Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2023 i Locomotives International

I was fortunate to visit the last major industrial steam working in the world in January 2020. At Sandaoling coal mine in Northwest China, steam locomotives were hauling loaded coal trains out of an opencast mine and, in 2023, they are still reported to serve 2 deep mines. The opencast railway operation was intensive and the ex-mainline JS 2-8-2 locos were worked very hard hauling the 13-wagon rakes up the 280ft climb from the loading point (the ‘blue loader’) to the rim of the East Pit, just beyond Kengkouzhan (‘Pit Gateway station’). Most of the trains were unloaded at the washery in a very slick operation that typically took only 15 minutes to empty the 13 side-tipping wagons. My trip coincided with a heavy fall of snow which is very…

Introduction This is Part 2 of an article that deals with the 859km long 1m gauge railway from Haiphong in Vietnam, formerly part of Indochina, to Yunnan-fou, now named Kunming, in China. In Part 2, timetables over a period of more than 20 years, CIY’s financial results, and the volume and nature of the passenger and freight traffic are examined. Part 1 gave a brief history of the building of the line, details the development of the locomotive rolling stock, and described the principal station, shed/works, and bridges as if making a journey from Haiphong to Yunnan-fou. Passenger Timetables and Journey Times The earliest partial timetable and journey times found are from 1918 and 1919. These show journey time for Haiphong – Hanoi of 3 hours (three trains per day)…

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 ANGOLA Benguela Railway In early January 2023 the Angola Telegraph reported that the Angolan Government had finalized a US$3.2 billion concession agreement for operation of the Lobito Corridor for…

GERMANY A visit to Saxony in eastern Germany close to the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic, offers year-round scheduled steam services on several narrow gauge lines. February provides a good opportunity to enjoy steam locomotives at work in the snow, a now rare event anywhere else in the world. A mid-February 2023 visit was planned to take advantage of the Saxony winter holiday period, which saw weekend working on the volunteer-run Pressnitztalbahn as well as regular services on the Zittau Schmalspurbahn and the Fichtelbergbahn. A recent thaw meant little snow remained around Zittau although the bitingly cold wind was certainly wintry, but plenty of snow remained at the other locations. (Kurort Oberwiesenthal at the upper end of the Fichtelbergbahn is the highest town in Germany and a ski…

On Sunday 24th March 2019, Steam Incorporated who are based in the former NZR railway depot at Paekakariki ran one of their Heartland Flyer trips to Woodville and back. Whilst planning an itinerary for our fifth visit to New Zealand to see friends and family etc, this excursion was found on Steam Incorporated’s website and as we were in the Wellington area over this particular weekend, it was decided ‘to do’ this excursion. ‘We’ consisted of myself, my wife and her sister who lives in New Zealand and through the marvels of the internet, it was easy to book three seats with the request, “could we be as close to the engine as possible”. This request was granted with the allocation of a seating bay in coach B, and it…

Antwerp has an excellent public transport system with a long tradition. The first trams, horse drawn, started operating on 25th May 1873 from Berchem to Meir, which was and still is a largely pedestrianised wide shopping street. Different companies operated their own lines until 1902 when it was decided to electrify at 600V dc overhead, and all operations were changed to metre gauge. Electric trams started running on 2nd September 1902. The tramway has continued to flourish. Today it is part of De Lijn. This is a state owned company for the Flemish (Dutch speaking) part of Belgium, roughly 60% of the country. The services are operated by a mixture of PCC cars, coupled in pairs, and variations of Flexity 2 cars from 2002. The fleet today There are no…

While preparing to participate in a conference near Venice in May 1981, your author noted that a two day railtour from Milan to Calalzo di Cadore was advertised. This included much steam traction and was only two days after the conference ended. As a research fellow coming to the end of his contract and jobhunting, the price was not trivial, but it was extremely go od value, including a long railtour, overnight accommodation and four meals. However, as a number of railtours had been cancelled just previously in several countries, the fare was sent ‘‘more in hope than expectation’’. After the conference was over and armed with a letter from the director of a local scientific establishment on her institute notepaper requesting permission to visit depots, Venezia Mestre shed was…

