I'm considering various options in the event of a Deutsche Bahn strike.

Are trains on the Thalys network, which start in Cologne and ends in Paris (so far as I know anyway) and go through Aachen, Liege, and Brussels, part of the Deutsche Bahn network? Is there any chance these trains would be affected by a Deutsche Bahn strike?

This is the response I got from Thalys:

Dear (name):

It is not possible to confirm if a DB strike will affect our traffic.

However several DB strikes already occurred last weeks and they never
affected Thalys traffic.

Kind regards,

==============

I guess I did not ask the correct question, because what I wanted to know is if Deutsche Bahn drivers drive Thalys trains. I'm guessing the answer is no, but I'm not sure.

If a German locomotive driver parks his train into a tunnel, on top of a switch, or on some other critical point and leaves it there, having non-GdL train drivers won´t help Thalys - they will have to wait just like anybody else until the blocking train is removed.
An alternative for you is taking the local bus (forgot the line number) from Aachen to Eupen. Eupen is a terminal station of the InterCity trains to Liege, Brussels and on to the coast, which will be of course not affected by strike.
Of course the tricky part is getting from Cologne to Aachen.

Last year we sat for half a day in Santorini because our Aegean Airline flight crew were sympathetic strikers for an Alitalia strike.

When it comes to striking it seems everyone becomes friends and joins in on the fun. Not sure if the same thing happens in train travel...but wouldn't be surprised.

There are buses from Cologne to Belgium, so if we decide to go that direction, I don't envision a problem (other than the buses being full).

That makes sense about possible saboteur action affecting other train lines.

Not sure about DB, but when there are strikes in France, in terms of the SNCF, generally the Thalys and Eurostar are not affected.

It is unlikely that drivers will park their trains any where but at the end station. They would be left stranded themselves if they did that after all. No The trains will just not travel on strike days. Unless the Thalys train has a German driver or the traffic controllers also go on strike I wouldn't think they will be affected.

>It is unlikely that drivers will park their trains any where but at the end station. They would be left stranded themselves if they did that after all.

They did that during the general strike in early July.

>Unless the Thalys train has a German driver or the traffic controllers also go on strike

This time the traffic controllers are not on strike - this one is purely by the loco drivers (and the reason of it is more or less that they want to be recognised, and negotiated with, as a separate union instead of being a part of Transnet)