The Veluwsche Stoomtrein, Apeldoorn to Dieren

The last goods train between Apeldoorn and Dieren ran on 1 June 1984, and it was hauled by a steam locomotive. Not a farewell special: by then the only steam on the line belonged to the Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij, which had been running museum trains over the same track since 1975. The railway itself opened on 28 June 1887, twenty-two kilometres of local line from the royal town of Apeldoorn south along the edge of the Veluwe to Dieren on the IJssel, carrying passengers until 1947 and wood and paper for the mills of Eerbeek for a generation after that. Since 2004 the line has belonged to the VSM outright.

What runs on it now is out of all proportion to a country branch. The VSM's collection pages list nineteen steam locomotives, ten of them in working order, and nearly all are German: passenger engines of the Bundesbahn's last steam class, wartime freight engines built by the thousand, machines close to 23 metres long and well over a hundred tonnes. They pull Austrian coaches with open balconies and Dutch carriages of the 1920s, and the whole railway is run by volunteers.

The ride is short and unhurried: out of Apeldoorn beside a canal, across the fields of Lieren to the museum depot at Beekbergen, then into the Veluwe woods to Loenen and the paper village of Eerbeek. On high-summer weekdays the train goes on through more forest to Dieren. A day ticket rides all day, and the long stop at Beekbergen, among the turntable, the coaling crane and the engines being prepared, is half the point.

The VSM's platform at Apeldoorn faces the NS station, so the steam train is a walk across the tracks from any Intercity. The line was once part of the Koning Willem III-lijn, which ran from Dieren through Apeldoorn to Zwolle; the section north of Apeldoorn has been lifted, and the first three kilometres south of the station, as far as the VAM works, still carry refuse trains. Out of Apeldoorn the track bends south to run beside the Apeldoorn Canal, leaves the canal at the VSM's main workshop, which is not open to visitors, and crosses under the A1 into the rolling country around Lieren.

Beekbergen and the engines

Museumstation Beekbergen stands in Lieren, outside Beekbergen itself, and it is the heart of the railway. Most trains start here, and every regular train stops for the best part of an hour: long enough to see the depot, the workshop, the turntable, a coaling crane that moves on rails, water columns, semaphore signals and level crossings worked by hand.

Which engine pulls your train depends on the day. The ten in working order include the two class 23s, 23 071 and 23 076, built by Jung in 1956 for the Bundesbahn's passenger trains — the class was the last steam locomotive design the DB built, the final one in 1959. There are wartime freight engines of classes 50 and 52, among them 52 8139, which the VSM has had since 1989; 64 415 of 1936 and 65 018, a tank engine of 1956; 41 241 of 1939; and 44 1593, a three-cylinder heavy freight engine built in Lille in 1943. The oldest of all, 80 036, a shunting tank built by Hohenzollern in 1929, came from a Ruhr coal company in 1976 and is in the final stages of an overhaul.

Into the woods

From Beekbergen the line runs straight through the fields of Lieren to Halte Immenbergweg, a stop for the holiday parks among the trees, and then into the Veluwe forest proper. For several kilometres the train runs through the Immenbos, passes under the A50, and comes out into meadows just before Loenen, where a new five-track shed opened in August 2026 to keep the stock dry.

The line crosses more meadows to Eerbeek, running through the middle of the village to a station still worked with semaphores; wood and paper for the mills here were what the goods trains carried. On most days the train turns back at Eerbeek. On the summer days it continues, back into the woods for a few kilometres and then beside the canal into the middle of Dieren, where the VSM platform faces the NS station again.

The steam train does not run every day. The operator colours each running day in its online calendar by timetable, and in 2026 the season ran from Easter Sunday, 5 April, to Sunday 25 October: every Sunday, plus Easter Monday, Whit Monday and a few school-holiday weekdays. From 13 July to 30 August it ran six days a week, every day but Saturday. Times below are the operator's own, read in November 2026.

Most days — the green timetable

On Sundays and most other running days there is one train, which starts at Beekbergen, runs up to Apeldoorn and then out to Eerbeek and back, with a 55-minute stop at the Beekbergen depot. It does not go to Dieren.

Summer Tuesdays to Thursdays — the blue timetable, through to Dieren

On most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 21 July to 27 August 2026 the day is longer and the afternoon train runs the whole line. Boarding the 13:55 at Apeldoorn gives the full journey to Dieren in one go.

The morning train waits at Beekbergen until 13:10 and is back in Apeldoorn at 13:35. There is also an early run from Beekbergen at 09:40, reaching Apeldoorn at 10:05. The steam train does not go back from Dieren to Apeldoorn; bus 43 links the two by way of Beekbergen, or NS by changing trains.

Festivals and winter

Terug naar Toen takes over the first full weekend of September — Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September in 2026 — with passenger trains from 08:30 to 17:30 and shuttles between Apeldoorn, Beekbergen, Loenen, Eerbeek and Dieren. The Sinterklaas Pepernoten-Express runs on Sunday 22 November 2026 and the Christmas-Express on 12 and 13 December, both booked in advance. Between 26 and 28 December a winter timetable runs Beekbergen 11:55 – Apeldoorn – Eerbeek – Beekbergen 14:30, then Apeldoorn and back by 15:40.

Running days and times are published by the operator: VSM · Dienstregeling (opens in a new tab).

On a regular running day the fare is a day ticket: ride as often as you like, and the visit to Museumstation Beekbergen is included. Buy it online in advance (the operator recommends it, and asks you to print the e-ticket), at the station building in Beekbergen, or from the conductor on the platform or aboard. Payment on the day is by card only — there is no cash. Seats are not reserved, except on the lunch trains.

Children up to three travel free. The Dutch Museumkaart is not valid. Dogs may come, but there is no room for bicycles this year. Festival, lunch and Sinterklaas trains have their own fares. Fares read from the operator in November 2026.

No rail pass covers the steam train. The Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij is an independent museum railway, and it does not appear in Interrail's list of Dutch operators — which, checked in November 2026 (last updated 21 October), names NS and its international partners, Eurostar, European Sleeper, Qbuzz, Arriva, Keolis, VIAS, Eurobahn and NMBS, and no one else. A pass holder pays €22.50 like everyone else.

A pass does cover the trains that get you there. NS Sprinters and Intercitys are included with no reservation, and NS serves both Apeldoorn and Dieren, where the VSM platform faces the main-line station. There is no Netherlands-only Interrail pass: the country comes under the Benelux One Country Pass, shared with Belgium and Luxembourg, and the Global Pass. A One Country Pass cannot be used in the country you live in, so a Dutch reader gets nothing from it at home.

Whether it is worth it

For this journey alone, no. The only rail travel a pass would pay for is the NS ride to Apeldoorn and home from Dieren or Apeldoorn, which is not worth a pass day. It earns its keep only if the Veluwe is one day of a longer trip around the Low Countries — and even then the steam train is bought separately.

The line links a royal town and a river town along the eastern edge of the Veluwe, and the day ticket and the long Beekbergen stop leave room to see more than the railway at either end.

Most visitors come for the day, but the regular train starts at Beekbergen at 11:10 and the through working to Dieren runs only in the summer, so a night at either end helps. Apeldoorn has the wider choice; the Dieren end has castles and the Veluwezoom on the doorstep.

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