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About Roger Farnworth

A retired Civil Engineer and Priest

TAM Tramway in the Valley of the River Esteron – Revisited (Chemins de Fer de Provence 66)

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I first looked at this tramway in 2013. It was only a short blog recognising the existence of the line to Roquesteron:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/chemins-de-fer-de-provence-9-tramway-to-roquesteron.This map of the Esteron Valley tram route can be found on Marc Andre Dubout’s Website. [1]

Marc Andre Dubout comments: “The declaration of public utility dates from February 10, 1906 and the commissioning takes place seventeen years later, July 29, 1923. The commissioning of the line was delayed by landslides occurring on the line of Daluis which have monopolized the teams of roadmenders. … One month after the opening, an accident due to a braking problem interrupted the operation from November to December 15, 1924, barely a year after it was put into operation. The inauguration took place on July 24, 1924 in great pomp with MM. the prefect, mayors of the communes crossed, and of course banquet, Marseillaise, etc.”

The line departed from the Nice to Digne mainline at the station for the Charles Albert Bridge.The Charles-Albert Bridge station at the time of the Estéron line. [1]The modern day halt. [1]Before the tramway was constructed the Charles Albert Bridge was a suspension bridge (built by Marc Seguin in the mid-19th Century) [2] but this bridge was not designed to accommodate tramway loading. In 1913 it was rebuilt to accommodate the trams, just as was necessary with the Pont de la Mescla on the Tinée tramway. The replacement structure had six spans of over 30 metres in concrete built by the company Thorrand. In the foreground of the image immediately below, there is the Pont-Charles Albert stop and the lime kilns at La Lauziere overseen by the perched village of La Roquette sur Var, © Yann Duvivier. [6] This ‘new’ bridge was replaced in the mid-20th Century by the one which is in use today. The bridge as it is in the early 21st Century is shown on the three images immediately above. [3][4]The west end of the present bridgebridge (above), recovered from Google Streetview.

Leaving the end of the Charles Albert Bridge the tramway turned right and began to climb the Route de Gilette (M17), first, in a northerly direction and then, after a hairpin bend, in a southerly direction. That southerly direction was only maintained for a short distance (about 1.5 kilometres) as the M17 approached another hairpin bend and then returned to a northerly course.

After about 2 kilometres a further hairpin bend led to the tramway and road returning to a southerly direction for over a kilometre. A branch-line struck off from this hairpin to provide a service to Bonson. A further bend led to the road and tramway travelling in a north-westerly direction. The excerpts from Google Maps illustrate the route.We can also follow the route of the tramway on Google Earth, as immediately below, and on the http://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr website [5] in the following image.There is a discrepancy between the two lines (pink and red) shown above, at the eastern end. I can find no evidence to support the wide-sweeping approach by the tramway to the Charles Albert Bridge as suggested in the Google Earth image above. The tramway at other locations on the network could manage some very tight curves. There is evidence of this at Le Pont de la Mescla. The railway station in the photograph of the bridge which was built for the tramway in 1913, is close to the bridge. This mitigates against the tramway joining the main line further south after crossing the main line.

Carrying on with our journey, we have seen that the tramway gained height along with the M17 by running through a series of hairpin bends so as to keep the gradient reasonable. At ‘la Senegoge’ there was a junction. A branch-line went north to Bonson (blue arrows, below) and the mainline continued to Roquesteron (red arrows, below). [5]Before continuing towards Roquesteron, we will check out the branch-line to Bonson. Sadly I have not yet been able to find any images along the route to Bonson which are contemporary to the tramway. We will have to be satisfied with images from Google street view in 2017 which show a wide metalled road in place of what would have been a narrow un-metalled carriageway not much wider than the loading-gauge of the trams. The tram loading gauge was 1.9 metres and the road width would have been no more than 3.3 metres if not less.Initially the road/tramway travelled northwest from La Senegoge approximately following the contours of the hillside, before turning tightly to the east in the Vallons du Baus de Lunel. The road/tramway climbed through La Salles and turned north. The approximate line of the route is marked in pink on the satellite image below.North of La Salles the road/tramway continued following the contours through olive groves towards Bonson.The route enters the satellite image above at the third point on the left side at the bottom, and travels through this olive groves to Bonson, the village in the top flight of the photograph and the terminus of the tramway branch-line. [6][7][8]We now return to ‘la Senegoge’ and resume our journey up the valley of the Esteron River. As we have already seen the road/tramway travelled south from ‘la Senegoge’ before turning sharply to the northwest and heading for the village of Gilette high on the slopes above l’Esteron and visible on the left side of the picture immediately below. [9]The village of Gillette sits in a craggy location above the River Esteron. Two features are highlighted here. The blue circle marks the location of a bridge over the road/tramway in the pictures immediately below. The red circle is the location of the tramway station. [5]The bridge from the North, Google Street view.Gillette tramway station.Gilette is a small village sited approximately 480 metres above sea-level. In 1999, its population was 1,252 which increased to 1,449 in 2007. [10]

Heading on from Gillette, the road/tramway followed the contours above l’Esteron, through the forested slopes on the north side of the valley.The route circumnavigated the side valley of Le Latti. The route is shown in blue above entering the satellite image from Gilette on the right.The route continues to follow the contours through the forests on the north side of l’Esteron. There is a very short tunnel on the route close to the top right of the above image, its location is shown below. [5], and in images immediately below the map, first from the East and then from the West.It is very likely that the tramway followed the track on the outside of the bluff.

The next point of interest on the rout is the halt at Colle Belle which is identified on the map below by a red circle.The small station building of Colle Belle, the name-plate is still visible on the face of the building. [5]

Before leaving Colle Belle, it is worth noting a significant accident which occured here in November 1924, soon after the line was finally opened. The headline is shown below and a translation of the article is provided in the references below, courtesy of Marc Andrea Dubout. [12]At Ciavarlina, the tramway passed through a steeply side cutting which inevitably has been widened to accommodate the modern road.

It then passed under the D117 at Vescous in another short tunnel, marked with a black circle on the adjacent plan, [5] before winding its way into what was the station. The old station building is circled in red on the adjacent plan. It is now a restaurant.

The tunnel portals are shown in the next couple of pictures which are followed by a picture of the old station building.The old station building at Vescous (above) still bears the station name-board but it is now a restaurant. [11]

The next stop on the line was le Villars (sometimes spoken of as the halt serving Pierrefeu). The station building is circled in red on the adjacent map. It was much smaller than the station building at Vescous which probably suggests the the stop was of lesser importance at the time the tramway was built.After le Villars, the line continued to share its formation with the road. The route is shown on the satellite image below.  It is the lowest blue line in the photograph, running southwest from le Villars before turning east and the following the contours around the valley of Le Riou.The present bridge over Le Riou, the image is taken from Google Streetview.

The road/tramway is seen leaving the satellite image above heading in a southerly direction. Very soon, it turns to the west and runs parallel to the River Esteron which can be seen at the bottom of the satellite images below. The blue line continues to show the alignment of the road/tramway.The valley is heavily forested at this point and the image above is typical of the next few kilometres of the route. The road/tramway follows the contours on the north side of  l’Esteron Valley, crossing a series of different culverted run-off water courses from the hills above. The images below show the locations of the culverts provided for the Ravin de Vuefort and Ravin de Caine which are typical of a number along the route.The next station on the tramway was at Le Ranc. The location of the station building is circled in red on the adjacent map.

The building design closely mirrors that at Le Villars. The location od the station name-board can be picked out on the elevation of the building which once faced the tramway.We are closing in on the end of the line – just a few more kilometres to go. The map below shows the remaining 3 to 4 kilometres of the line. Le Ranc appears in the bottom right and Roquesteron in the top left.A little before Roquesteron the tramway crossed a more substantial viaduct over La Villette. Now-a-days the road divides as the viaduct was only constructed for the width of a single vehicle. The adjacent pictures show the viaduct. [5]

Another couple of kilometres and the tramway reached Roquesteron, both road/tramway and river turned north into the village.Before entering the village proper, the tramway/road crossed Le Riou a tributary  of l’Esteron. A popular local name for a watercourse! The bridge can be seen above and on the right of the map below.The tramway entered the village on what is now called Boulevard George Salvago. The terminus was adjacent to the Post Office and the depot was almost next door. The image below shows the arrival of the first tram in Roquesteron when the line was first opened.And finally … the timetable ….. [1]

References

  1. http://marc-andre-dubout.org/cf/baguenaude/esteron/esteron.htm, accessed on 20th December 2013.
  2. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k612616g/f591.image, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  3. https://structurae.net/structures/charles-albert-bridge, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  4. https://wikivisually.com/lang-fr/wiki/Liste_de_ponts_des_Alpes-Maritimes, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  5. http://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr/hd06/06109.a.pdf, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  6. https://www.provence7.com/portails/villes-et-villages/communes-a-visiter/bonson-a-visiter-06, accessed on 14th July 2018.
  7. https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonson_(Alpes_Mar%C3%ADtimos), accessed on 14th July 2018.
  8. https://www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/bonson-22627.htm, accessed on 14th July 2018.
  9. http://ratatoulha.chez-alice.fr/_genealogie/gilletta-stmartinvar.html, accessed on 15th July 2018.
  10. https://www.communes.com/photo-gilette,183966, accessed on 15th July 2018.
  11. https://www.restaurant-lacapeline.fr, accessed on 15th July 2018.
  12. http://marc-andre-dubout.org/cf/baguenaude/esteron/esteron.htm, accessed on 20th December 2013. Source: http://www.basesdocumentaires-cg06.fr/archives/ImageZoomViewerPA.php?WDIDDOC=2005113151655959104300&WDVOLUMEID=VOL239&j=02&m=11&a=1924&journal=1. … The accident referred to in the text was reported in Le Petit Niçois , it occurred on 2nd November 1924. The article was written in french and the following text is a paraphrase translation of the text:After the accident the three cars in the consist rolled over on the road. The power car was resting against electricty poles; the second car lay across the road; the last car, whose fasteners broke, faced in the opposite direction.
    A little more than a month ago, on 20th September 1924, the officials of our Department inaugurated the tram line going from Charles Albert Bridge to Roquestéron via Gilette. Yesterday, a very serious accident halted all traffic on the line which since its inauguration has been well-received by the populations of the villages and hamlets along the route. This accident, although serious – as we shall see later – has caused the death of no one and we hope that all four of the injured can be saved.
    Curiously, exactly one year and one day a similar accident occured on the Villeneuve-Loubet line, and as in yesterday’s incident, only employees on that train were injured.Yesterday morning at 6:25, a train consisting of two power cars and a freight car left Charles Albert Bridge for Roquesteron. Many travellers had taken their places in the first two cars. The freight car was carrying 6 tons of wooden sleepers. Most of the travellers left the tram at Gilette,  only six or seven travellers continued up the line.
    Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Jules Aubert, residing in Nice, 19 rue d’Alsace-Lorraine, Mr. Pleinera, Administrative Officer of the Chiefdom of Engineering in Nice, MA Bonhomme, residing in Grasse, Benaud district, Mr. Marius Farau As a farmer, he went to Pierrefeu and the other travelers went to Roquesteron, as well as M Désiré Jauffrel, a railway driver from South France who was on leave.
    The wattman of the train, Mr Adolphe Faissole, 30 years old living in Roquesteron, the driver, Mr Marius Fredy, 52 years old retired from the Arsenal Toulon living in Roquesteron, with his wife having also taken place on a car, M Honoré Saurin, 26 years old, single living in Gilette, brigadier, poseur of the company.
    At the Collebelle stop, another employee of the departmental trams joined the tram, Mr. François Bruni, 34 years old, married and father of a charming baby only 14 days old.
    About 400 metres from the Collebelle stop – 4.86 kilometres from Gilette  at 9.35am the accident occurred. In what circumstances exactly? This is what has not yet been established, the wounded could not be questioned being all employees of the Company and the only ones who would have been able to provide an answer. 
    However, according to the people we spoke to at the scene of the accident and the condition of the cars overturned, here is what we presume:

    Leaving Collebelle, the road has a fairly steep descent turns to the right at about 400 metres. Approaching the curve, the wattman began to put the brakes but the train failed to slow sufficiently. When his car left the rails and hit  two of the catenary supports, the wattman jumped out of the car by the door and rolled on the road.
    The first engine, left the rails, and was thrown to the side of the road. The next car tipped over onto its right side, completely obstructing the road. The coach of rail sleepers was overturned to the left.
    Our picture, shows the position of the three cars after the accident and their position is explained by the following findings: The brakes of the first motor did not work; those of the second, on the other hand, were tightly packed and those of the freight car had not been connected to the engines and could not be used.

    That most of the travellers escaped almost unscathed and that there have only been four seriously wounded,  is almost incredible given the state of the cars on the road. But it is fortunately so!  When the cars were overthrown, the able occupants helped the wounded who were the employees of the Company Fred Bruini, Saurin and Faissole. The Brigadier of Gendarmerie Barandon, the Gendarme Dubeau, Mr. Brezès, judge of Peace of Roquesteron, then arrived and undertook their respective investigations.
    An ambulance was requested from Nice and immediately arrived. After around 14 hours it went back carrying the four wounded to the Hospital Saint Roch, it was from Les Ambulances Automobiles of the Côte d’Azur , 1 place Gambetta. Meanwhile, first aid was given to them by Gilette’s doctor. In the meantime all the traffic was naturally interrupted on the line, a bus of the service of the Upper Valley came from Roquestéron to collect travellers going in this commune.

    By 2.15pm, MM. Couturier, Inspector of Compagnie du Sud-France, Talent, Inspector of Traction, Fouquet Inspector of the Way arrived to begin their investigation. At 3:35 pm, MM. Israel and Lotier, Engineers of the Control of Roads and Bridges and Mr. Capiello, Wattman Chief of South-France also arrived. According to the findings of MM. Israel and Lotier, the wattman was no longer in control of the tram about 800 metres before the scene of the accident. On the other hand, it would be the driver who was in the second car who should have applied the brakes to this car, seeing the danger. These gentlemen will be returning to the scene today with the Chief Engineer of Alpes Maritimes to complete the investigation.

