Brussels: 'Top and Tail' NMBS/SNCB Class 18 electric locos (nos. 1886 leading & 1876 rear) leave Bruxelles Nord (Brussels North) on train IC2114, the 1433 Bruxelles Midi - Luxembourg.
Clip recorded 2nd May 2023.

The SNCB/NMBS HLE 18 (Siemens class ES60U3) are a series of four axle Bo′Bo′ multivoltage electric Siemens EuroSprinter locomotives ordered in two batches of sixty in 2006 and 2008.

The locomotives were supplied for use by SNCB/NMBS (Belgian national railways) on passenger services.

96 of the class form the HLE 18 class, 24 units fitted with an automatic central coupler form the SNCB HLE 19 class.

The locomotives were ordered to replace SNCB Class 13 and Class 27 locomotives on passenger intercity services.

Locomotive number 1860 was officially presented at InnoTrans in 2008. The first unit, number 1801 was transferred to the Velim railway test circuit for testing in December 2008.

On March 3, 2009, the first unit (roadnumber 1802) was officially delivered to SNCB/NMBS for test and homologation purpose. Homologation issues delayed commercial introduction (originally planned for the summer timeschedule - May 2011), as a result Siemens was obliged to pay the maximum amount of penalties (€ 21.12 million).

In July 2011 the first revenue earning Intercity services ran, under temporary approval. The type received homologation certification for use in Belgium in late 2011.
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Brussels-North railway station (French: Gare de Bruxelles-Nord, Dutch: Station Brussel-Noord), officially Brussels-North (French: Bruxelles-Nord, Dutch: Brussel-Noord), is one of the three major railway stations in Brussels, Belgium; the other two are Brussels-Central and Brussels-South. Every regular domestic and international train (except Thalys and Eurostar) passing there has a planned stop. The station has 200,000 passengers per week, mainly commuters, making it one of the busiest in Belgium.

Brussels-North is the end point of the premetro (underground tram) North–South Axis (on lines 3 and 4), and an important node of the Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company (STIB/MIVB), as well as of bus lines of the Flemish transport company De Lijn. More than 30 regional bus lines depart from there, as do international Eurolines coach services.

The station is located in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek, in the middle of the Northern Quarter business district (also called Little Manhattan), with several corporation headquarters such as Belgacom Towers, Rogier Tower and others, government offices, as well as Flemish ministries. Right next to the station is the Rue d'Aerschot/Aarschotstraat, an area of prostitution "behind windows".

The Brussels-Capital Region is bilingual; hence, both the French and Dutch names of the station—Bruxelles-Nord and Brussel-Noord—are official. Outside Belgium, this often leads to the use of combined shorthands; for example in the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, Brussels-North is designated as Brussels Nord/Noord; NS (Dutch Railways) announce the station as Brussel Noord/Nord. The station's bilingual French–Dutch name is otherwise generally translated in English to Brussels-North.
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NMBS/SNCB is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB, however it is commonly referred to in English and internationally using just the French abbreviation SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Velde consists of the linguistically neutral letter B in a horizontal oval.

Belgium has a rail network of 3,602km of main railway lines (or 6,399km of mainline tracks).

The network currently includes four high speed lines suitable for 300 km/h (190 mph) traffic: HSL 1 runs from just south of Brussels to the French border, where it continues to a triangular junction with LGV Nord for Paris Nord and Lille Flandres (and London beyond that), HSL 2 runs from Leuven to Ans and onward to Liège-Guillemins, HSL 3 runs from Liège to the German border near Aachen and HSL 4 connects with HSL-Zuid in the Netherlands to allow services to run from Antwerpen-Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal.
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