Steam locomotive from 1885 by Société Anonyme de Couillet Belgique №794, RENFE, Spain.
Location: Terrassa city, Catalonia
Hainaut-Sambre was a Belgian group of steel companies based in the Charleroi region, it was founded in 1955 by the merger of Usine Métallurgiques du Hainaut (based in Couillet, Charleroi), and the metal making division of Sambre et Moselle (based in Montignies-sur-Sambre, Charleroi).
The company absorbed another Charleroi based steel group Thy-Marcinelle et Providence in 1980 before being merged with the Liège Province based steel group Cockerill in 1981 to form Cockerill-Sambre.
The Société anonyme Usines Métallurgiques du Hainaut (English: ‘Hainaut metal works company’), part of SA Marcinelle & Couillet, built steam locomotives at a plant in Couillet near Charleroi, so they are commonly known as “Couillet Locomotives”.
The locomotives were exported and a few now operated on heritage railways. No’s. 861 “John Benn” and 986 “Carbon” were built by Couillet for Decauville, for use in the works of the Melbourne Metropolitan Gas Company in Australia. They are now part of the locomotive fleet of the Puffing Billy Railway.
One locomotive on the Chemin de fer touristique du Tarn (Tarn Light Railway) in France is classified as a historic monument (Monument historique).