    The wounded were received at the Saint Roch Hospital by Mr. Gasigila, an intern who provided them with the most enlightened care. Their diagnosis is as follows:
    – François Brun, open fracture of the left leg
    – Honoré Saurin, slight bruises all over his body
    – Marius Frédy minor bruises to the head and kidneys
    – the most seriously affected is the Faissole wattman who has received a strong concussion.
    We wish them the most sincere wishes for their recovery.

    All traffic on the line of departmental trams Pont Charles Albert-Roquestéron suspended for a few days. It may be possible before the complete reopening of the line in operation, to ensure aservice to and from Gilette. The road, as we said above, is completely obstructed by the second power car. After the accident, no vehicular access along the highway was possible. As we leave, a team of diggers arrived to open a passage in the embankment on the right side of the road because we can not touch the cars until the official investigations are completed. However, a night and day will be, at least, necessary for this work.

Nice to Digne-les-Bains Part 4 – Plan du Var to La Mescla (Chemins de Fer de Provence 65)

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After a detour to look at the metre-gauge TAM tramway from Plan du Var to St. Martin Vesubie we continue along the main line toward Digne. We board the train once again and head North from Plan du Var.Travelling in the other direction, this Soulé/Garnéro two car unit is on the 14.25pm  Digne les Bains to Nice Sud on 6th July 2004. [1]

North of the Station the line crosses the River Vesubie and continues on the east side of the River Var towards Chaudan, about 2 kilometres north of Plan du Var..Looking back to Plan du Var across the valley of the River Vesubie. [2]Road and Rail bridges over the River Vesubie [3]Chaudan village in 2010. [3]The halt at Le Chaudan is between the two roads on the East side of the Var. [4]

Some close-up shots of the station are shown below. The view from the Station platform is beautiful in both directions. The platform is provided with a small shelter and there are no other facilities at the station.

This picture is taken on the platform at Le Chaudan in 2010. [3]The view north from Le Chaudan Station. [3]The next stop on the line is La Tinée Arrêt. This station is also sited between the two parts of the Route de Grenoble but there is a passing loop provided which allows trains to cross at this point on the line.  The approach to the station is shown in the image above. [3]

28 kilometres from Nice, the Station was opened in 1892 and was the provisional terminus of the line from Nice during the construction towards Digne.

La Tinée was also the starting point of the electric Tramway service operated by the TAM, heading up to Saint Sauveur sur Tinée. The trams shared the line as far as Mescla. The line to Saint Sauveur sur Tinée operated for just 19 years much as the route to St. Martin Vesubie. It was opened in 1912 and closed in 1931

La Tinée is the name of the tributary of the Var whose confluence is a little further north.The station buildings are large. The image above shows the station from the roadside looking north. [5]. A water tank was provided as were significant goods handling facilities. The following pictures document the state of the station in 2010 and are to be found on the http://www.formule4.com website. [3]Arriving at the Station from the South in 2010.An early postcard showing La Tinee Railway Station.

La Tinee Station, boarded up in 2010.An obstructed view back towards Nice.Three locomotives were recovered from Les Réseaux Métriques du Massif Central. BB401 was one of these. According to Jose Banuado (Le Train des Pignes) BB401 joined the Chemins de Fer de Provence in 1971. It was built in Marne by Les Ateliers C.F.D. de Montmirail.The water-tower was north of the main buildings of the station.After La Tinee, the railway continued North into Les Gorges de la Mescla.The railway line hugs the East bank of the Var for about a further 2 kilometres until it reaches another halt – Le Reveston (Arrêt). [3] On the way it is protected at points from likely rock falls by some interestign structure and also passes through one tunnel – Tunnel de Barre du Pin.Tunnel de Barre du Pin is 84 metres long. The south portal is shown in the adjacent image, the railway tunnel runs below the old road tunnel. The North portal is shown below. [6]

This early postcard image shows the tunnel and the old road. The old road curved round the rock outcrop above the tunnel. [6]Very slightly downstream of the Tunnel de Barre du Pin tunnel, the railway passes under concrete structures (casquettes) which are not strictly galleries but which protect the line from rock falls. [6]

At Le Reveston  the railway passes through the halt and then crosses the River Var on a steel truss girder. It approaches Le Reveston tightly sandwiched between the two arms of the Route de Grenoble. The Google Streetview image immediately below shows this clearly.

The line the curves round following the old road through the halt and across the Var on the steel truss bridge.The tunnel beyond the bridge is just visible in the shot above and shows up better in the image immediately below.There is a public footpath on this side of the truss bridge and a maintenance pathway on the other side which provides access to the building beyond. That building, which is visible in some of these shots, is a power station and is shown in monochrome below. [3]At the beginning of the plant’s operation in 1900, there was no pedestrian bridge or other access to the plant. Conflicts arose when plant operators crossed the bridge over the railway tracks to reach their workplace. It took over ten years (until 1912) for the wisdom of a pedestrian access being provided to prevail in the minds of those in power.The bridge will be added in 1912, after ten years of vain quarrels.

In 1953, a short stub line was provided (35 metres long) to provide access from the railway to the plant. There was a point installed at this time which eventually was removed in 1998. [3]

The first electrical plant in the Alpes Maritimes, it was set up under the direction of Alexandre Durandy in 1896 to generate electricity for the tramways. It delivered about 2000 horsepower (1.5 MW) in three-phase current of 10,000 volts 25Hz transmitted to the Sainte-Agathe plant of the TNL. The power-station was rebuilt in the 1950s and takes water from further up the valley of the Var. The turbine house is visible in the monochrome image above. The water supply by pipe and gallery comes from some distance further up the river valley.

The Tunnel de Mescla South portal is visible in the pictures of the truss-girder bridge above. The tunnel is 934 metres long. [10]The North portal is now-a-days smothered by the modern road network as is the Station of La Mescla. The present station building is disused but it sits on the site of one built in 1904 to replace another station some 500 metres further upstream. The original station building of 1904 can be seen on the postcard image immediately below.The 1904 La Mescla Station with the tramway bridge visible in the distance. The image comes from the mid to late 1920s. [7] It is just possible, in this image, to pick out the tramway branching from the Nice to Digne main line before the concrete bridge is reached. This building replaced an earlier station some distance north of this point.

The Station at La Mescla was immediately adjacent to the confluence of the two rivers – the Var and the Tinee as demonstrated in the title provided by the photographer of the postcard image below.The next few images focus on the tramway bridge and its predecessor. [3][4]The bow-string concrete arch bridge was not the first bridge at this location. The original suspension bridge was not designed to carry the loads which would have been placed on it by the trams. It was built in 1883 to provide better access to the Tinee Valley, and was removed in 1909. [11] The tramway turned sharply onto the concrete arch bridge which was built in 1909. [9] It replaced the earlier suspension bridge. The adjacent photograph shows the bridge in excellent light. It was a graceful structure. [13]The view of the old bridge from the South s now obscured bt the much newer road bridge across the Var. [8]

It may be helpful here to reflect on the early history of road building in the hinterland behind Nice as that history goes some way to explaining the route chosen for the railway in later years.

A route north from Nice was first promulgated via Levens and indeed the road to Levens was built in the mid-1850s. The Valley of the Var being notorious for flooding an the erosion of the river banks. However, consideration was then given to containing the river not only to prevent flooding and its economic effects but also to address health issues including the malarial marshes near the coast. [12]

The construction of a dike along the Var, from its mouth to Baus-Roux over a length of over 23 kilometres, also allowed the construction of a road accessible to motor vehicles. This new road became the main access to the valleys of Estéron, Vésubie, Var and Tinée. It became indispensable.

Construction of this new road was easy. It was based on a flat stable surface and provided for an excellent road on long straights and broad curves. The climb alongside the river was gradual and the land gained by retaining the river created space for future widening of the road an other transport projects. [12]

As early as 18th August 1860, an imperial decree was promulgated, declaring the public utility  of the works to contain the Var. The French State carried the full cost of the work and the length from the coast to Baus-Roux was finished quickly (by 1869).

The new road was given the designation IR205 (Imperial Road No. 205) and ran from the coast up the Var and into the Gorge at Le Chaudan. It ran through the Gorge, exiting at La Mescla and then followed the valley of the River Tinée to Saint-Etienne a dn over the pass to the Valley of Haute Ubaye and then on to Barcelonnette. The link to Barcelonnette was perceived to be of great strategic importance.

The image below is a hand-drawn map of the road network in the immediate area north of Nice and the valleys of the hinterland.

However, the proximity of the border, coupled with an ever-increasing deterioration of Franco-Italian relations from 1881, lead the military authorities to oppose the extension of the road to Barcelonnette. This situation immediately benefited the Var valley and more particularly the Haut-Var, since a route further west to reach Barcelonnette was now required and the route along the Var was ideal. [12]

It is natural, therefore, that the thinking of engineers planning the new metre-gauge railway should think first of the Valley of the River Var.

The route of the railway north and west of La Mescla will be the subject of a separate post, as will the tramway in the Tinee Valley.

References

  1. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/peclegg/sncf/articles/article_2010_07.html, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  2. http://www.beyond.fr/villages/planvar.html, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  3. http://www.formule4.com/route_code.php?rcode=37, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  4. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Le+Chaudan,+06450+Utelle,+France/@43.8710267,7.195743,17.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x12cdb61fb9048de5:0xeddd760d1f05ab36!8m2!3d43.870819!4d7.198762, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  5. http://cccp.traindespignes.free.fr/gare-tinee.html, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  6. http://www.tunnels-ferroviaires.org/tu06/06151.1.pdf, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  7. http://marc-andre-dubout.org/cf/baguenaude/tinee/tinee.htm, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  8. https://structurae.info/ouvrages/pont-de-la-mescla-2, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  9. https://structurae.info/ouvrages/pont-de-la-mescla accessed on 12th July 2018.
  10. http://www.tunnels-ferroviaires.org/tu06/06078.2.pdf, accessed on 11th July 2018.
  11. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pont_de_la_Mescla_sur_le_Var_-_Les_Travaux_Publics_de_la_France.jpg, accessed on 12th July 2018.
  12. https://passeurdememoires.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/notre-202, accessed on 12th July 2018
  13. https://infovallees.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/patrimoine-8, accessed on 12th July 2018.

TAM Tramway from Plan du Var to St. Martin Vesubie – Revisited (Chemins de Fer de Provence 64)

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Back in 2013, I wrote a short blog about the line from Plan du Var to St. Martin-Vesubie:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/chemins-de-fer-de-provence-7-the-line-to-st-martin-vesubie

Many of the images in that post were culled from a blog by Marc Andre Debout. [1] It feels appropriate that I should revisit my blog and update it. I have discovered significantly more about the route and I’d like to complete a detailed survey of the route.

An interesting survey of the line was undertaken for the French website “http://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr” (written in French) [2] which I have drawn on, along with the things, in producing this post.

The “Brissonneau” heads, a freight train in La Vésubie station. Bernard Rozé Collection – published by BVA, April 1956. [4] This will have been taken after the closure of the tramway (1929).Also taken at Plan du Var, this could only be a train off the tramway during the first year of its life 1909 to 1910. It is more likely to be a Digne to Nice train. [4]

Tramway services left Plan du Var Station travelling North and diverged from the Nice to Digne line before reaching the Vesubie River. The images below are old postcards of the location of the junction and show the development of the site over a number of years. Initially an stone arch bridge took the road over the Vesubie, but when this failed is was replaced by the concrete arch bridge visible in some of the pictures.

The first picture shows the location prior to the construction of a number of buildings to the North of the confluence. The second still has the old arch bridge and includes those buildings. The third shows both the tramway and the new bridge. The fourth encompasses both bridge and junction but it is [possible that the tramway peters out when it reaches the tarmac of the road over the Pont Durandy. If that is the case, then the fourth photograph was probably taken after the closure of the tramway in 1929.Taken from the railway in the 21st Century. This picture shows the truss girder bridge over the Vesubie on the Nice Digne Line and the road bridge (Concrete Arch) behind the vegetation.The two postcard pictures immediately above were found for sale on the collection-jfm.fr website in 2018. [5]The 1955 1:50,000 IGN map shows a track which was once the tramway along the Vesubie River Valley commencing at the road bridge, Pont Durandy, and running under the ’43’ (on the map) before turning North to cross the river and join the roadway up the valley. [3]The plan above shows the road route into the Vesubie Valley marked with the green arrow the blue dotted line is that of the old tramway. The tram line crossed the road just before the Vésubie bridge. She went up this last about 400m before crossing it in turn on a bridge that has now disappeared. [2] The image below shows the location of the tramway formation as it can be seen in the early 21st Century. [2]After traveling for around 400m on the South side of the Vesubie River the tramway crossed to the North side and joined the road at the point shown on the image above.

The General Council of the department decided to construct of three lines in the area on 10th February 1906. They were The Plan-du-Var – Saint-Martin-Vésubie line for the Vésubie valley and, for the Tinée valley, the “La-Tinée” line – Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée. These two lines were given to the TAM (Tramways of the Alpes-Maritimes) to manage [6] . The third line was the Nice – Levens line, allocated to the TNL (Trams of Nice and Littoral). [7]

Within just a few weeks of the establishment of a Municipal Council for St. Martin-Vesubie (1908) a campaign was inaugurated to see modifications to the proposed tram service to the town/village which included revisions to the planned station location and layout. The budget for the station site was originally 6,000 francs. The revised and agreed scheme amounted to 10,000 francs.

Considered a priority, the Vésubie line was commissioned in 1909. Construction took place, during that year and the line opened on 1st September 1909. However, electric powered tramcars were not delivered in time for the opening and for approximately one year steam engines were in use on the line. Electric trams finally entered service in 1910.

The trams allowed both good s and passengers to be transported quickly: the cans of milk from the pastures were delivered directly to the centre of Nice and other perishable items also reached buyers much more quickly.

