Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij () (VSM) is a Dutch heritage railway between

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is located about 60 km east of Utrecht, 60 km west of Enschede, 25 km north of Arnhem and 35 km south of Zwolle. The ...

and

Dieren Dieren () is a town in the eastern Netherlands. It is located in Rheden, Gelderland, between Zutphen and Arnhem, on the bank of the IJssel. Dieren was a separate municipality until 1818, when it became a part of Rheden. The Gazelle bicycle facto ...

. It passes through the villages of

Lieren Lieren is a village in the Netherlands and part of the municipality of Apeldoorn. It is situated about 8 km ( 5 miles) south-east of the city centre of Apeldoorn and 2 km east of Beekbergen. Despite its size, Lieren has a primary schoo ...

Beekbergen Beekbergen (; nds, Bekbargen or ''Beekbargen'') is a village and former municipality in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality of Apeldoorn on the edge of the Veluwe. The rural area on the southwestern side of the v ...

Loenen Loenen () is a former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It was in the ''Vechtstreek'' area. On January 1, 2011, Loenen merged with Breukelen and Maarssen to form Stichtse Vecht. Population centres The former municipa ...

, and

Eerbeek Eerbeek is a town in the municipality of Brummen in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Eerbeek was first mentioned in 1046 as ''Erbeke''. In the 18th century, Eerbeek became a centre of paper production. Due to its proximity to the V ...

. Rides on steam trains are popular with tourists visiting the region, and that is why VSM operates mainly during the summer vacation. VSM, founded in 1975, is operated by volunteers. In March 2011 one of the individuals who possessed a number of locomotives decided to sell his collection. This could have meant that VSM would lose some of the biggest and most popular locomotives in their collection. VSM decided to buy the whole collection in order to keep for future generations.

Back to Then

Each year, on the first weekend of September, the "Back to Then" (Dutch: ''Terug naar Toen'') event is held, using everything that will run. Usually a number of guest locomotives appear as well. The last run on Saturday used to be the highlight of the event until 2007, originating in Apeldoorn. The train was pushed and pulled by all operational steam locomotives. In 2005 and 2006 that was 10 engines and a number of carriages.

Locomotives

As of 2018, VSM has 19

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s and 23

diesel engines The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-calle ...

. Also over 20 passenger coaches and several goods wagons. The rolling stock is usually stationed at the VSM's depot at

. Most of the steam engines originate from Germany, from the

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained ...

and the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

. There are also 2 locomotives from Poland, and one from Austria. VSM displays engines of classes 23, 44, 50, 52.80, 64, 80, 41 and the Polish TKp. Most of these were built in the 1940 or 1950s. The oldest locomotive owned by the VSM is number 80 036 ( DRG Class 80) from 1929, and which has been at the VSM since 1976. The diesel engines are originally from the Dutch state railways,

Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and the ...

(NS). This way the VSM has a valuable collection of Dutch diesel engines dating from the fifties and sixties from the last century. Present are locomotors ( serie 200/300), shunters ( serie 500/600) and main line engines (series 2200/2300 and 2400/2500). Passenger coaches available from the NS are six ‘Blokkendozen’ (Mat '24), eleven ‘Bolkoppen’ (Plan D and Plan K) and two steel guard coaches. Also eight Austrian carriages with two axles and open platforms. Also present are 3 Wagon Lits dining cars and 3

Mitropa Mitropa was a catering company best known for having managed sleeping car, sleeping and dining cars of different German railways for most of the 20th century. Founded in 1916, the name "Mitropa" is an abbreviation of ''Mitteleuropa'' (German lan ...

cars. Most of these are licensed to run on the Dutch railways. Among the other items there are a coaling crane and an accident crane from the NS.

External links

Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij website

Stock List {{authority control Railway companies of the Netherlands Heritage railways in the Netherlands Railway museums in the Netherlands