The Netherlands’ most famous railway photographer Roef Ankersmit would also travel on the train. In 2021, a thick book of his will be published with an overview of his work: in 65 years he recorded the major changes in railways. Also in Drenthe. In 2021 Ankersmit made a trip for RTV Drenthe back to ‘rail places’ in Drenthe that have now completely changed or even disappeared.
Ankersmit was supposed to board in Zwolle today, but his train stranded due to a problem with the overhead lines between Deventer and Zwolle. So unfortunately no renewed meeting with Ankersmit.
The 1251, which pulled the historic train, now belongs to RailExperts, the company where former Beilenaar Michiel Dermois works. RailExperts is a ‘large supplier of special journeys and special transport by rail’, such as supervising steam train journeys and collecting new trains for NS from foreign factories.
Dermois also restores historic Dutch train equipment and, with a foundation, is committed to later running historic Dutch train equipment on the Dutch railway network. Dermois drove the historic train himself today.
Today’s historic train drove a ‘circle’ Amersfoort – Zwolle – Coevorden – Bad Bentheim – Deventer – Amersfoort. Because there is no electrical overhead line on the Bentheimer Eisenbahn, the BE took care of the transport of the train to Bad Bentheim on their route with an extra diesel locomotive.