In translating French to English in my last post on this line, I managed to misconstrue the history of the line. In that post I said that the line did not reach St. Martin Vesubie until 1928 and Roquebillière in 1926. What I should have understood at the time was that there was an interruption in the service betwen 1926 and 1928. A huge landslide that buried the village of Roquebillière also covered roads and railways. 24th November 1926, date of the tragedy, was engraved in local memories. As a result, the saints-martinois had to take a bus to complete their journey until the trams were again allowed to cross the landslide in September 1928. This transhipment promoted the use of coaches instead of trams and as a result it was decided to close the line in 1929. Tram transport was, by then considered archaic in the face of competition from the automobile.

Positive decisions in favour of the tramway were regularly made within the local communes and the tramway was seen positively until the advent of the Great War. However, the last action by the Municipal Council relating to the line was the refusal of an increase in tariffs on the line because of the increased competition from buses and lorries It seems that the demise of the tramway was already anticipated, long before the Roquebillière disaster provided what was ultimately the fatal blow to the line.

I came across the adjacent image of a Nice-St. Martin bus, while researching the route on the internet. I cannot remember where I found it. It is perhaps easy to see that the newer and more reliable buses provided very strong competition for the trams.

Once the tramway crossed to the north side of the Vesubie close to Plan du Var, it followed the road perched above the river [10] for some distance. There was a short tunnel through which the old road passed in the 1950s which was probably in existence at the time of the tramway.

The road leading to that tunnel (and the route of the old tramway) can be seen below diverging from the newer road and tunnel. [11] The image is taken from Google Streetview. A similar image shows the old road/tramway formation, close to the River Vesubie, returning to join the newer road/tunnel on the north side of the rock outcrop. After the tunnel the formation/road passes through La Madone (La Cros d’Utelle) still following what is the northwest bank of the river.A typical early postcard view of the road alongside the River Vesubie before the tramway was constructed. [8]A typical scene on the road up the Vesubie Gorge. This picture was taken in February 2017. The road was closed to allow the landslide to be removed and the site secured. [9]The station building next to the river at La Cros d’Utelle (La Madone). [1]

From La Madone (La Cros D’Utelle), the tramway continued along the West bank of the Vesubie and through a short (20 metre) rough-hewn tunnel which is shown in the map below and in the two images which immediately follow the map. [11]The pictures immediately above show typical scenes along the route of the tramway formation which is now hidden under the M2565 road through the Vesubie Gorge. The first picture is from Google Streetview and shows a narrow private footbridge providing access to a steep footpath on the East bank of the river. The second shows a tunnel and almost hidden a bridge supporting the road over the river. The third photograph shows the entrance to the tunnel (Tunnel de Pagary Longeur) which is located on the map below. [11]

Interestingly, the TAM lines were equipped with a single-phase electrical supply of 6600 Volts, 25 Hertz. The catenary was suspended from wooden posts or cliff walls by metal brackets. Th electric traction units worked throughout the life of the tramway (approximately 20 years) although some improved units were provided in 1920 on the line of Vésubie. In 1911, four to five round trips of trams were scheduled each day. But by 1914, because of the war, there were only two daily movements until the line was closed in 1929. [7]

North of the tunnel the gorge narrowed significantly and hemned in the tramway. The adjacent photograph gives an idea of just how narrow the gorge cut by the Vesubie is/was at this point. As the gorge widens out again the tramway took the opportunity to cross the Vesubie onto its eastern bank by means of a very graceful arch bridge.

In the image below, Google Streetview has allowed me to pick out the bridge through the local vegetation. That photo is then followed by an older postcard picture of the bridge [1] – the first Pont de St-Jean-la-Riviere. There is a later bridge built immediately adjacent to the village which took a road over to the Westbank and up to Utelle.The bridge in the two images above is shown at the bottom left of the IGN map above, close t toe Colombier. The second, newer bridge is immediately adjacent to the village of St-Jean-la-Riviere where the M32 leaves the M2565/M19. The newer bridge is shown below. [12] Between these two bridges the tramway followed the West bank of the Vesubie while the main road took to the East bank. [2]The station at St. Jean la Riviere on the south-west side of the river, circled in red on the map below. It is now the town hall! [1][2]From the new bridge, the line travelled up the East bank of the Vesubie northwards out of the village of St. Jean la Riviere. In a couple of kilometres, the tramway crossed back to the west bank of the river by means of the bridge below. Within 300 metres, the Tarmway returned to the East bank by means of the structure show below.The tramway and road then travelled in an easterly direction towards Le Suquet.

Close to Le Suquet, the Gorge opens out and the tramway formation/road drift away from the River Vesubie before turning northwards to cross the river once again. Then for a time the tramway and road kept their distance from the river.The station building at Le Suquet [1] is shown on the adjacent plan circled in red. The bridge in the postcard above is circled in blue. [2]

North of Le Suquet, a new tunnel takes the M2565 on a straighter course than the old road/tramway took. The older route can be seen on the right-hand side of the picture below.. The northern portal of the new tunnel can be seen in the second picture below with the old road (and so the tramway formation) joining the newer road from the left.The tramway route remains on the West side of the valley through Le Fourcat and on towards Lantosque. Tram-travellers faced none of the confusion of modern drivers about which route to take. The trams just followed their tracks which took the higher route alongside the retaining wall in the picture below and then passed through a tunnel at St. Claire.The tunnel was just 28 metres in length. [11] The first image below shows the South-West Portal  and the tramway, the second shows the same view but from the 21st Century and the third picture shows the North-East portal. The second and third images come from Google Streetview. The tunnel is rough-hewn from the rock. The first is an old postcard view. [13]The two postcards immediately above show the tramway following what is now the M173 but was in those days a separate route from the road. [1]

Trams approached Lantosque along the line of what is now the M173. The bridge shown in the image below was not crossed by the trams. It carries a road over the Riou de Lantosque.The trams followed what is now the M173 round to the left in the above image and then round a relatively tight bend into the centre of Lantosque. [14][15]In the light of the fact that the train on the viaduct is steam hauled we can date this image to the period from September 1909 to November 2010 when all trains were steam-hauled as the electric traction had still to arrive from the manufacturer. [16]The 5 images immediately above all show the same viaduct North of Lantosque and close to La Bollene-Vesubie. The bridge was built for the tramway and also provided road access across the Vesubie River. All the images are old postcards. The bridge is not easy to photograph in the 21st Century because of the growth of vegetation in the river valley.

North of the Viaduct the Vesubie Valley opens out further. The tramway took the east side of the valley heading for the old village of Roquebilliere. The next station was provided for the village of La Bollene Vesubie, although it was in the valley 5 kilometres from the village which couldm only be accessed via a mountain road. The station location can eb seen below on a Google Streetview image and then below that in a picture and map from http://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr. [2]North of the Viaduct the Vesubie Valley opens out further. The tramway took the east side of the valley heading for the old village of Roquebilliere. On the approach to what is now the old village there was a very significant landslide in 1926 which took away a significant number of houses.

There are pictures and a video below (after the pictures of the village as it was before 1926) which show the extent of the damage caused. 19 people were lost in the rubble of the landslide and attempts to rescue them or recover their bodies seemed likely to result in further movement of the hillside. Collapse of the village of Belvedere above the slip remained a very real possibility.

The original slip occurred on 24th November, continuing rains meant that one 30th November the hillside started to move again. Movement  over two days amounted to about 10 metres over a width of between 60 and 200 metres. The buildings in its path could not resist this and by 1st December 1926, a further 10 buildings had collapsed. Fortunately, by the end of December, with frost, the earth was harder, and stabilized. [22]The 7 images immediately above show the tramway in the village of Roquebilliere in advance of the tragedy which struck the village in 1926. The old village was of quite a significant size and much of it disappeared in the landslide of that year. Three images in old postcards are shown below.The village has suffered landslides and floods six times since the 6th  century. It was rebuilt each time in the same place, except for this last time, after the landslide of the 24th November 1926.  Most of the inhabitants left the severe tall houses of their old village to go to a new location on the West bank where there was already a church dating from the 15th Century. The old village remains inhabited but much smaller than before the 1926 disaster. 

The two videos below show, respectively,  the village immediately after the landslip, [18] and the village in the 21st Century. [19]

A late 20th Century shot of the old village taken from the road to Belvédère, high on the hill where the landslip occurred in 1926. [17] The red ring circles a WW2 gun emplacement.Another shot of the road bridge, this time from the new village. [20]The route of the tramway in 2017, taken from Google Streetview.Belvédère, high above Vieux Roquebilliere on the East side of the Vesubie Valley. [21]

After Roquebilliere, the tramway followed the East bank of the Vesubie until immediately below the village of St. Martin Vesubie. On the approach to the village it crossed a substantial viaduct. The first image below is an old postcard view looking back across the viaduct from St. Martin.The tramway can be seen crossing the bridge in both of the old postcard images above. The location of the bridge is shown circled in red on the plan above. [2]The viaduct in the 21st Century is shown (above) on an image from Google Streetview.

The trams climbed into the village along Route de la Vesubie and then, as shown on the adjacent plan, turned left onto Place de la Gare as the main road swung round to the right in a hairpin bend. [2]The station building is shown above as it appears in the early 21st Century! [2]We finish this journey with a series of postcard views of the station at St. Martin Vesubie. The one immediately above was taken while steam power was still active on the line, probably in 1910. The images below show a busy station area in the early years before the first world war.And finally a plan of the Station at Saint-Martin-Vesubie and a video made by Pathe News in 1912 ….A plan of the station track layout – the route to Plan du Var heads off on the left of the plan. [2]

The Pathe New Video. [23]

References

  1. http://marc-andre-dubout.org/cf/baguenaude/vesubie/vesubie.htm, accessed on 16th December 2013.
  2. http://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr/hd06/06075.a.pdf, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  3. https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/comparer/basic?x=7.204426&y=43.858319&z=15&layer1=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.SCAN50.1950&layer2=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.SCAN-EXPRESS.STANDARD&mode=doubleMap, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  4. http://www.en-noir-et-blanc.com/levens-p1-838.html, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  5. https://collection-jfm.fr/p/cpa-france-06-plan-du-var-le-pont-sur-la-vesubie-88555, and https://collection-jfm.fr/p/cpsm-france-06-plan-du-var-le-pont-sur-la-vesubie-33701, both offered for sale, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  6. As noted in other posts the TAM was a subsidiary of the Chemin de fer du Sud de la France (SF) then the Chemin de fer de Provence (CP) continues to provided a service between Nice and Digne.
  7. http://amontcev.free.fr/tramways.htm, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  8. https://www.geneanet.org/cartes-postales/view/6221073#0, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  9. http://www.nicematin.com/vie-locale/les-gorges-de-la-vesubie-fermees-jusqua-mercredi-apres-un-eboulement-115405, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  10. http://anjouetailleurs.eklablog.com/la-cote-d-azur-c23345521/3?noajax&mobile=1, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  11. http://www.tunnels-ferroviaires.org/inventaire.htm, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  12. https://structurae.info/ouvrages/pont-de-saint-jean-la-riviere, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  13. https://www.delcampe.net/fr/collections/cartes-postales/france/lantosque/06-lantosque-ligne-du-tram-tunnel-ste-clairetbe-300006705.html, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  14. https://www.delcampe.net/fr/collections/cartes-postales/france/lantosque/lantosque-06-vue-prise-du-riou-la-gare-tram-de-la-vallee-de-la-vesubie-593785660.htm, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  15. https://www.delcampe.net/fr/collections/cartes-postales/france/lantosque/06-lantosque-fl-89-tram-la-gare-beau-plan-superbe-300551522.html, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belv%C3%A9d%C3%A8re, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  17. http://club.quomodo.com/fortif06/fortifications/ouvrages_maginot/secteur_vesubie/casemate_de_roquebilliere, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kySBA8b_io, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF90I0kZuFo, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  20. http://www.dronestagr.am/snow-roquebilliere, accessed on 9th July 2018.
  21. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belv%C3%A9d%C3%A8re_(Alpes-Maritimes), accessed on 8th July 2018.
  22. https://www.departement06.fr/documents/Import/decouvrir-les-am/rr135-roquebiliere.pdf, accessed on 10th July 2018.
  23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q39tIIVlCh8, accessed on 11th July 2021

Nice to Digne-les-Bains Part 3 – La Manda to Plan du Var (Chemins de Fer de Provence 63)

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Colomars/La Manda to Plan du Var

At La Manda, a branch line to Meyrargues separated from the main line to Digne les Bains immediately north of La Manda/Colomars Station. That branch-line is the subject of a run of blogs in this series. The route is covered in one series, the first of which is:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2017/11/20/ligne-de-central-var-part-1

The post above contains a significant number of images of Colomars/La Manda Station.

The last of the series on the route of the branch-line is:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2017/12/11/ligne-de-central-var-part-15-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-35

A short series of posts covers locomotives and rolling stock on the branch which inevitably overlap with that on the main line. The first of these is:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/02/23/locomotives-and-rolling-stock-on-the-central-var-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-50

The last of these is:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/03/07/rolling-stock-on-the-central-var-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-54

Colomars/La Manda

We begin the next stage of our journey along the Nice to Digne les Bains line at Colomars Station. The modern halt is on a section of railway line which was not part of the original alignment. The as-built alignment had to accommodate access for the branch-line to the bridge over the River Var and had to allow for a height gain to permit trains to travel over the top girders of the truss-bridge over the Var.

