Finding out the location	very easy
Access	hard
Safety	safe
Risk of being seen	very high
General condition of the place	good
Traces of vandalism	many
Good place for taking pictures?	very good
Did you see other people?	few

Visit date    June 3 2022 at 15 hr
Visit duration    2 hours

In 1881, construction of a repair workshop for steam locomotives and goods wagons began on the 18-hectare site. After 3 years of construction, the repair shop, then also known as "Atelier Central de Réparation", was inaugurated in 1884.

In 1926 it was then taken over by the NMBS, which was founded in the same year.
There was an office complex there, several repair shops (joinery, turnery)
There were also larger storage areas for spare parts, tools, wood and oil.
There was also a turntable and a water tower.

Later, main inspections and repair work on various freight wagons were mainly carried out here. Some new freight cars were also built. Furthermore, the plant was responsible for the repair and manufacture of spare parts for wagons and railway equipment.

Over the years, the workshops have been regularly modernized and a paint shop has also been built. Many of the buildings from the founding years are still there today and some of them are listed monuments.

After 135 years, operations ceased in 2019 after a new repair workshop was inaugurated.

In the meantime, the entire site has been sold for an amount in the mid-2nd digit millions.

Since it is very centrally located, a new residential area will be created here.
In the huge halls you can now find hundreds of graffiti, many of which are really worth seeing. In addition to many unknown artists, there are also works by well-known street art artists such as Samor, ROA and ARRF.

Because of the many great graffitis, there are a few more pictures this time.
You can find the complete album with 130 pictures here: www.tomvandutch.de/arsenaal

  Text and photos are by tomvandutch. Click here to see tomvandutch's profile and other reports.

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