Innholdsfortegnelse for October - November 2022 i Locomotives International

The modern state of Pakistan came into existence on 15 August 1947, following the partition of the Indian sub-continent into the independent nations of Hindu- majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. It was accompanied by one of the largest mass migrations in human history. As the provinces of Punjab and Bengal were effectively split in half by hastily drawn, arbitrary borders, around seven million Hindus & Sikhs, and about the same number of Muslims, found themselves in the wrong country. It was a time of unimaginable bloodshed, according to contemporary reports: “millions made their way through the corpse-littered landscape of the nascent India and Pakistan, and up to two million people lost their lives in the most horrific of manners. The darkened landscape bore silent witness to trains laden with the…

The Drachenfelsbahn as it is known in Germany, was opened in July 1883 to link the Rhine town of Königswinter to the summit (289 metres high) of the nearby Drachenfels Mountain (Drachenfels means Dragons Rock) and is one of only four rack railways still in operation in Germany. The initial operation was by steam with the locomotives pushing the carriages up the grade until the transition to electric traction (railcars) took place in the 1950s; but always with the purpose of moving tourists up to the castle and view points at the top of the mountain, regardless of what traction was used! There are three stations along this 1.5 km line, which in sequence are: The base station is Königswinter Drachenfelsbahn, Drachenburg is the intermediate station and has a passing…

ARGENTINA News as to long distance passenger services in Argentina includes the letting of a contract for the reconstruction of a major bridge near Tucuman, which spans the River Sali, which was damaged by floods in 2019, preventing rail access to Tucuman itself, and forcing services from Buenos Aires to terminate at Cevil Pozo, some 14km from the city, as mentioned in Issue 132. The work includes the replacement of five piers of the 560 metre long structure, and it is expected that the work will not be completed until sometime in 2023. The current service between the capital and Tucuman (Cevil Pozo) remains at two trains per week in each direction, with an approximate journey time of 32 hours. Other news as to long distance passenger services is that…

My first trip to Greece was in summer 1992, when I travelled to Athens with three friends using Air 2000. Whilst most of the time was spent sightseeing, I was able to spend some time visiting the local railways. My first visit was to the Mount Lycabettus (Likavitos) funicular on 7 September 1992, which has two stops and is 210 metres (689 feet) long. Two cars were in use with a loop half way along the line. A few days later on 12 September, I visited Athens Larissa station, where main line trains to Thessaloniki departed. The service was diesel operated when I visited, but has since been electrified and the station modernised. Across the road was the Peloponnese station, which provided diesel hauled metre gauge services to Piraeus and…

During the late 19th and early 20th Century, many metre gauge railways in France were constructed and operated by the Chemin de Fer Départementaux (CFD). Established in 1881 the company is still in operation today as a constructor and supplier of railcars and other railway equipment. The majority of the CFD lines were operated as independent concerns. However a notable exception was the CFD Lozère in the Cèvennes which was operated as an isolated branch of the CFDs major concern the Réseau du Vivarais. Located about 100km (60miles) south of its parent system, there was not surprisingly a regular transfer of motive power from Le Cheylard to Florac, usually for short periods but also on a more permanent basis in certain instances. The Lozère was constructed between 1906 and its…

The roots of what was to become the Southern Pacific Company (formally incorporated as such in March 1884) lay in the Central Pacific Railroad, the historic line of railway which fought its way over the Sierra, eastward out of California, to meet the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, on 10 May 1869. From that beginning it grew into a multi-faceted business that operated not just main line and branch railways, but also steamships, interurban and streetcar systems. The title ‘Southern’ misleads, as it became a vast enterprise, a network of rails which stretched from Portland, Oregon, in the north, all the way down the west coast of the United States, penetrating far inland also, and as far south as Nogales. The town, two communities divided by a neutral zone, straddled…