INTERNATIONAL (PERU - CHILE) Following the reopening of the Tacna-Arica line reported in the last issue, it is now reported that services did not operate for very long, and had certainly been suspended by 20 February. However, there were press reports of a fresh reopening date of 9 March with a new timetable, whereby the morning Tacna-Arica working will remain at 0600, but the return will now not be until the evening, departing Arica at 1800, which will at least be more convenient for travellers from the Peruvian end of the line. However, these times have not yet been confirmed. Ian Thomson Newman, FC News via Samuel Rachdi ARGENTINA Trenes Argentinos continues to expand the passenger rail network, with news on current, planned and possible station and route reinstatements as…

History of coal mining and husk The first mention of the village Mladějov In the 13th century, the Bohemian-Moravian border was colonized and the village of Mladějov formed, and from 1669 it belonged to the Liechtensteins, who in 1862 started mining of low-quality coal and later also husk – clay suitable for the production of refractory materials in Nová Ves, above Mladějov. Coal from the Hřebeč area was used for the development of local industry, for burning refractory clays and, later for the operation of a narrowgauge railway between Hřebeč and Mladějov, or as fuel in the Mladějov steam power plant. The material was transported to Mladějov at first by horsedrawn carriages, to which a cable car connected Mladějov with the area of the current Veksl station from 1902 to…

Introduction The Finnish Railway Museum is located at Hyvinkää, which is about 45-minutes from Helsinki by train. The museum is a ten minute walk from the main line railway station. The museum was founded in 1898 but was moved from Helsinki to Hyvinkää in 1974. I visited the museum on 12 August 2019. The museum grounds contain a number of historic railway buildings, some of which have been relocated to the site. The museum has three exhibition halls, an engine shed and a station. The museum is open daily during the summer season, from the beginning of June until the end of August. During the winter the museum is usually closed on Mondays. There are also a few other dates when the museum is closed, including most bank holidays, so…

Tobu Tetsudo has recently restored 2-6-4T C11 123, which had been out of service since 1975. The operator now has three C11s, used during the summer months on SL Taiki services between Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa Onsen, in the mountains close to the Nikko National Park in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo. With its 463.3 km 1,067 mm gauge rail network, Tobu Tetsudo is the second largest private rail operator in Japan, after Kintetsu. Like the latter, it operates a mix of suburban, local and Limited Express services. The Tobu network covers parts of Greater Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma, Chiba and Tochigi Prefectures. Tobu is also the owner of the 634 m high Tokyo Skytree. The C11s were designed in 1930 by the Ministry of Railways for use throughout the country on…

I was recently in Latvia and took the opportunity to visit some peat lines. According to local information there are still eleven peat fields operating railways. All of the railways use i/c locos either original vehicles or rebuilds and with one exception (Ploce) running on 750mm gauge track. The main working season is in the Spring and Summer at most fields so it was no surprise that I didn’t see much action in October. I visited Lielsalas, one of the largest operations in the country, where the working locos were two diesel MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG) 18-232 trucks mounted on wagon frames. They are employed pulling rakes of wagons to and from the loading site in the peat fields to the transhipment point and also transporting workers to the fields…

I recently bought a slide scanner and found 2 old boxes of slides to test it out. They were of a family holiday to the Harz in 1995. On arrival at the hotel there was a tourist magazine showing some attractions in the area, what caught my eye was a railway in former East Germany, after a talk with the reception it was open over the weekend and we duly visited the railway. The drive was interesting with a large amount of road repairs being done. We arrived at the railway where no one spoke any English and my German was non-existent. After an exchange of sign language I managed to purchase tickets. A wander round the site taking photographs led to me being followed by the security guard. So…

Archive Foursome: Greek Narrow Gauge, Issue 141 John Organ writes: Chris Horne’s interesting selection of Greek Narrow Gauge photos in the Archive Foursome in LI 141 reveals that Chris fell foul of the wholesale swapping of components in the Volos works about 50 years ago. As reported by John Athersuch in his excellent article about the Pelion Railway in LI 134, the tanks complete with works plates and nameplates were exchanged between MILLEAI and JASON whilst both were being rebuilt at the same time. PELION was withdrawn and used as a donor for spare parts during the same period. As recounted by John, five 2-6-0Ts were supplied to the railway - two in 1903 by Tubize and three in 1912 by HSP. Both variants were very similar, the major identifying…