan V number 466 'De Karel'. Because the lines it was covering are electrified at 25kV AC however, and the unit runs on 1,500V DC, it had to be dragged around by RTB Cargo Vectron 193 945. I saw it returning to IJsselmonde Rangeerterrein at Rotterdam Lombardijen in the evening where the loco came off and then about an hour later the unit passed Rotterdam Centraal under it's own power returning to Zanderij in Amersfoort empty.
The day after there was some more specials out and about, and was an early start for me still in Rotterdam to see Stoom Stichting Nederland's BR 23 number 23 023 depart with a railtour bound for Bochum in Germany. The tour travelled via Gouda, Utrecht and 's Hertogenbosch so I beat it to Venlo by getting an IC Direct to Eindhoven and changing there. At Venlo the BR 23 came off and was replaced by Smart Rail BR 111 number 111 174 carrying the old beige and blue livery for the rest of the journey to Bochum. I then travelled a few stations back along The Brabantroute to Horst-Sevenum to see the empty coaching stock move of The Rheingold going to Venlo to pick up passengers for it's tour to Rotterdam Docks. I saw it a little later on it's way there pass through Helmond Brandevoort and return in the evening past Geldermalsen. Whilst I was there just 4 minutes behind it was the TCS Dinnertrein on it's evening circular journey. I hope you enjoy the video and feel free to comment down below!

[@daystatesniper01]

Good video Dan , that BR23 looked stunning mate.