The relative positions of the old station and the modern halt can be seen on the adjacent sketch map. A few photos of both the station and the halt follow. First, the ancient station is shown in the early 1900s and then in more up-to-date photographs shows what of it remains. [1]

The modern halt, is literally just that, a couple of unmanned platforms adjacent to the river revetments. [1]

Two final pictures before we leave La Manda. The first is a reconstruction of the station site, the second is an archive photograph of the old line to the south of the station which shows the construction work for the new diversion along the river bank in the 1960s. Note, in that picture, the La Manda has still to be reconstructed. Both of these pictures come from the ‘formule4’ website. [12]

While the modern line follows the east bank of the Var, the original line north of the old Colomars/La Manda Station and the original junction with the Central Var line the Nice to Digne line entered a short tunnel which is now used as a one-way access from the main road to La Manda for vehicles travelling in a southerly direction. The plan below shows the current road layout at La Manda and the location of the tunnel. The roads to the south-east of the main road follow the alignment of the railway that they have replaced. [2]


The northern portal. [2]

Two Images (above) of the southern portal in 21st Century. [2]

The southern portal immediately before it ceased to serve as a railway tunnel. The picture also shows a Renault railcar and the northern arm of the triangular junction with the Central Var line. [2]

The tunnel is known as Le Tunnel de Vallade. It is approximately 50m long and is just over 65m above sea-level. Its use as a pad tunnel means that it has been kept in good condition since the railway like he was diverted.

North of the tunnel, the line drifted back towards the bank of the River Var to join the present alignment of the railway. The old line is shown by the black line on the Google earth satellite image below.

The line then followed the East bank of the Var to St. Martin du Var which was the next station on the route. The next three images are taken from Google Maps Streetview and show the approach to the station at St. Martin du Var.


The three images immediately above are taken from the website, ‘Le Train de Pignes’. [3]

A trackside view of the station building at St. Martin due Var. [4]

Two aerial shots of St. Martin du Var. The first from the south. [5] The second from the Northeast, shows the station buildings on the right of the photograph. [6] These two pictures show the station in its modern context.

The line continues to follow the east bank of the Var passing through the halt at La Roquette-sur-Var (immediately below). The bridge behind the halt is Pont Charles Albert and gives its name to the halt.

The three images immediately above are taken from the formule4 site and show the location in the 21st century. [7] The image below was also found on the formule4 site but was sourced from BNF Gallicia. [8] It shows the original bridge, a suspension bridge across the Var and interestingly a standard-gauge railway which connected the Baus Roux to the mouth of the Var by means of a cariole pulled by horses heading up the valley away from the coast and descending under gravitational power towards the coast. A cariole was a type of carriage used in the 19th century. It was a light, small, two- or four-wheeled vehicle, open or covered, drawn by a single horse. The Baus Roux was an industrial area just to the north of the Pont Charles Albert on the East side of the Var.

Two pictures of the old cement works at Baus Roux. [9]

The bridge in the bottom half of the above satellite image is Pont Charles Albert. one of the abandoned cement works is immediately below the words ‘Baus Roux’.
The line passed through a halt on its way North to Plan du Var – Arret de Baus Roux is shown immediately below (abandonned). [7] That halt was replaced by one with the name ‘La Roquette sur Var/Baus Roux’ which s shown on a Google Streetview image below.


Within a short distance we catch sight of a large industrial complex on the west bank of the River Var. This is Gabre Power Station which sits on a promontory which sticks out into the course of the river. The power station was served by its own rail link which crossed the metal truss girder bridge shown in both of the two images below.


Gabre district in the commune of Le Barbant/Bonson (Alpes-Maritimes, France), opposite Plan du Var, with the Gabre bridge and the Gabre power plant built in 1890 to supply electricity to the trams of Nice. On the other side of the Var, you can see the road to Digne (ex-N202, currently D6202) and the railway line of the Railways of Provence (“Train Pignes”). This picture was taken from the village of Le Barbant/Bonson in 2007 © Eric Coffinet [10]

The perched village above the power station is Le Barbant/Bonson © Eric Coffinet [11]

The rail link to Gabre Power station diverged from the Nice to Digne line on the west side of Plan due Var. Its rails could still be seen in the road surface of the truss girder bridge in the early 21st Century. [7]

This series of 5 photographs of the Gabre Bridge are culled from formule4’s website. [7]

There is evidence of this short branch-line on the 1955 IGN 1:50,000 map of the area. [13] It can been seen close to the Hyrdoelectric plant on the left side of the ‘fold’ in the map. I cannot find details of how itconnected to the mainline and can only assume an at grade crossing at the east end of Le Pont de Gabre and a junction at the railway station in Plan du Var.

Plan du Var with Le Pont du Gabre at the bottom of the combine map/satellite image and the station buildings between the River Var and the village. [14]

The next few images of the station at Plan du Var come from the ‘formule4’ website. [7]

Looking north through the station.

The station buildings with the village off to the left.


Looking North from the station into Les Gorges de la Mescla. Just beyond the building on the right the tracks coverage to a single line once again. The buildings on the left were originally associated with the tramway which ran up the Vesubie Valley.

At Plan du Var a tramway diverged from the mainline and headed up the Vesubie Valley. Some limited details of this branch-line can be found at:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/chemins-de-fer-de-provence-7-the-line-to-st-martin-vesubie

We finish this part of our journey along the Nice to Digne line at Plan du Var.

Plan du Var Station (c) Eric Coffinet. [15]

References

  1. http://cccp.traindespignes.free.fr/phototheque-nostalgie.html, accessed on 20th November 2017.
  2. http://www.tunnels-ferroviaires.org/inventaire.htm, tunnel No. 06046.1, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  3. http://cccp.traindespignes.free.fr/gare-stmartin.html, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  4. https://dossiersinventaire.regionpaca.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/gares-des-chemins-de-fer-de-provence/5db69410-c3ec-4217-b30c-92f975a65c27/illustration/57, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  5. https://www.iha.co.nl/vakantiehuis-saint-martin-du-var/Am=, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  6. http://www.ecovallee-cotedazur.com/projects/the-eco-district-saint-martin-du-var, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  7. http://www.formule4.com/route_code.php?rcode=35#wpt12, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  8. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b12000805.item.r=pont+charles+albert.f18.langFR, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  9. http://www.valleeduvar.fr/index.php?page=gypse, accessed on 7th July 2018.
  10. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bonson_(Gabre).jpg, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  11. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bonson_(Gabre-2).jpg, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  12. http://www.formule4.com/route_code.php?rcode=35, and http://www.basesdocumentaires-cg06.fr/os-cgi/cgixpd.exe?exec=DOCUMENT&mode=0&start=20&num=28&fnmq=&fnmr=foto/page-r.html&fnmd=foto/page-f.html&q_ft_any_text_column=manda, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  13. https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/comparer/basic?x=7.197585&y=43.855283&z=15&layer1=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.SCAN50.1950&layer2=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.SCAN-EXPRESS.STANDARD&mode=doubleMap, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  14. https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/comparer/basic?x=7.196726&y=43.856888&z=17&layer1=ORTHOIMAGERY.ORTHOPHOTOS&layer2=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.SCAN-EXPRESS.STANDARD&mode=doubleMap, accessed on 8th July 2018.
  15. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare_de_Plan_du_Var.jpg, accessed on 7th July 2018.

The Network of the Tramways of Nice and the Littoral (TNL) at its Height (Chemins de Fer de Provence 62)

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As I have mentioned in the last month or two, I have been very fortunate indeed. … For my birthday this year, my wife has bought me two books about the tramways of Nice. Both of these books are written in French by Jose Banaudo and published by Les Editions du Cabri. [1]

I am enjoying reading the first of the two volumes at the moment which covers the history of the tramways in Nice. I have had some conversations of a number of forums about the TNL which ran the tramways along the coast and in the city of Nice as well as a number of lines which travelled up into the hilly countryside behind the coast.

Sadly the full story of the TNL network is currently only available in Jose Banaudo’s books which are written in French.

I have used Google Translate to translate some of the pages of Jose Banaudo’s book. These notes are based on that translation. This post focusses on the years immediately before the First World War. It was at this time that the network reached its fullest extent and it was the time when it was both in its best condition and carrying the greatest number of passengers. After the First World War things began to change and competition from other forms of transport increased.

The pictures included below are not those included in Jose Banaudo’s book. He entitles this section of his book, The TNL Network at its Height (Jose Banaudo Volume 1 : p62-68)

Like many French rail transport networks on the eve of the first world war, the TNL experienced, significant growth in all areas: mileage exploited, number of passengers and tonnage of goods, staff numbers, etc. There were a number of improvement and development projects underway, both for urban and interurban traffic, but the economic and human upheavals brought by the war were soon to bring a halt to the overall prosperity of the tramways of Nice.

The Completion of the Departmental Network

On the eve of the war, one line of the departmental network in the hinterland behind Nice remained to be built and an extension to another had just been agreed.

The 1904 convention provided for the extension of the La Grave-de Peille line along Les Gorges de Paillon to reach the village of L’Escarène. L’Escarène was the capital of the canton and had a commercial importance but also a military significance, because from L’Escarène one could extend the tramway towards Lucéram and Peïra-Cava, at the edge of the highly strategic Authion massif. However, the new PLM international route Nice-Breil-Cuneo had just been confirmed across the same route. This resulted in a rapid diminution of interest in the establishment of a tramway in what were very sparcely populated gorges

As a result, the general council decided to replace the planned line with a totally different route: La Pointe-de-Contes – L’Escarène. The proposed line was just over 7.5 km in length.

In addition, since the location of the terminus of the Nice-Levens line required tram passengers to walk nearly a kilometre to reach the village, an extension to Levens village was promulgated in October 1908. It was just over one kilometre long and included a tunnel. Work has just begun when war commenced and no further progress was made.

The Completion of the Urban Network

The network in the city of Nice had last seen alterations not long after the turn of the 20th Century. They were supplemented by a new line when on 8th February 1908, the city of Nice granted the TNL a line connecting Magnan bridge to the suburb of La Madeleine.The line was give the route number 12 and began operations on 27th April 1908. A single track followed the shoulder of the road up the valley for a distance of over 2.2km. It facilitated the rapid urbanization of this popular district where small factories, laundries, restaurants and cafes opened up. La Madeleine became a popular Sunday walk destination.

Closer to the centre of Nice, three lines had been granted in the period from 1902 onwards and should have entered the area bounded by the Boulevard Gambetta, the Rue de France, the Avenue de la Gare and the Avenue Thiers, which is nowadays called “Quartier des Musicians” because most of the streets are named after famous composers of the 19th century.Place Gambetta However, as a result of opposition from residents in the Musicians Quarter the company and the municipality decided not to construct the lines in the Quarter.

Another line close to the Old Town was proposed. .. The route which was initially planned to follow Rue de St. François-de-Paule and Cours Saleya sparked protests from the market traders. The image below indicates the extent of the market and highlights the likely disruption that would have been caused by the tram route.Another route through the historic heart of the city, via Rues du Palais et de la Terrasse, Les Quais du Midi and Des Ponchettes (today, Etats-Unis and Rauba-Capèu), the Quai Lunel and La Place Cassini (today, Ile-de-Beauté), was also defeated by opposition.In the first half of the 1910s, the completion of the urban network was the subject of arduous negotiations between the municipality and the TNL. On 5th and 6th February 1912, two amendments and a new convention were signed to alter the lines to be built. The four routes not yet realized were abandoned in favor of extensions and new links towards the suburbs of the city. Banaudo cites these as:

• an extension of line 4 Port-Lazaret, via the Boulevard Empress-de-Russie;

• line 6 (Massena) Boulevard Joseph Garnier-St. Sylvestre via Avenues St. Barthelemy (today, Auguste Ravnaud), Cyrille-Besset and Boulevard de Cessole;

• line 7 Place Saluzzo-Rue de Lépante;

• line 7 bis (Masséna) Carras-Caucade;

• Line 11 (Masséna) Place de Tende-Eglise St. Roch;

• an extension of line 12 to Le Madeleine-Supérieure;

• line 13 (Masséna) Place Saluzzo-Col de Villefranche on the flank of Mont Boron.

Political issues intervened and planned routes were again altered. Banaudo says that after interminable discussions only lines 6, 7a and 11, on different routes  to those previously proposed were approved.

Banaudo reports that “in the spring of 1914, the TNL operated a network of 166.5 km, including 33.6 km of urban lines, 2 km of routes within the port area and 130.9 km of coastal and departmental lines. If common lines are deducted the total reduces by about 5km. The rolling stock fleet consisted of 174 powered units (including 9 in Monaco) and 90 passenger trailers, as well as 13 tractors and 140 freight cars. The staff consisted of a thousand employees, ensuring an annual traffic of nearly 25 million passengers and more than 200,000 tons of goods. For 1913, the last year before the war, with 4,564,544 francs of receipts and 3,227,730 francs of expenses, the financial balance sheet of the company was largely profitable and the coefficient of exploitation remained at a rate of 0.71 to the envy of many other networks.”

References

  1. Nice au fil du Tram Volume 1 and 2, Jose Banaudo; Les Editions du Cabri.
  2. Nice au fil du Tram Volume 1; p62-67.

The Uganda Railway – Part 27 – Locomotives and Rolling Stock – Part E (Rolling Stock 1895 to 2018)

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Metre-Gauge Railways in East Africa – Rolling Stock

This post provides a short survey of carriages, goods wagons and brake vans/cabooses on the network in Kenya and Uganda from the inception of the Uganda Railway in the 19th Century to through the demise of the East African Railways Corporation in 1977 on to 2018 when this post is being written. The approach is eclectic rather than structured and the post includes some interesting vehicles.