NEW ZEALAND To commemorate the just over 29 years of service that the ex TransPerth Western Australia DMUs have given to Auckland rail commuters, Auckland Transport and the Glenbrook Vintage Railway (GVR) held an event celebrating the end of the DMU era over the weekend of the 23rd & 24th July 2022. The actual date the DMUs finished running was the 12th August however this July weekend was the only one available as most weekends there is a block of line for electrification work to be undertaken. Auckland Transport put on a free fun event at Papakura to entertain passengers before they purchased a ticket to ride the DMUs out to Pukekohe, transferring to the GVR diesel hauled train for a ride on the Mission Bush branch. All DMU services…

In 1904, a Royal Commission considered the Don Valley as a route for railway access to the Sheffield district but decided against it in favour of a shorter line from Railton to Roland. That would probably have been the end of the railway history of the area if Broken Hill Proprietary had not decided to work the valley’s limestone deposits. As the company planned to take a very large quantity of limestone to supply its Newcastle steelworks, a railway was needed to transport it to Devonport. The Government agreed to build a branch to the quarry which kept to the east bank of the Don. The line opened on 27th May, 1916. Traffic from the quarries reached a peak of 161,135 tons in 1926-27, requiring the running of three or…

The KF1 (sometimes simply KF) 4-8-4 locomotives used by China’s railways are well-known, one example surviving in York Railway Museum and another in Beijing Railway Museum. The English language Wikipedia article for this class of locomotives names Kenneth Cantlie as the designer whereas some Chinese sources state that Ying Shangcai was the leader of the design team. The exact distribution of design responsiblilities between Cantlie, Ying and the Vulcan Foundry is now unlikely to be definitely known but it is possible to postulate some theories about the origins of this class of 4-8-4 locomotives. Kenneth Cantlie states in his book “The Railways of China” (reference 1) that he took up his appointment as an adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Railways in June 1930. At this period the Minister of…

Bratislava Transport Museum (www.welcometobratislava.eu/museum-of-transport) is not the railway museum, but it is situated in the first railway station of Bratislava that opened in 1848. It has two main, low long, halls, and is adjacent to the current main railway station. It is a branch of the Slovak Technical Museum in Kosice. The museum was opened on 24.6.1999. It is a little difficult to locate, and has a rather run down look to it. Inside, there are around 100 cars and about three dozen old motorbikes. The railway section is on the tracks alongside. These three sidings are a continuation of three sidings currently in use by Slovak railways, and are separated by only a temporary barrier, as used on building sites. Locomotives present are (August 2022) Bo-Bo diesel “Bardotka” 751132-2…

READERS’ REPORTS - NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA USA…

READERS’ REPORTS - EUROPE ARMENIA I recently enjoyed a non-railway holiday in Armenia and for a couple of nights found myself staying at Tsapatagh, very close to the freight-only single-track line to the gold mines at Sotk. We were only at the hotel for the first part of the morning and in the evenings but saw or heard a number of these trains, all consisting of 30 open bogie ore wagons (full northbound, empty southbound) hauled by class VL10 twin-unit electric locomotives. I had no prior knowledge of Armenian railways and all I have now learned is from the Bradt guide to Armenia and on-line sources. From these I gather that they are operated by the South Caucasus Railway which is part of Russian Railways. According to Wikipedia, the class…

Borsig of Berlin - Part 2, Issue 137 & subsequent Back Track Jim Ballantyne writes: The 2-6-0s, Borsig 6444 - 8/08 mentioned were intended for the Beira Alta but instead were delivered to the Spanish Norte railway as Norte 1491 - 1495 later becoming RENFE 130 2101 - 2105. The loco illustrated is however a 4-cylinder compound, Borsig 5240/03, one of a series delivered to the Sul e Sueste Railway in Portugal later becoming CP 223. Demolition at Bastia, Issue 138 Marius d’Oriano has contacted us to point out that two of the photos in his article on the demolition of Bastia depot, those at the top of page 46 and bottom of page 47, were by John Sloane, not himself. A further error was that the photo at the…