Innholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2022 i Locomotives International

STEAM IN TWO POLANDS by Steve Szwejkowski All photographs by the Author Maybe it was because of his own journeys in pre-war Poland or his experience of interminable days and nights aboard crawling troop trains but my father could never really understand my interest in steam railways. I must admit that it was only after BR steam finished that I took any interest in the odd-looking locomotives of continental Europe but all that changed at the first glimpse of a DB 012 Pacific at Rheine in 1971. I had in fact almost gone to Poland back in 1969 and I got as far as the Polish consulate before finding that I was too idle to complete the visa paperwork and opted instead for a week with a WR railrover. Now…

PARAGUAY: A TRIP DOWN THE ABAI BRANCH by Mike Clendining All photographs by the Author on 4th October 1990 Our special was waiting at the station for us behind loco 104. It stood on rails almost totally obscured by thick tropical grass. The train included a dining car, in which a quite presentable brunch was served. The sun rose in a clear blue sky as we crossed a verdant grass plain dotted with small ponds and occupied by cattle, cowboys and a few small villages. San Salvador is the junction for the Abai branch. Our loco took water and (wood) fuel as we explored the small loco shed and station where some passengers were waiting for the international train (Buenos Aires – Asuncion) (steam hauled, of course) which was running…

HIGH SPEED TO GALICIA by Mike Bent David Gubler via Wikimedia Creative Commons Over the past 160 years three railways have been built between Castilla-León and the far northwest of Spain. the first took 21 years to complete, the second 31 years, and the third, 21 years. The first two railways The first was the single track main line from A Coruña via Betanzos. Lugo, Monforte de Lemos, Ponferrada and León to Palencia and Venta de Baños, the junction with the Madrid to Irún main line. Built between 1862 and 1 September 1883, this 541.1 km railway’s principal civil engineering features are 85 tunnels (three subsequently daylighted), the longest Oural, 1905 m, north of Monforte, La Chanca viaduct immediately to the southeast of Lugo station (20 arch spans each of…

DURBAN DELIGHTS & DECAY by Malcolm Ravenscroft All photographs by the Author…

THE SBB’S “MICHELINES” by Ron Smith Bernhard Stuber Railway rolling stock is heavily engineered and in the 1930s was growing heavier and heavier with each new locomotive and coach built. The contact surface between wheel and rail is quite small, and it needed the weight of the locomotive pressing down on its wheels to provide the tractive effort. If you could achieve the necessary traction and tractive effort with a lightweight train there would be huge cost savings. A promising development was the use of rubber tyres for railway wheels. In France, at Clermont Ferrand, the two Michelin Brothers, André and Edouard, were very enterprising and always looking at ways to build up their tyre business which they had founded in 1888. This included their hotel guides, and road maps,…

ON THE INDIAN NARROW GAUGE, 1981 by Tim Edmonds All photographs by the Author Although the inexorable march of dieselisation, closure, or conversion to the broad (5ft 6in) gauge was continuing, there was still plenty of steam activity to be seen on the 2ft and 2ft 6in gauges in India at the end of 1981. Some lines used modern standard classes, but interesting older locos could still be found in action. These photos were taken during a visit made by me and my wife with a Railway Travel & Photography group in November and December 1981, which covered an extensive area of western and southern central India. Most of the railway travel was by service trains using an India Railpass (21 days AC Chair Car/First Class for US$100) which made…

BW KREFELD by Kevin Hoggett All photographs by the Author The loco depot, or “BW, Bahnbetriebswerk”, at Krefeld is the last surviving working roundhouse in Rheinland, and is therefore a listed monument. The 19 stall roundhouse was built from 1900, it was finally home to a fleet of diesel hydraulic locomotives of various standard DB classes closing as a depot in 1992. DB still used the site until 1999. In November 2003, the depot was sold to a private company, “Bahnbetriebswerk Krefeld Betrieb” who established it as a service point for private operator’s locomotives and also hired out part of the roundhouse to a company called “EWK” who carry out contract repair to steam locomotives. There was also the possibility of hiring a pit in the roundhouse on a day…

HUNGARY’S LAST COMMERCIAL FORESTRY RAILWAY by Eugen Takacs Tibor Wein At the beginning of the last century, Hungary was a paradise for narrow gauge railways. Almost all major farms or remote settlements were given a small railway to connect the people living there to the rest of the country. Many of these railways did not even have a fixed track and were often adapted to the actual requirement. In the large forested areas of the country, small logging railways served to transport the timber. The developments after the Great War a hundred years ago cut off the motherland from most of the logging railways in the Carpathian Mountains, they were now neighbours, unfortunately most of them have already been closed and dismantled. In Slovakia, practically none remain, only a beautiful…

READERS’ REPORTS Contributions for this section should be sent to the Editorial Office, with the following exceptions: • Southern Africa – John Middleton, c/o Editorial Office. Email: johnmiddleton3401@gmail.com • South America – Lionel Price, 9, Liverpool Road West, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1PE. Email: jldprice@btinternet.com • Spain & Portugal – Joan Carles Salmerón, c/o Editorial Office. Email: cet@terminus.cat Contributions which are primarily photographic in nature should all be sent to the Editorial Office to give the best choice of material for covers etc. Similarly historical articles and features should be sent to the Editor. The Editor’s contact details are inside the front cover. AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA Ceres Rail Company On 28th November 2021, the first steam hauled working from Cape Town to Elgin since early 2020 was operated. 19D 4-8-2 No.…

CHEMIN DE FER DU VERMANDOIS (CFTV) by Phil Barnes All photographs by the Author The catalyst for this article was a visit to the CFTV which was organized by the SNCF Society and commenced with a rendezvous at Tonbridge in Kent, for a 7am departure on Saturday 31st May 2008. Our journey was made by coach and we went via the Channel Tunnel, and then the E15/A26 Autoroute from Calais as far as junction 10 to pick up the E44 and local roads to get to St Quentin station to board our ‘chartered heritage train’. CFTV have an arrangement to use a platform at the SNCF station as would have been the case back in 1900 for example. Before describing our day and the CFTV operation, I need to set…

BACK TRACK A Brazilian Garratt, Issue 134 Richard Awde writes: The works numbers quoted are Beyer Peacock numbers not Henschel and were not ordered in 1952 but delivered in that year to RFN not GWBR. GWBR ordered four locos from BP at the outbreak of Second World War (BP 6966-69) but were unable to fulfil this order and a further two locos were ordered after the war (BP 7136/37). Due to the outstanding orders at BP these locos were sub-let to Henschel and were allocated Henschel works numbers 25257-62 and were delivered in 1952 to RFN as GWBR had become from 10/01/51 and were numbered RFN 610-15. RFN became part of RFFSA from 30/09/57 and a RFFSA diagram book of 1959 shows only 3 locos 610/12/15 were then in service…