A. The Early Years

Nairobi Railway Museum houses a couple of examples of passenger stock from the very early years of the line. During the construction phase of what was the original main line from Mombasa to Kisumu it was not possible to provide air conditioning in carriages! Carriages had to be design in order to limit temperature experienced by passengers.It was from this coach that superintendent Charles Henry Ryall was dragged and killed by a man eating lion on 6th june 1900 at Kima station. [1]Interior of a 1st Class Carriage at Nairobi Railway Museum. [35]The coach in the first image above can be seen poking its nose into this image of another Uganda Railway 1st Class carriage. The photo was taken, by me, in 1994.British and SA troops in WW1 decorate a Uganda Railway train at Voi with merchandise confiscated from felled or runaway German troops. [9]111397: Nairobi Kenya Preserved Uganda Railway Officers Saloon No 13 on platform, (c) Weston Langford. [8]Lion leaning on the back of carriage with box van behind, dated around 1961. The image shows a lion stepping up on to the back of the railway carriage and trying to find a way in. The photo is linked to the East African Railways & Harbours/Caltex historical film ‘The Permanent Way”, which included the building of the original ‘Uganda Railway’ from Mombasa to Kisumu (now in Kenya) from 1895 to 1903. [36]An example of one of the above coaches at the rear of a train on the first (timber) bridge between Mombasa Island and the mainland. [2]Similar carriages illustrated again at At Mombasa Railway Station around the turn of the 20th century. [3]Loading the train. [3]Another images of the early carriages, this time at Changamwe Railway Station a few kilometres from Mombasa. [4] This picture also provides a glimpse of a typical covered goods wagon in use on the line in the early 20th Century.And at Samburu. [5]A short train of open wagons close to Mombasa in the construction phase of the line. [3]  The two images immediately above are evidence of a rather chaotic attitude to the transport of railway workers in the years of the construction of the line! [6]A Uganda Railway wagon stands alongside Indian labourers as they repair the railway near Taveta during WW1. It had been bombed by the Germans. [9]An interesting example of early holiday travel. A short journey down the line to shoot game! [7]A further example of provision made for shooting parties: the High Commissioner to had the railway extended to his estate. It was used by the Governor Frederick John Jackson who owned a 1910 BSA Railcar, which was used for hunting parties. When the American President Theodore Roosevelt visited Uganda he borrowed the railcar. The BSA Railcar above was restored by the Sandstone Heritage Trust in South Africa. [7]

The railcar was made for the High Commissioner by the Drewry Car Co, using a BSA engine. Drewry & Sons had previously been cycle builders, run by Charles Drewry and his two sons, and located at the Herne Hill Cycle Works, 286-290 Milkwood Road. James Drewry delivered a motorised railway inspection trolley to Africa (below). Subsequently the company started building the BSA-engined Railcars. BSA took over production themselves in 1908. [7]An early goods train on the line, crossing a steel viaduct. The train is a combination of open wagons and a cattle wagon. [10]An open wagon supplied to the Uganda Railway in 1902 by the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd of Birmingham, UK. [16]Another early wagon on display at Nairobi Railway Museum. [24]

I have recently discovered some photographs of a model railway based on this line in the early years of the 20th Century. My interest in model railways means that I find these images exciting.I have still to find out more about this model. The rolling stock and locomotives seem to be very faithful to the original. [12]

B. The Developing and Growing Network

Early coaching stock began to give way to slightly better travelling conditions and carriage sizes began to develop to provide the travelling public with a better standard of service.The three pictures immediately above were taken by me in 1994 at Mombasa Railway Station. They provide a glimpse of passenger coaches stored in the sidings at the station and it is my hope that this blog post will place them into context in the history of the railway.The interior of a restaurant car. [23]A Class 11 locomotive during WW1 travels with an open wagon ahead of it to allow for the possibility of German mines.111510: In a siding at Gulu, Uganda Officers Inspection Car No 116 sits awaiting possible duties, (c) Weston Langford. [8]Passenger livery for an inspector’s caboose complete with rear window which was not fitted on a goods caboose. Goods cabooses were finished in all over maroon, as shown in the smaller image below, (c) Peter Ritchie. [11]

 

The larger monochrome image below shows a passenger train caboose in use by the sikh drivers of the train as their rest-coach between stints at the controls of the train, (c) Anthony Potterton. [6]The image immediately above shows a large caboose (No. 962) in all-over maroon, pictured in the Mombasa Railway Station sidings in 1994. The picture is one of my own.The photograph above shows a similar caboose (No. 6067). The notices on the doors indicate that the left-hand door is for the Mechanical Department Staff and the right-hand one for Mechanical Department Drivers. The caboose is stabled at Voi. [13] A similar vehicle is shown in this picture (adjacent) taken by George Gilliland. [11]

Freight/Goods wagons increased in size from those used in early years. The picture below shows an early flat bed wagon being loaded with a more modern car. [6] Should we call it a car transporter?The sidings at the main stations on the line provide ample evidence of the amount of freight which used to be carried on the line. Much of the rolling stock (both for freight and passengers) seems to be stabled and unused in many of these images below. These images have been trawled from a series of different websites.Coaching stock at Nairobi Station. [14]A picture taken from Nairobi Railway Museum. [15]Carriage interior. [34]More pictures taken from Nairobi Railway Museum (above and adjacent). [15]

A typical mixed train consist is shown below – coaches, box wagons and tarpaulin covered open wagons being typical. There would also have been a caboose to allow drivers rest-time.

More images of rolling stock follow. As the 20th Century gradually came to an end traditional wagons were replaced by flatbed container wagons. Rail transport also began to specialize as road transport carried the more regular loads.Typical goods traffic from the 1960s was covered wagons which required loading before incorporating into goods trains, as immediately below. [17]Bulk loads of oil or specialist loads of wire which travelled from point of origin to point of destination on the railways, and did not need transshipment, became the main freight carried on the line. A typical oil train is shown above. [19] And a specialist load is shown below. [20]Container traffic became more and more significant.Mombasa metre-gauge freight railway terminal. [21]Image result for railway Carriages in KenyaNew coaches for Kenya produce by BREL in Derby UK. [33]

Cranes

A series of railway maintenance cranes were kept at a variety of stations along the route of the metre-gauge line. Some of these are now kept at Nairobi Railway Museum.Crane No. 1164 at Nairobi Railway Museum where it is seen outside after repainting on 22nd October 2015, (c) Geoff Warren. [22] Also at Nairobi Railway Museum, Crane No. 1106, (c) John Ashworth. [22] At Nairobi Depot, Crane No. 1130, (c) John Ashworth. [22]At Nairobi Depot, Crane No. 1013, (c) John Ashworth. [22]Crane No. 1101 sitting idle and rusting away in Kampala. [22]

Light Weight Passenger Stock (Aluminium)

In the latter years of the East African Railway Corporation purchases of light weight carriages were made and many of these were used as 1st Class carriages.

A number were used as coaches to be dropped off from the main services to allow first class access to branch-lines. This practice is covered in an early post in this series. [30] A couple of photographs follow. ….

Other Interesting Pictures

East African Railways Railcar No. 3 was a Wickham Railcar, it was built in 1947. One of its sisters is shown below. [26]Railcar No. 2 was also built in 1947 and was 200hp, used on the Kisumu-Butere branch line. [27]East African Railways Inspection Vehicle. [28]

Uganda Railway - UR postal van under construction (Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company)

Uganda Railway - UR postal van under construction (Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company)

The two images immediately above show a Uganda Railways Postal Wagon under construction at the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Works in the UK. [29]

C. The Latter years

After 1977, the rolling stock (and locomotives) on the network were distributed between the three main constituent parts in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Very little new stock was purchased once the East African Railways Corporation had been split up. However, in 2015, the Uganda Observer reported that RVR was set to increase its current haulage capacity by 50 per cent after its first 120 of 480 heavy-duty railway wagons arrived in Kenya. Apparently, each of the wagons, which were built by the China CNR Corporation, had the capacity to transport 60 tonnes per trip, an increase from a then current 40-tonne load capacity per wagon. [32]

In 1994, I travelled from Mombasa to Kampala by train. I was on my own and so experienced a few problems with leaving luggage in my compartment when eating in the dining car. My luggage was expertly searched and some of my well-hidden cash (US dollars) went missing. The culprit had the confidence to approach me before I had noticed the loss to change some of the currency for him!

The theft apart, I had a wonderful time. The pictures that follow are not my own and were taken in the early years of the 21st century under the tenure of Rift Valley Railways (RVR). The journey that I enjoyed from Mobassa to Kampala was only available for a few years in the 1990s. The sleeper services in Kenya travelled from Kisumu through to Mombasa. Apart for the repainting of the carriages which were originally built in the UK, there seems to be little difference in the travelling conditions – silver service on starched table cloths, two berth cabins with connecting doors to the immediately adjacent cabin, etc. The first two images are taken from the pre-RVR era. The first three are my own (low quality slides) from 1994. The Nairobi-Mombasa express…  (c) David Pinney. [31]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pictures of the sleeper coaches and the dining car are taken from a blog entitles ‘The Man in Seat Sixty-One’ by Mark Smith. [31]

The sleeper train from Nairobi to Mombasa no longer travels as it has been replaced by the SGR line. However, the SGR does not access the centres of Nairobi and Mombasa. The image below shows the metre-gauge train arriving at Nairobi SGR terminus with a train from the much older city centre station.

The price for the journey from Nairobi to Mombasa in 1000 KSh in 2nd Class and 3000 KSh. in 1st Class. This is ridiculously cheap for a western traveller, there are around 125KSh to t UK£1 and 100KSh to US$1. A 2nd Class single from Nairobi to Mombasa is £8.00!!

A metre-gauge train in RVR colours has just arrived at the Nairobi terminus of the SGR line. [31]SGR trainPassenger coaches on the SGR are built in China, modern and air-conditioned… [31]

References

  1. http://www.hat.net/album/africa/2007_east_africa, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Railway#/media/File:Kurve_bei_Mombasa.jpg, accessed on 30th April 2018.
  3. http://www.oldeastafricapostcards.com/?page_id=2352, accessed on 30th April 2018.
  4. https://www.theeagora.com/the-lunatic-express-a-photo-essay-on-the-uganda-railway, accessed on 30th April 2018.
  5. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/435301120213602636/?lp=true, accessed on 15th June 2018.
  6. http://www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/heritage/sikhhert%20EAfrica/sikhsEAfrica.htm, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  7. http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/empire/empire-british-east-africa-uganda, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  8. https://www.westonlangford.com, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  9. https://twitter.com/HistoryKE/status/970363540220600320, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  10. http://railwaywondersoftheworld.com/uganda_railway.html, accessed on 25th May 2018.
  11. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/EastAfricanRailways/NairobiMombasa.htm, accessed on 30th June 2018. NB: Tony Potterton who owns this website contacted me to emphasize that while this small image is available on his site it is not one of his own images.
  12. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67526-older-inspirational-layouts/page-21, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  13. https://www.theeagora.com/voi-railway-station, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  14. http://www.guwentravel.com/travel/et/kenya/airport_embakasi_airport/photo_24416584-railway-and-old-ambassy-of-usa.html, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  15. http://en.wikigogo.org/en/10573, accessed on 25th June 2018.
  16. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Metropolitan_Railway_Carriage_and_Wagon_Co, accessed on 1st July 2018.
  17. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/554083560377607634, accessed on 25th June 2018.
  18. http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Citadel-Capital-gains-more-RVR-stake/688322-2267394-nc4rwhz/index.html, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  19. http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Markets/Uganda–Kenya-failed-railway-deal—RVR-chief/688606-4140902-15aa6p0/index.html, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  20. http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Kenya-to-maintain-sections-of-metre-gauge-rail-/2558-3966452-en4t8x/index.html, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  21. https://www.tuko.co.ke/147423-revealed-details-ksh-16-billion-world-bank-investigations-rvr.html#147423, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  22. http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/cranes/cranesafrica.htm, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  23. http://www.oldeastafricapostcards.com/?page_id=2352, 25th May 2018.
  24. http://www.hat.net/album/africa/2007_east_africa/60_kenya/nairobi/railway_museum/070917150034_hugh_f_marriott.htm, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  25. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/313352086548631921, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  26. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/326933254185923256/?lp=true, accessed on 15th June 2018.
  27. http://www.flickriver.com/photos/29903115@N06/42611529222, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  28. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/324470348145428848/?lp=true, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  29. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/40145605694 and https://hiveminer.com/Tags/kur, both accessed on 1st July 2018.
  30. https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/uganda-railways-part-22-jinja-via-mbulamuti-to-namasagali.
  31. https://www.seat61.com/Kenya.htm, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  32. http://allafrica.com/stories/201512181282.html, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  33. https://hiveminer.com/Tags/kenya%2Crail, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  34. http://muzungubloguganda.com/2015/12/rift-valley-railways-kampala-train/#.WzyyTNJKiUk, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  35. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/lifestyle/society/Railway-museum-tells-the-story-of-Kenya-s-evolution/3405664-3220456-1123ceqz/index.html, accessed on 4th July 2018.
  36. http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/details.php?irn=271126, accessed on 4th July 2018.

 

 

 

The Uganda Railway – Part 28 – Locomotives and Rolling Stock – Part F (1977 to 2018)

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In 1977 the East African Railways Corporation (EARC), formerly the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H) was broken up. The three countries which made up the East African Community were unable to agree about many things and it became necessary for them to go their own ways. Three railway companies were formed: Kenya Railways Corporation; [1] Uganda Railways Corporation; [2] and Tanzania Railways Corporation. [3] In this post we will focus on the first two of these and on later arrangements with Rift Valley Railways which ended in 2017 when the two Corporations were reformed. At the end of the post, which is essentially about narrow-gauge railways we will highlight developments relating to the new standard-gauge lines which may well dominate the future in Kenya and Uganda.

  1. Kenya Railways Corporation
  2. Uganda Railways Corporation
  3. Rift Valley Railways
  4. Chinese Standard-Gauge Lines

In 1977 the East African Community (EAC) collapsed. The East African Community (EAC) is now an intergovernmental organization composed of six countries in the African Great Lakes region in eastern Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. John Magufuli, the president of Tanzania, is the EAC’s chairman. The organisation was founded in 1967, collapsed in 1977, and was revived on 7 July 2000. [4]

In 2008, after negotiations with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the EAC agreed to an expanded free trade area including the member states of all three organizations. The EAC is an integral part of the African Economic Community.

Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda have cooperated with each other since the early 20th century. The customs union between Kenya and Uganda in 1917, which Tanganyika joined in 1927, was followed by the East African High Commission (EAHC) from 1948 to 1961, the East African Common Services Organization (EACSO) from 1961 to 1967, and the East African Community (EAC) from 1967 to 1977. [5] Burundi and Rwanda joined the EAC on 6 July 2009. [6]

Inter-territorial co-operation between the Kenya Colony, the Uganda Protectorate, and the Tanganyika Territory was formalised in 1948 by the EAHC. This provided a customs union, a common external tariff, currency, and postage. It also dealt with common services in transport and communications, research, and education. Following independence, these integrated activities were reconstituted and the EAHC was replaced by the EACSO, which many observers thought would lead to a political federation between the three territories. The new organisation ran into difficulties because of the lack of joint planning and fiscal policy, separate political policies, and Kenya’s dominant economic position. In 1967, the EACSO was superseded by the EAC. This body aimed to strengthen the ties between the members through a common market, a common customs tariff, and a range of public services to achieve balanced economic growth within the region. [7]

In 1977, the EAC collapsed. The causes of the collapse included demands by Kenya for more seats than Uganda and Tanzania in decision-making organs, [8] disagreements with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin who demanded that Tanzania as a member state of the EAC should not harbour forces fighting to topple the government of another member state, and the disparate economic systems of socialism in Tanzania and capitalism in Kenya. [9] The three member states lost over sixty years of co-operation and the benefits of economies of scale, although some Kenyan government officials celebrated the collapse with champagne.[10]

The EAC was revived on 30 November 1999, when the treaty for its re-establishment was signed. It came into force on 7 July 2000, 23 years after the collapse of the previous community and its organs. A customs union was signed in March 2004, which commenced on 1 January 2005. Kenya, the region’s largest exporter, continued to pay duties on goods entering the other four countries on a declining scale until 2010. A common system of tariffs will apply to goods imported from third-party countries. On 30 November 2016 it was declared that the immediate aim would be confederation rather than federation. [11]

The collapse of the East African Community saw the railways split three ways and the stock was similarly dispersed. Inevitably stock was renumbered. A typical example is 4-8-0 steam locomotive No. 2401 which ended up in Uganda and can still be found at Tororo in a dilapidated state. Kenya took No. 2412 and renumbered it for the class leader No. 2401. It is this renumbered loco which can be seen at Nairobi Railway Museum.

From 1977 onwards existing classes of locomotive were supplemented by others.

1. Kenya Railways Corporation

In 1977, the Kenya Railways Corporation was formed. Over the next 30 years, Kenya’s railway network deteriorated from a lack of maintenance. By 2017, only half of Kenya’s metre-gauge railways remained in operation! [12]

In November 2006, the Rift Valley Railways Consortium took over the operation of railways in Kenya and Uganda under a 25-year concession. [13] However, RVR was unable to turnaround railway operations, hampered by corrupt management and aging infrastructure. In 2017, the World Bank found that a $22 million loan extended for the purchase of refurbished locomotives had been diverted into a shell company controlled by RVR executives. [14] The Uganda Railways Corporation issued a notice of default to RVR in 2016, [15] and the Kenya Railways Corporation terminated the concession in April 2017. [16]

From 1977 to 2006 a number of new locomotives were purchased.

Henschel – Class 62

A photograph of this locomotive can be found on flickr © CPH3. It was taken in 1979 and shows a Class 62, No. 6243 diesel hydraulic & GE U26C Class 93 at Nairobi MPD. The link is provided at Reference 38 below. [38]

showimage

Class 62, No. 6255 Henschel has arrived at Kisumu with the through carriages from Butere, bound for the Nairobi night train. Some shunting had to be done and then No. 6255 headed off to the shed, ending the duties for today. © http://www.tanago-tours.com. [39]

A pair of 62 Class diesels at Nairobi’s old steam shed with its water crane now devoid of its hose (right), © Graham Roberts. [40]

GE U26C – Class 93 and Class 94

The Kenya Railways (KR) U26C locomotives have been designated as class 93 (delivery in 1977, 26 units) and 94 (delivery in 1987, 10 units). [31]

In 1998, five of the class 93 locomotives were leased to Magadi Rail, a subsidiary of the Magadi Soda Company. They were used to operate soda ash trains from Magadi along the 150 km (93 mi) branch line to Konza, which is also leased to Magadi Rail. [32]. In 2007, they were returned to their owner. [33]

As at 2011, all members of class 93 and 94 formed part of the fleet of the Rift Valley RailwaysConsortium. They were all still serviceable and suitable for rehabilitation and upgrading. [34]

Class 93, No. 9308 [35]

Freight train on the way to Uganda near Nakuru, © Daniel Wipf. [36]

Class 93, Nos. 9310 and 9322 double-heading a goods train at Equator, Kenya. [37]

Class 93, No. 9306 at Mombasa © Daniel Wipf. [36]

Kenya Railways Class 94 at the head of the train I travelled on from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1994, just about to leave Mombasa Railway Station.

Class 94, No. 9402 [34]

Class 94, No. 9406, one 10 U26C’s built under works numbers 45374-45383 in February 1987. Fitted with the 7FDL12 engine of 2610hp. 1.000m gauge, C-C wheel arrangement. 9406 and a sister loco in Nairobi freight yard (adjacent to Nairobi station). Train is a container train bound for Mombasa docks. Photo taken on 27 February 1998 © Dave Craik. [47]

Other Locomotives

Class 95

Class 95, No. 9509 arrives at Nairobi with train from Mombasa. Kenyan Railways had 10 Class 95 which are GE Class 34’s leased from Spoornet. Photo taken on 27 February 1998, © Dave Craik. [47]

2. Uganda Railways Corporation

Uganda Railways Corporation was formed after the breakup of the East African Railways Corporation (EARC) in 1977 when it took over the Ugandan part of the East African railways. [20]

Its operation after the demise of the EARC was hampered by civil war and inefficient management in Uganda. A significant number of new locomotives were purchased in the time of Idi Amin. [59]

After the EAR breakup URC got the following locos:

36U01-06 Henschel DHG400 32209-14/1977-78 340 hp
62U01-10 Henschel DHG1000 32199-208/1977-78 760 hp
71U01-02 Alsthom AD12B 1986 1050 hp
73U01-20 Henschel DHG1200 32392-411/1978-83 1250 hp
73U21-33 Henschel DHG 1200 32949-61/1990 1250 hp
82U01-14 Alsthom AD20C 1979-81 2000 hp derated to 1650 hp. [59]

In 1989, government soldiers massacred sixty civilians at Mukura railway station.

Uganda Railways were joint recipients of the 2001 Worldaware Business Award for “assisting economic and social development through the provision of appropriate, sustainable and environmentally complementary transport infrastructure”. [21]

Class 36, No. 36U06, Henschel DHG400 32209-14/1977-78 340hp (c) U.S. Army. [50]

Uganda Railways Class 62 (Henschel DHG1000 32199-208/1977-78 760hp) at the head of a goods train heading from Nairobi to Kampala in 1994.

The then daily 16.00 train to Kasese stands ready in Kampala station for its overnight journey west with loco 73U05 () on 26th March 1984, (c) torgormaig on the National Preservation Forum. [52]

The two images immediately above show two Henschel locomotive types in Uganda Railways livery which were eventually renumbered as Class 73. The first image shows No. 73U15 [48] and a class-mate. The second shows No. 62U06. [49] The one below shows No. 73U33 (formerly No. 62U33) at Kampala Railway Station. [51]

In 2005, the Rift Valley Railways Consortium (RVRC) from South Africa was awarded a concession to manage URC and Kenya Railways. RVRC was scheduled to take over operations on 1 August 2006. However, the East African Standard reported on 28 July 2006, that the take-over was postponed until 1 November 2006. [22] It actually took place in November 2006 and was scheduled to last for 25 years. [23]

73U27 still in Uganda Railways livery but in charge of a RVR train in Kampala on 13th March 2012, the day after RVR took over local services. [53]

The 2007–08 Kenyan crisis included destructive riots that blocked and partly destroyed the rail system linking Kenya and Uganda, leading to economic difficulties in supply for Uganda. Further, destruction and loss of income led to significant financial losses. [24]

On 9 October 2008, Toll Holdings of Australia announced that it had entered into a contract to manage the Kenya-Uganda railway, replacing management by RVRC. Officers from Toll subsidiary Patrick Defence Logistics would manage the railway after the transition. [25]

Under Rift Valley Railways in August 2010 owned 3 No. ex-URC 62U and 15 No. ex-URC 73U in (with some of the 73Us renumbered into 73s), while others could be found derelict at Nalukolongo Works. [59]

Because of extensive fraud [14] the Rift Valley Railways concession was terminated and in late February 2018, URC finally took possession of the concession assets and resumed operating the metre-gauge railway system in Uganda. [20][26]

3. Rift Valley Railways Consortium [27]

The governments of Uganda and Kenya contracted RVR, majority-owned by Egyptian equity firm Qalaa Holdings, to operate the 2,353-kilometre Kenya-Uganda railway line for 25 years. Rift Valley Railways (RVR) Consortium won the bid for private management of the century-old Uganda Railway in 2005 and in 2014, RVR moved 1,334 million net tonne kilometres of rail freight, up from 1,185 million net tonne kilometres the previous year. [28]

Repainted/rebranded Class 87, No. 8723. [45]

Old and new juxtaposed. A Class 93 in RVR livery passes one of the new SGR railway stations in Kenya. [46]

Repainted/re-branded Class 94, No. 9409 at Nairobi Railway Station. [41]

Repainted/re-branded and renumbered Class 62 locomotive, Class 73, No. 7319, at Kampala. [42]

Newer locos of the Class 96 are shown in the two photos immediately above. The first is No. 9616 in charge of a goods train passing the SGR station at Mtito Andei, Kenya, (c) Jeff Angote. [43] The second shows three of the class at Kampala Railway Station, No. 9617 is easily identified and the second locomotive is probably No. 9609. [44]

Rift Valley Railways purchased a number of locomotives from General Electric in 2014 and gave them the Class No. 96. RVR held a ceremony on 18th September 2014 to mark the commissioning of the first three of 20 second-hand GE B23-7 locomotives which were acquired from the USA at a cost of US$25m (2.2 billion Kenya Shillings) and converted from standard to metre gauge. These were the first locomotives delivered to Kenya or Uganda since 1987. The remaining 17 arrived over the following five months.

By 2017 the relationship with both countries governments had soured completely. Both countries accused RVR of failing to live up to the terms of the concession, including non-payment of concession fees amounting (in the case of Uganda) to US$ 8.5 million equivalent to 31 billion Shillings. RVR is also said to be debt-ridden, owing hundreds of millions of dollars to lenders like the African Development Bank, German Development Bank, Infrastructure Crisis Facility, and Equity Bank. [29] There is evidence of corruption at the highest level in the company, as noted above, a $22 million loan extended for the purchase of refurbished locomotives had been diverted into a shell company controlled by RVR executives. [14]

The concession in both countries was terminated in the ‘winter’ months of 2017/2018.

4. Standard-Gauge Lines

In 2011, Kenya signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Road and Bridge Corporation to build the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Financing for the US$3.6 billion project was finalised in May 2014, with the Exim Bank of China extending a loan for 90% of the project cost, and the remaining 10% coming from the Kenyan government. [17] Passenger service on the SGR was inaugurated on 31 May 2017. [18]

As of June 2018, work is underway to extend the SGR to Naivasha. [19] There are plans to broaden the network of standard-gauge lines considerably as shown below. [30]

The SGR in Kenya currently runs from close to Mombasa to close to Nairobi. The style of the line and its stations is/are futuristic. A few images give a good impression of the line. It has not been universally well-received and particular concern has been expressed about access to both termini from their respective cities.

Modern SGR train. [54]

One of the many viaducts allowing wildlife free access under the new SGR railway, [55]

SGR Mombasa terminus. [56]

Nairobi SGR railway terminus. [57]

Mtito Andei SGR Railway Station. [58]

References

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  53. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/vendor-stand-close-to-a-passing-train-on-the-new-service-news-photo/141220567#/vendor-stand-close-to-a-passing-train-on-the-new-service-operated-by-picture-id141220567, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
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  59. Comments made on the first published version of this post by Thomas Kautzor.

The Uganda Railway – Part 26 – Locomotives and Rolling Stock – Part D (Diesel – 1948 to 1977)

1 Reply

Diesel Traction on the East African Railways and Harbours Lines (1948 – 1977)

As the 20th Century progressed, railway networks and locomotive manufacturers began to turn away from steam and to look at a variety of alternative drive mechanisms and loco types. In East Africa the focus turned from steam to diesel.

Perhaps one of the most telling images that I have found while reading around the story of the East African Railways is the graph below. Sadly, the quality is not great but it makes a very important point. [7]

It is impossible to exaggerate the tractive effort required from the motive power on the line through Kenya and Uganda. In the UK we make a great deal of fuss over the strain placed on standard-gauge locomotives on the West Coast Mainline. Shap, Beattock and Drumuachdar are significant climbs which taxed the most powerful of locomotives. The gradients and the heights which the East African lines surmounted dwarf that UK mainline. These feats of endurance and the relative power of the locomotives required to achieve them on narrow-gauge lines is astounding. The diesels which would eventually replace the Garratts, which for many years dominated services on East African lines, would need to efficiently supply significant power with great adhesion if they vwere ever to makeva success of a role on these metals.

