A decommissioned SNCB/NMBS Autorail Série 400, unit no. 4001, rests abandoned on a disused siding near Charleroi, Belgium. Built in the early 1950s by BN (La Brugeoise et Nivelles), these diesel multiple units were among Belgium’s first post-war efforts to modernize regional and intercity rail travel, replacing steam on secondary lines. The streamlined design and two-tone red-and-cream livery reflected the optimism of that era’s industrial renewal. Decades later, this car’s faded paint, shattered windows, and rust-etched steel now mark the slow decay of a machine that once represented progress in Belgian transport history. The surrounding derelict depot underscores the decline of Wallonia’s railway manufacturing heritage.

A 118-meter-tall cooling tower stands amid overgrown trees at the former Monceau-sur-Sambre power station near Charleroi, Belgium. Constructed in the 1960s as part of a large coal-fired generating complex operated by Electrabel, the hyperboloid structure was engineered from reinforced concrete with vertical ribbing to support its weight and withstand wind pressure. The tower once cooled thousands of cubic meters of water per hour, discharging excess heat from the station’s turbines that supplied electricity to the industrial Walloon region. Following the plant’s closure in the early 2000s, the site has remained disused, its monumental scale and weathered surface now emblematic of Charleroi’s industrial decline and gradual environmental recovery.

Dense vegetation surrounds the concrete base of a decommissioned cooling tower in Charleroi, Belgium. The structure’s massive form rises from a patch of overgrowth and debris, where nature has begun reclaiming the once-industrial site. The cooling tower, part of an abandoned power plant complex, remains a reminder of the region’s post-industrial landscape and transition away from coal-era energy infrastructure.