Innholdsfortegnelse for February - March 2025 i Locomotives International

Exactly 50 years ago as I write this, I was also writing my university final exams. Within ten days of this I was off on the train, first to Paris and then south, overnight, to Spain and Portugal. When in the late 1960s I began to become aware of European steam, Spain was something of an eldorado, famed for its large mainline locomotives and Garratts, and its treasure trove of nineteenth-century antiques. By the time of my trip, nothing remained of the latter and the Garratts and the many classes of 4-8-0s and 4-8-2s had been withdrawn. But there was still some active steam, allocated to various loco depots serving secondary lines and branches scattered around the country. Motive power was almost exclusively in the hands of class 141F 2-8-2s…

Tian Guiying (田桂英, Tian is the family name) was born in 1930, the youngest child of a fisherman in Lüshun, Dalian, at the southern tip of Liaoning province’s Liaodong peninsula. The family was poor and lived from hand to mouth. Tian Guiying received little education and started work at a young age, first in a quilt factory run by a Japanese and then in a printing factory. In 1947 Tian Guiying found employment in Dalian Locomotive Depot, at first working in the canteen. This post provided her with food and a salary as well as classes in which she could improve her literacy skills. She also sought to learn about technology and, as a result, was transferred to a role with technical content. In 1948 she joined the Chinese Communist…

ALBANIA At present there are no operating railways in Albania. However major work is proceeding on ‘re-commissioning’ the line between Tirana and Durres with opening, at present, scheduled for mid 2025. The original system was only built after WW2 - between 1947 and 1987 with the enthusiastic support from Enver Hoxha. The fall of communism in the early 1990s also saw the fall into steady decay of the Albanian railway system with the last passenger service being in 2022. Whereas the actual railway lines are still ‘evident’ most stations and other infra-structure have been obliterated. However in the town of Durres the old station - immediately adjacent to the bus station is still standing (above) and nearby another smaller station remains with some actual tracks and signals (below) and nearby…

November 15th 2007 was a memorable day on the southern section of the Ferrocarriles del Paraguay S.A. (FEPASA) in Paraguay in Encarnación. What made the trip memorable is that it was the last main line working both freight and passenger in southern Paraguay on the State Railway using what could best be described as a heap of spare parts masquerading as operating North British working wood burning steam locos. Originally the rail system in Paraguay consisted primarily of a 376 km main line of standard gauge between Asunción and Encarnación (with a connection to the Argentinian Railway system at Posadas, Argentina). The railway was built to British standards..The network was never very extensive and by the 1990s it consisted of around 440km of line. By the turn of the century,…

After years of uncertainty, the Hisatsu Line in Kyushu, one of Japan’s most scenic and historical railway lines, is finally set to rise again. Destroyed by torrential rains in July 2020, the line had been left in ruins, several bridges washed away and tracks destroyed. The closure of the line not only severed a critical connection for communities but also silenced the operation of one of Japan’s most iconic tourist trains. This was none other than the SL Hitoyoshi, a steam-hauled tourist train hauled by 58654. She was a 1922-built member of the once-672 strong Japanese Government Railway 8620 class, one of the first locally-built and designed mainline locomotive types in the country. Since her second restoration in 2009, she was the oldest operational mainline certified steam locomotive in Japan,…

This is the fifth article covering my visits to Negros Island, Philippines, 1978 83. See my articles in LI 94 (ILCO), 103 (Ma ao), 118 (La Carlota), and 136 (Sagay). I consider that Hawaiian-Philippine (HP) as the most ‘classical’ sugar producing outfit on the island. The only deviations from the classic American system, c1920, is the use of some diesels on the railway, replacement of the classic large reciprocating steam engines, still used in most other mills, by steam turbines, and some road delivery of cane to a purposebuilt transfer point to rail. The mill can only take cane in by rail. The mill itself is still largely steam driven, steam being piped throughout with small engines driving various equipment and devices, and providing heat for the sugar extraction process…

The township of Yass in the Australian state of New South Wales was served by a branch line which connected the country community to the outside world with the mainline to Sydney. Known as the Yass Tram, the two main features were the girder bridge over the Yass River, and Dutton Street where the line ran in a similar style to those in the United States where street running is quite prominent in some towns. The main steam loco type used on the line for many years was the Z13 class 4-4-2T tank engines, of which three survive in preservation today. After the Yass Railway Museum was established, one of these locos (number 1307) was transferred by road from storage at the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum at Thirlmere,…

NEW ZEALAND Currently Steam Incorporated’s Ja 1271 is the only steam locomotive in New Zealand regularly operating on the mainline. Steam Incorporated’s other mainline certified steam locomotive Ab 608 is currently under repair. Steam Incorporated operate excursions from their Paekakariki base situated in the Wellington area. At present the only other steam locomotive operating infrequently on the mainline is Glenbrook Vintage Railway’s Ww 644. Being a tank engine Ww 644 is not suitable for hauling long day trips and operates short trips out of a local area such as Hamilton. The ex NZR J class have in the preservation era been the main class of steam locomotive hauling steam excursions around New Zealand. Steam Incorporated’s other J class J 1234 that has operated excursions on the mainline from 1992 to…

Care of a cruise ship stop at Aarhus on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, we participated in one of the shore excursions, which saw 3 fully loaded road coaches visit the preserved Bryrup to Vrads railway during the afternoon of 8th July 2024. This 5km long heritage railway is located about 55km to the west of Aarhus and is on a longitude of 56° North, which is about the same Northing as Edinburgh on the other side of the North Sea! In looking at this railway’s history and topography first, the current stretch of railway is a remnant of the standard gauge Horsens-Bryrup-Silkeborg line which was operational from 1929 to 1968, although the Horsens to Bryrup section was built through the late 1890s and opened in April 1899 and when…