Class 90 (later Class 87) English Electric Diesels

Decisions were taken in the 1950s which led to the ordering of a series of different classes of diesel locomotives. The first diesel-electrics to be designed for the mainline, the Class 90 diesel-electrics first ran on the network in 1960. These locomotives ran for a time with Class 90 numbers before being re-numbered as Class 87.Class 90 1-Co-Co-1 diesels introduced in 1960, seen here at Nairobi Shed.  The first diesels to operate on the main line they were originally rostered to run between Nairobi and Nakuru, © Kevin Patience. [1]

john Ashworth quotes Steve Palmano’s comments that “the EAR&H 90 class was the second English Electric (EE) 12CSVT-engined model to be delivered, but the first to be ordered. The initial order, for 8 units was announced in October 1958, and an increase to 10 units was announced in March 1959. This was EAR&H’s first order for line-service diesel locomotives. A 13.5 ton maximum axle loading was imposed, to enable the locomotives to work northwest of Nairobi to Nakuru and Kampala, as well as between Mombasa and Nairobi, which section alone would have allowed a higher axle loading. This axle loading constraint required a multi-axle design, as it is unlikely that EE could have built a compliant 12-cylinder Co-Co model.  Unsurprisingly, EE used a 1-Co-Co-1 wheel arrangement. The resulting locomotive was largely a new design, although it included features drawn from the QR 1250 class (body style and general layout) and the Rhodesian Railways (RR) 16-cylinder DE2 class (running gear and in-frame fuel tank). What it was not, though, was simply a 1-Co-Co-1 variant of the QR 1250 with 12CSVT in place of 12SVT engine.” [2]

“Notwithstanding the 13.5 tons axle loading specification, the first series were built to a slightly lower 12.8 tons number, giving an adhesive weight of 76.8 tons. The total weight was 97.5 tons. The continuous tractive effort is consistently quoted as 44 500 lbf, although there is some variety in the corresponding minimum continuous speed, which is variously reported as 11.5, 11.7 and 12¼ mile/hr. The top speed is usually reported as 45 mile/hr, but this would have been a track limited speed, as the expected 72:15 gearing would have allowed 60 mile/hr, and there is no reason why the running gear would not have accommodated this on suitable track.” [2]

Class 90 English Electric diesel 9007 accompanies a 13 Class 4-8-4T built by North British, © Malcolm McCrow. [1]

90 Class 9003 at Nairobi Steam Shed (c) Kevin Patience. [1]9003 with a 59 Class on the left and a 29 Class on the right. Later in life the 90 Class was to become EAR&H’s 87 Class (c) Kevin Patience. [1]An EAR&H Class 90 diesel locomotive accompanied by other diesels and a Class 31 (c) Anthony Potterton. [1]English Electric Class 90 No. 9008 at Nakuru at the head of No 2 Down (Kampala to Nairobi and Mombasa), © James Lang Brown.[4]Class 90 No. 9010 waits to take over from the Class 58 which has brought the train from Kampala, © Malcolm McCrow. [4]Class 90 No. 9010 awaits the right away for Nairobi, © Malcolm McCrow. [4]English Electric 90 Class diesel in the cutting by Speke and Lugard Houses of Duke of York School © Paul Tanner Tremaine. [5]

Mail Kisumu – Nairobi, diesel class 87 (originally Class 90), approaching Nairobi 1976. [3]Class 87, No. 8729 at Tororo in 1971. [6]

Other Diesels

By 1975, the roster of diesels on the East African Railway had increased to include shunters and mainline locomotives for goods and passengers. Initially most of these diesels were sourced from the UK. [8] The range included:

A. 4 classes of smaller shunting locomotives which were 200hp diesel mechanical locos:

  • Class 32 (originally Class 80)
  • Class 33 (originally Class 81)
  • Class 34 (originally Class 82)
  • Class 35

Details are tabulated below …

B. Some larger goods/shunting locomotive classes:

  • Class 43 (originally Class 83)
  • Class 44 (originally Class 84)
  • Class 45 (originally Class 85)
  • Class 46 (originally Class 86)

Details are tabulated below …

C. Mainline classes:

  • Class 61
  • Class 71 (originally Class 91)
  • Class 72
  • Class 79
  • Class 87 (originally Class 90)
  • Class 88
  • Class 92

As tabulated below (all these tables are taken from files supplied by by Rob Dickinson. [8]):

Class 32 (originally Class 80)

Class 80, No. 8002. [25]

The Class 32(80) 0-6-0 locos were built for the EAR&H by John Fowler & Co Engineers of Leathley Road, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. The company produced traction engines and ploughing implements and equipment, as well as railway equipment. [10] The image immediately below is taken from a series of photographs placed on-line by Rob Dickinson. [8]Class 32 at Nairobi Railway Museum. [9]3206 Fowler 0-6-0 diesel shunter at the Railway Technical Institute, Nairobi. Probably one of the oldest surviving diesel locomotives in East Africa. [11]The loco diagram above is from a series of pictures taken by Rob Dickinson at the Nairobi Shed. [12]111447: No. 3204 at Nairobi Kenya Railway Workshops, (c) Weston Langford. [22]

Class 33 (originally Class 81)

Locomotives of this class were supplied by the Drewry Car Co.

Drewry & Sons ran a motor and cycle repair business in Herne Hill, London, and started building BSA engined inspection railcars. A ready market was found in South America, Africa, and India. Drewry Car Co Ltd was registered on 27 November 1906. In 1908 BSA (of motor-cycle fame) took over building the railcars at Small Heath, Birmingham. In 1911 building was taken over by Baguley Cars Ltd, Burton-on-Trent. From 1930 a lot of Drewry locomotives were built by English Electric companies. In 1962 Drewry acquired a controlling interest in what had become E E Baguley Ltd, and formed Baguley-Drewry Ltd in 1967, thus once again building its own locomotives, in Burton-on-Trent. The company closed in 1984. [10]

Locomotive diagram for Class 33. [12]

Class 34 (originally Class 82)

The Class 34 locos were Hunslet 0-6-0 designs. The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 in Hunslet, Leeds, England. The company manufactured steam-powered shunting locomotives for over 100 years, and currently manufactures diesel-engined shunting locomotives. [13]

Locomotive diagram for Class 34. [12]

Class 35

The Class 35 locos were Andrew Barclay 0-6-0 diesel shunters. Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. are a builder of steam and later fireless and diesel locomotives. The company’s history dates to foundation of an engineering workshop in 1840 in Kilmarnock, Scotland. After a long period of operation the company was acquired by the Hunslet group in 1972 and renamed Hunslet-Barclay; in 2007 the company changed hands after bankruptcy becoming Brush-Barclay as part of the FKI Group. In 2011 Brush Traction and Brush-Barclay were acquired from FKI by Wabtec – as of 2012 the company still operates in Kilmarnock providing rail engineering services as Wabtec Rail Scotland. [14]

3505 Barclay 0-6-0 diesel-hydraulic shunter by the workshop at Nairobi. [11]Locomotive diagram for Class 35. [12]

Class 43 (originally Class 83)

These locos were built by the North British Locomotive Company. The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Works) and Dübs and Company(Queens Park Works), creating the largest locomotive manufacturing company in Europe and the British Empire. [15]

Its main factories were located at the neighbouring Atlas and Hyde Park Works in central Springburn, as well as the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. A new central Administration and Drawing Office for the combined company was completed across the road from the Hyde Park Works on Flemington Street by James Miller in 1909, later sold to Glasgow Corporation in 1961 to become the main campus of North Glasgow College (now Glasgow Kelvin College).

The two other Railway works in Springburn were St. Rollox railway works, owned by the Caledonian Railway and Cowlairs railway works, owned by the North British Railway. Latterly both works were operated by British Rail Engineering Limited after rail nationalisation in 1948. [15]

Class 43, No. 4306 0-8-0 in its later guise as No. 8306. [8]111567: No. 43110 at Mombasa, (c) Weston Langford. [22]Class 43 Locomotive Diagram. [12]

Class 44 (originally Class 84)

This 0-8-0 class was also built by the North British Locomotive Company.111593: No. 4402 alongside No. 87 42 at Kilindini Locomotive Depot, (c) Weston Langford. [22]

Class 45 (originally Class 85)

Still another North British 0-8-0 class of loco.111573:  Shunter No. 4503 at Mombasa, (c) Weston Langford [22]111615: Shunter No. 4504 moving No. 2410 at Voi, (c) Weston Langford. [22]Class 85, No. 8503 (later Class 45, No. 4503) working dead Class 90 (later Class 87) diesel electric to Makadara MPD, (c) Iain Mulligan [1]

Class 46 (originally Class 86)

The Class 46 (86) 0-8-0 central cab locos were built for the EAR&H by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co.

Class 86, No. 8607. [24]111396: No. 4622 alongside No. 8714 at Nairobi, (c) Weston Langford. [22]111576: No. 4615 alongside Westbound Goods  pulled by No. 3110 Bakiga. The picture is taken from Nairobi East Box (c) Weston Langford. [22]Class 46 shunter re-positioning cabooses at Nairobi Station. [16]

Class 61

Henschel starThese locos were supplied by Henschel & Son (German: Henschel und Sohn), a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicles and weapons.

Georg Christian Carl Henschel founded the factory in 1810 at Kassel. His son Carl Anton Henschel founded another factory in 1837. In 1848, the company began manufacturing locomotives. The factory became the largest locomotive manufacturer in Germany by the 20th century. [17]

Diesel-hydraulic locomotive No. 6107 working an up-country freight in 1975. Ten of these Henschel built Class 61 locomotives entered service in 1972 and in 1975/6 were generally in use on branch-lines. [18]

Class 71 (originally Class 91)

This Class was supplied by English Electric.

Class 72

This Class was also supplied by English Electric.

Class 79

There was just one locomotive in this class. No. 7901 was supplied as an experimental type by AEI Lister-Blackmore. Looking at the export market in the late 1950s British Tomson-Houston (BTH), with Clayton and Lister-Blackstone commissioned the Explorer CM-gauge prototype, which was ready in 1959. This featured a Lister-Blackstone engine, BTH electrical equipment and mechanical parts by established partner Clayton. Possibly Lister-Blackstone saw this as a pathway into the mainline locomotive market, as the cost was shared between itself and BTH. [19]

At 1100 hp (gross), with Co-Co running gear and weighing 72 long tons, the Explorer may be compared with standard shunters from the major worldwide builders. Previous engine partner Paxman offered high-speed engines which were in a lower power range than needed for the Explorer. The Alco DL531 was slightly lighter (in CM-gauge form) and marginally less powerful, at 975 hp (gross). The GE U9C was somewhat heavier and had a nominal power of 990 hp (gross), but this was a high-altitude, high-ambient temperature rating, and the UIC number was 1060 hp. The Alco & GE utilised 6-cylinder in-line engines, whereas the Lister-Blackstone featured the relatively complex 12-cylinder double-bank form, albeit still medium-speed. This complexity allied to its weight put it at an immediate major disadvantage. There were no production orders from this prototype. [23]

In 1959 EMD did not yet have a six-motor model in this power class. English Electric no doubt could have offered a Co-Co version of its existing eight-cylinder Latin American model with either the 8SRKT or 8SVT engine, by 1959 delivering 1100 hp. And more power would have been available from the 8CSRKT or 8CSVT engine with but minor weight penalty. Within two years Alco offered the DL535, delivering 1350 hp (gross), still with six cylinders, and weighing around 72 long tons in CM-gauge form. [19]

The Explorer was built by the Clayton Company of Hatton, Derbyshire, order number 3548 of January 1959, it was powered by a Lister Blackstone ERS.12T 12 cylinder twin-bank engine powering BTH electrics. Cylinders were 8.75 x 11.5 inches, maximum crankshaft speed was 800rpm, output speed through the phasing gears was 1,320rpm providing 1,100hp. Either crankshaft could be uncoupled in an emergency.

The locomotive weighed 72tons and rode on metre gauge Co-Co bogies of rubber cone pivot Alsthom style. Alsthom (originally ALS-Thom(son)) had a similar relationship with GE as did BTH, and it appeared that design ideas also travelled ‘horizontally’ between GE ‘associates’. This aspect of the Explorer design was carried over to the later AEI Zambesi type.

It was leased to the East African Railways who later bought it outright. In the late 1960s EAR reclassification it was assigned Class 79. It was allotted to the Kenya Railways in 1977, though by October of that year it was recorded as ‘stabled for scrap’ on the roster. [19]As of 2005, the ‘Explorer’ locomotive still exists, very much intact and still bearing its number and nameplates. It is earmarked for the Nairobi Railway Museum when funds become available. [19][20]Class 79, No. 7901 Explorer AEI Lister-Blackmore Co-Co at the Railway Technical Institute, Nairobi, still displaying the faded remnants of the EAR&H maroon livery and cast letters. Now confirmed as destined for the museum. [11]Unique pioneer diesel Class 79, No. 7901 ‘Explorer’ at Nairobi (c) Iain Mulligan. [1]No. 7901 ‘Explorer’ at the purpose built diesel depot at Makadara on 31 July 1962 (c) Iain Mulligan. [1]Green and yellow liveried Class 79 ‘Explorer’ at Nairobi Shed, alongside a Class 13, No. 1308, a Class 59 can just be seen in the shed (c) Anthony Potterton. [1]

Class 87 (originally Class 90)Pictures and details of this 1-Co-Co-1 Class of Diesel-Electric are shown above.Class 87, No 8701 English Electric 1Co-Co1 delivered in 1960. Lead locomotive of a class of 44 of which 11 are still in working order. They are normally confined to the Nakuru-Kisumu section of the main line. 8701 is seen abandoned at Nakuru, still painted in the later EAR&H green and yellow livery. [11]A double-header goods train close to Nairobi. Class 87s in green and yellow livery (c) Kevin Patience. [18]111393 No. 8714 at Nairobi, (c) Weston Langford. [22]111395: No 8714 at Nairobi Kenya, on the 1030am Kampala Mail, (c) Weston Langford. [22]111396: No. 8714 at Nairobi alongside shunter No. 4622, (c) Weston Langford. [22]

Class 88

The Class 88 locomotives were lighter cousins of the Class 92 locos below. In all, 20 units were delivered to the EAR&H. [18] They were built by the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW), a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883 to 1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. For a number of years it was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company. MLW’s headquarters and manufacturing facilities were located in Montreal, Quebec. [21]

In 1975, the emerging Quebec based Bombardier purchased a 59% stake in MLW from Studebaker-Worthington. Under Bombardier, the MLW organization continued locomotive design into the early 1980s, and also benefited from its geographic location. During the 1970s, Bombardier began to enter the railway passenger coach/locomotive business with domestic orders for commuter and subway systems. Based on a prototype trainset constructed in the mid-1970s, in 1980 MLW began production of a fleet of high-speed diesel-powered passenger locomotives for the LRC (Light, Rapid, Comfortable) passenger trains being built for the newly created federal Crown corporation Via Rail. Similar equipment was also used briefly by Amtrak.The last of the locomotives were retired from service in 2001. [21]

