About 180 years ago, nearby our place, Europe welcomed the first trains on the continent. Quiet exiting for the people in those days to see those noisy, steam and fire vomiting monsters with a horrible speed of 30 km an hour, bridging over the twenty-two kilometers between Brussels and Malines in less than an hour. Pithy detail : in an old chronicle of the railway-direction you can read that « passengers and engine-drivers had no trouble with smoke nor dust during the trip » ( ?!?!) I toke another twenty years before the passengers could travel in decent closed wagons and the drivers-place was covered. These trains, builded in England, received romantic names like « The Elephant » or « The Arrow », the watercolor shows a restored engine of a few years later, builded in Belgium. Image size : 260 x 360 mm