Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 - January 2023 i Locomotives International

When the 21st century dawned, it had been around a decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Poland. That period had not been kind to the rural railways of the Polish State Railways (Polskie Koleje Państwowe, or PKP) and many of the once vast number of narrow gauge lines that formed part of the state system had fallen into disuse or were hanging on by a thread. Most of these surviving lines were shown on the PKP timetable map as single disconnected routes but, by the year 2000, a few much reduced networks still had passenger services shown. The surviving 750mm gauge lines based on Krośniewice in central Poland formed one such network, but they were only a tiny rump of a much…

In 1983 my wife and I were part of a Dorridge Travel group led by the late David Ibbotson making our first visits to South America. Included on the trip was a visit to Puerto Casado in Paraguay, a remote location with a 750mm gauge rail-served quebracho mill. Quebracho provides the tannin used in the treatment of leather, an important industry in Paraguay. There were no scheduled flights to this place, normal access being gained by river transport and thus a private charter had been arranged. It was known that the plane would be a Douglas DC-3 from the Paraguayan Air Force. Tuesday the 8th November was Dakota and Puerto Casado day and there was an air of slightly nervous expectancy as the party gathered for our chartered flight from…

Contributions for this section should be sent to the Editorial Office, with the following exceptions: Southern Africa - John Middleton, c/o Editorial Office. Email: South America - Lionel Price, 9, Liverpool Road West, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1PE. Email: Spain & Portugal - Joan Carles Salmerón, c/o Editorial Office. Email: 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 NAMIBIA The HyRail Namibia project has been launched to produce what the promoters say will be Africa's first dual-fuel hydrogendiesel locomotive. This is intended as a pilot for possible conversion of national railway TransNamib's entire…

NEW ZEALAND Glenbrook Vintage Railway The overhaul of Glenbrook Vintage Railway's (GVR) Ww 644 which included the fitting of a new welded boiler plus a new left hand cylinder was completed in June this year. The GVR now has both of its Ww class steam locomotives back in service after an absence of 9 years. Ww 480 was pulled out of service in 2013 with boiler issues plus Ww 644's boiler was also starting to show signs that it would need major repair work in the near future. After obtaining the necessary funding, two new welded boilers were contracted to be built in 2016. Ww 480 re-entered service in 2018 after obtaining its boiler certificate two days before Ww 644's extended boiler certificate expired (refer LI115). The design and procurement…

Athens 1992, Issue 139 Michael Thomson writes: The middle photograph on p.51 is arriving NOT departing. Right hand running. CFD Lozére, Issue 139 Nigel Mundy writes: John Organ's last paragraph mentions two miniature steam on the Lozère line – I suggest these may be only steam outline however nice they look at first sight – see: https://philo-ferroviaire.forumactif.org/t3286-les-locomotives-degeorgy-borsnak-musee-del-olivette-a-present-au-train-de-landorge-en-cevennes. John Organ responds: I haven't seen the two locos myself, my comments in the Lozere article were based on information from Richard Clarke, which simply referred to them as steam locos. However looking at the photos supplied by Nigel I agree with him that they are steam outline machines. I gather that they were constructed by an enthusiast in Northern France and ultimately found their way to the workshops of the Cevennes Railway…

Through late March and into April 2010 I was in New Zealand for my third visit, visiting family and friends on the North Island. Normally my wife is with me, but this time I came out alone (as she has done in the past) and hired a car from Rent a Dent; armed with paper maps etc, I drove a triangle from New Plymouth to Wellington, and after a few days up to Auckland and then back to New Plymouth. On my journeys I visited many tourist and heritage locations, but when in Auckland photographed the ‘odd’ train passing the Mainline Steam depot at Parnell (see L I 109). On the 16th of April, the time came to fly up to Auckland for the connection with Emirates to return to…

INTERNATIONAL (ARGENTINA – PARAGUAY) We reported in Issues 127 and 128 of the plan to re-introduce freight services from Paraguay to Argentina, partly because of the low water levels in rivers which link Paraguay with the Argentine deep-sea ports, and now comes news of a test train for the service which ran in July 2022 from Posadas in Argentina to Encarnacion in Paraguay; the latter country has long been seeking opportunities to export by rail, and the current initiative is also driven by the rising cost of road transport, most particularly fuel. From October 2022 a weekly train will run from Encarnacion to the port of Zarate near Buenos Aires. Volta O Trem via Samuel Rachdi INTERNATIONAL (PERU – CHILE) Since our report in Issue 129 about post-closure damage to…

READERS' REPORTS - EUROPE BELGIUM BULGARIA Of all the countries in Europe that maintain heritage steam locomotives available for charter, Bulgaria, for all its relatively small size, and its position as a relatively poor former Eastern European country, its State railway BDZ must be congratulated for being in the forefront of locomotive preservation. A complete turnround from the days, not so long ago, when – in common with other Communist countries like Yugoslavia and Poland, photographing trains could get you arrested, and your film confiscated! But Bulgaria's investment appears to be paying off, as an increasing number of foreign groups are taking advantage of the charter trains that the Bulgarian State Railways can provide, in a country whose landscape is remarkably beautiful and bucolic, and where the climate is more…

The Shibaura Institute of Technology Junior and Senior High School was inaugurated in 1922 as the Tokyo Railway Junior High School. It was one of the projects related to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Shinagawa (later, Shimbashi) to Yokohama railway on 12 June 1872 – Japan's first commercial passenger-carrying railway. 2022 is therefore important not only as the centenary of the Institute of Technology, but also for the 150th anniversary of the latter railway. The Institute trains future engineers in cutting-edge technology, but believes that steam is the fundamental basis of industrial engineering knowledge and education. 2-4-2T No. 403 (Nasmyth Wilson works number 302 was built in 1886, omner of a batch of four 9woprks numbvers 300 to 303) and sent to Japan to…

It is logical that a manufacturer of road petrol or diesel engined vehicles should see railways as a target market, using the same technology and engines. Renault were very successful in this, especially with their well known railcars. Berliet also produced successful rail vehicles. The history of Berliet goes back to Marius Berliet, born in 1866, who started working at his father's satin loom. Marius’ mechanical aptitude was unstoppable, and he built his first engine in 1894 and his first car in 1895. In those days, there were no apprenticeships or classes to learn how to do this – it was all brand new. Marius was one of those natural born engineers who could see what to do and how to do it. He founded his company in Venissieux, near…

In common with most other young men in the late 1940s and 1950, possibly even further on in time, I was drafted into His Majesty's service. As a young railwayman it was almost inevitable that the Royal Engineers and then Longmoor were chosen for me. After six months training of our eighteen months National Service a draft of twelve sappers was sent to the Far East. Some to Singapore, some to Hong Kong and a couple went to Korea. Because of the contretemps in the latter country, our lovely Government increased the length of service to two years. The Singapore contingent returned by troopship at Liverpool on 6 February 1952, travelled to Euston in a special train, found its way across London by tube and on the platform at Waterloo…