Class 92

This Class was also supplied by the Montreal Locomotive Works. There were 15 locomotives, they were diesel-electrics and were delivered in 1971 for main line service. [18]Class 92, No. 9211 heads a Uganda bound freight train. [18]No. 9212 undergoes maintenance at Nairobi workshops. [18]

References

  1. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/EastAfricanRailways/NairobiMPD.htm, accessed on 1st June 2018.
  2. http://www.friendsoftherail.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10472, 2nd & 8th January 2018, accessed on 26th June 2018.
  3. http://trains-worldexpresses.com/700/704.htm, accessed on 26th June 2018.
  4. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/eastafricanrailways/KampalaNairobi.htm, accessed on 24th May 2018.
  5. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/duke%20of%20york%20school/PTannerTremaine.htm, accessed on 27th June 2018.
  6. https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=30014, accessed on 27th June 2018.
  7. A. E. Durrant; Garratt Locomotives of the World (rev. and enl. ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon, UK, 1981.
  8. http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/eastafrica/diesel.htm, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  9. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/544302304935454660, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drewry_Car_Co., accessed on 28th June 2018.
  11. http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/Kenya/diesels.html, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  12. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lzmuuq1odbv6r48/AABZLSCp51DXZr6R4zdnF4TSa?dl=0, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunslet_Engine_Company, accessed on 28th June 2018.
  14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Barclay_Sons_%26_Co., accessed on 28th June 2018.
  15. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_British_Locomotive_Company, accessed on 29th June 2018.
  16. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/EastAfrica/EastAfricanRailways/NairobiMombasa.htm, accessed on 29th June 2018.
  17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_%26_Son accessed on 29th June 2018.
  18. Kevin Patience; Steam in East Africa; Heinemann Educational Books, Nairobi, 1976.
  19. https://www.derbysulzers.com/AEI.html, accessed on 29th June 2018.
  20. http://www.trevorheath.com/livesteaming/Kenyadiesels.htm, accessed on 29th June 2018.
  21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Locomotive_Works, accessed on 29th June 2018.
  22. https://www.westonlangford.com, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  23. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/39846520124/in/photostream, accessed on 30th June 2018.
  24. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/313352086548265694, accessed on 3rd July 2018.
  25. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/313352086548265707, accessed on 3rd July 2018.

 

The Uganda Railway – Part 25 – Locomotives and Rolling Stock – Part C (Steam – 1948 to 1977)

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Steam Locomotives on the East African Railways and Harbours Lines (1948 – 1977)

Until 1948, the Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours (KURH) Corporation ran harbours, railways and lake and river ferries in Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate. It included the Uganda Railway, which it extended from Nakuru to Kampala in 1931. [1]

In 1948, it was merged with the Tanganyika Railway to form the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H which provided rail, harbour and inland shipping services in all three territories until the East African High Commission’s successor, the East African Community, was dissolved by its member states in 1977. [1]

As well as running railways and harbours in the three territories it ran inland shipping services on Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert, the Victoria Nile and the Albert Nile. [2]

The Malayan Railway sold EAR&H eight USATC S118 Class steam locomotives in 1948, and another eight in 1949. EAR&H converted them to oil fuel and numbered them 2701–2716, making them the 27 class. EAR&H allocated them to its Tabora Depot on its Tanganyika section. They entered service in 1949 and 1950, working the lines to Mwanza, Kigoma and Mpanda, where their light axle loading was an advantage and their high firebox enabled them to run through seasonal flooding on the Kigoma and Mpanda branches. EAR&H built further S118 from spare parts in 1953 and numbered it 2717. EAR&H withdrew them from service in about 1965 and they were in Dar es Salaam awaiting scrapping in 1966. [3]

In 1955 and 1956, EAR&H introduced new and much more powerful steam locomotives for its Kenya and Uganda network: the 59 class Garratts. These were the mainstay of the section’s heaviest traffic until they started to be withdrawn from service between 1973 and 1980.

EAR&H extended the Uganda Railway from Kampala to Kasese in 1956 and thence to Arua in 1964. In 1962, it completed the northern Uganda railway from Tororo to Pakwach, thus superseding the Victoria Nile steamer service. [4]

This post focusses primarily on locomotives to be found within Kenya and Uganda. Those found primarily in Tanzania will need to be the subject of another series of posts in the future.

Older Classes of Locomotive

The network continued to make use of the best of the locomotives purchased by both the Uganda Railway and the Kenya Uganda Railways and Harbours Corporation. The EAR&H renumbered all of the older locomotives into a consistent numbering system. The first two digits of four referred to the class of locomotive and the second two digits to the number in the class.  Before we move on to the new purchases, here are a few images of the older locomotives on the system, furthger information about these classes can be found in the previous posts in this series:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/06/17/uganda-railways-part-23-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-part-a/

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/uganda-railways-part-24-locomotives-and-rolling-stock-part-b-1927-to-19/

Classes 10 to 19 were designated shunting locomotives; Classes 20-49, tender locomotives; Classes 50-79, articulated locomotives; and Class 80 and above, diesel locomotives.EAR Class 10, No. 1001 2-6-4 locomotive in live-steam 5″ gauge. [17]Class 11 2-6-2 Locomotive. [16]Class 11, No 1105 refuelling at Nairobi MPD, (c) Anthony Potterton. [10]Class 22, 4-8-0 No. 2216, built by North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland, for the Uganda Railway (UR) and continued in use well into the life of the EAR. [8]Class 23, No. 2306 – a rare visitor to Nairobi, freshly turned out from the paint-shop in EAR livery, (c) Iain Mulligan. [13]Another Class 23, No. 2309 stabled ready for disposal along with a couple of diesel locomotives in Mombasa sidings (c) Kevin Patience. [9]Class 24, 4-8-0 No. 2449 outside Mombasa Shed, (c) Kevin Patience. [9]Class 24, No. 2402 on Nairobi Yard, in the background is one of the diners used on the overnight Nairobi-Mombasa service, (c) Geoff Pollard. [10]Class 24, No. 2428, on 1st of August, 1953, on the occasion of the opening of the first section of the Western Uganda extension from Kampala to Mityani. (See EAR&H Magazine Volume 1 No.6 Page 8ff), from the collection of A.J. Craddock. [21]We have already seen this picture of a Class 28 2-8-2 locomotive in the previous post in this series. It is included here as representative of this class which was popular with drivers and firemen throughout their time on the network. Class 28, No. 2804, ‘Kilifi,’ (c) A.J. Craddock. [21]The twenty Class 50 locomotives were almost identical to the two Class 51 locomotives. [23]

Class 50 being scrapped (c) A.J. Craddock. [21]Class 52 4-8-2 + 2-8-4 pre-Second World War Garratts were unusually built by North British. 5204 was the last survivor and was photographed on the triangle at Morogoro in 1967 en-route to Dar for scrapping. [24]

Class 54, EAR No. 5402. (Chris Greville collection). [18]The same locomotive from the collection of A.J. Craddock. [21]

Class 55, EAR No. 5505 at Nairobi Railway Museum. [19]

A Class 55 Garratt 4-8-2+2-8-4 awaiting its fate at Voi, (c) Kevin Patience. [9]Coal burning Class 56 Garratt still bearing its KUR&H Number. The first of the batch of KUR&H EC6 Class, this locomotive naturally became 5601. Six of these locomotives were delivered in 1949 pending the arrival of the 58s. After service on the Kenya-Uganda Section, they were banished to Tanganyika to replace the ex-Burma 55 Class which ended up in the Kenya-Uganda Section, (c) EAR&H Magazine. [13]

Class 56, No. 5603: “A Guide To Uganda” (Crown Agents, Curwin Press 1954) shows a 56 Class, 5603, at a station between Kampala and Jinja. The 56s were replaced by the 60s in 1954-5, (c) East African Railways and Harbours. [22]Class 56, No. 5605 preparing to depart from the docks area in Dar. [24]

The Class 57 stands in Nairobi Railway Museum yard, painted in the grey livery of the Kenya Uganda Railway. [25]

The Locomotives Introduced by the EAR&H

The EAR&H had tenure of the whole network for over 29 years. During this time new locomotives were bought and others were moved around the East African system. This next section of this post focusses primarily on the classes of locomotives that were new to the Kenyan and Ugandan rails.

Class 58 Garratt Locomotives

The EAR 58 class was a class of 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt-type locomotives built by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in Manchester, England, in 1949. The eighteen members of the class were ordered by the Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR) immediately after World War II, and were a slightly modified, oil-burning version of the KUR’s existing coal-fired EC3 class. By the time the new locomotives were built and entered service, the KUR had been succeeded by the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation (EAR&H), which designated the coal-fired EC3s as its 57 class, and the new, oil-burning EC3s as its 58 class.[8] Wikipedia informs us that the early numbers in this class arrived in East Africa in time to receive their KUR numbers (Nos. 89-95, later Nos. 5801-5807). The first of the Class to arrive too late to receive their designated KUR number was No. 5808. The full Class 58 bore the numbers 5801 to 5818.

Class 58 No. 5803 at Changamwe, Kenya, with the Mombasa–Kampala mail train, circa 1950-51. [7]Class 58, No. 5807 (c) Kevin Patience. [20]Class 58, No. 5804 was unique in that it had the letters EAR&H on its tenders rather than EAR. It is seen here about to depart the high level platform at Kampala with the mail train for Nairobi in 1962. [14][22] And again below, (c) Geoff Pollard. [5]

Class 59 Garratt Locomotives

The EAR 59 class was a class of oil-fired 1,000 mm gauge Garratt-type articulated steam locomotives. The 34 members of the class were built by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in Manchester, England, for the East African Railways (EAR). They entered service in 1955–56, and at 252 tons, were the largest, heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives to operate on any metre-gauge railway in the world

Class 59 Garratt taking water at Kibwezi in Kenya. [2]Class 59 No. 5909 near Mombasa. [12]Class 59 No. 5925 “Mount Monduli.”  [6]An unidentified Class 59 and a Class 24 in front of Mombasa Shed, © Kevin Patience. [9]Class 59, No. 5918, ‘Mount Gelai’ (c) Lou Johnson, taken on Nairobi loco shed in December 1977. “Mount Gelai” was always kept in immaculate condition by a dedicated crew of two Indian drivers and two African firemen who shared the 24 hour journey between Nairobi and Mombasa resting in a caboose attached to the train when off duty. The cab was pristine with polished brass. Linoleum floor and many other non-standard features. Kirpal Singh and Walter Pinto were the drivers but the fireman were just as dedicated to the task of keeping this 250 ton metre-gauge giant in superb condition. [11]

It was this loco which was refurbished and brought back into steam in the very early years of 21st Century as these youtube videos attest:

 

 

Class 60 Garratt Locomotives

The EAR Class 60, also known as the Governor class, was a class of 4-8-2+2+8-4 Garratts built for the EAR&H as a development of the EAR&H’s existing Class 56 Garratts. [8, p77]

The 29 members of the class were ordered by the EAR&H from Beyer, Peacock & Co. The first 12 of them were built by sub-contractors Société Franco-Belge in Raismes(Valenciennes), France, and the rest were built by Beyer, Peacock in Gorton, Manchester, England. The class entered service in 1953-54. Initially, all members of the class carried the name of a Governor (or equivalent) of Kenya, Tanganyika or Uganda, but later all of the Governor nameplates were removed. [8, p77-78]

Line-up of East African Railways motive power at Nairobi MPD with 60 Class Garratt 6024 Sir James Hayes Saddler prominent left and 57/58 Class right. Five 59 Class Garratts, two 29 (Tribal) Class and two tank engines are also quite clearly discernable.  The post card was probably produced around 1955-6 – EAR&H Postcard via Cliff Rossenrode. [5]East African Railways class 60, 6002 (Franco-Belge Raismes 2984/1954, BP7655). (Chris Greville collection). [28]Class 60 No. 6029 near Mombasa.Class 60 No. 6006 after receiving a much needed repaint – taken in 2004 (c) Graham Roberts. [29]Class 60 No. 6008 Sir Wilfred Jackson with Giesel ejector at Nairobi. Most classes were refitted with Giesel ejectors which, although improving efficiency, arguably detracted from the appearance of the locomotive, (c) Kevin Patience. [5]No. 6022, formerly named Sir Andrew Cohen who was governor of Uganda in the mid 1950s.  Before independence all 29 in the class introduced in the 1953-4, with the first twelve built by Société Franco-Belge at Raismes in France due to the British manufacturer having no capacity to accept the complete order, (c) Anthony Potterton. [5]No 6012 at Kampala Shed, marked up as “reserved for museum”, a scheme that appears never to have come to fruition. The picture was taken  on 26/3/84 (c) tormaig. [30]No 6017: At the other end of the shed was the partially dismantled remains of another Garratt, 6017, whose boiler had been cut up in situ. Nearby is a class 31 boiler. No other steam locos were to be seen , although there were several bashed and battered diesels scattered around the shed. Picture taken on 26/3/84 (c) tormaig. [30]

These Garratt’s were the flagship locomotive of the fleet but they were by no means the only significant locomotive classes on the EAR&H. We have already noted the long-serving older locos but there were also a series of new purchases and transfers to the Uganda and Kenya lines.

New Steam!

Class 13

The EAR 13 class was a class of 4-8-2 T steam locomotives built by North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland, for the East African Railways (EAR). The 18 members of the class were built in 1952 and entered service in 1953. They were later converted into 4-8-4 Ts, because of a tendency to de-rail when operating in reverse, using bogies (trucks) salvaged from EAR 50 class Garratt-type locomotives, which were then in the process of being withdrawn from service. [8, p78]

Class member 1315 was for many years an exhibit in the Nairobi Railway Museum. However, in the late 1990s the locomotive was removed by Kenya Railways and broken up for scrap after the boiler was re-purposed for use in the main railway works. [32]

Class 13 Tank Locomotive at Nairobi West, (c) Iain Mulligan. [31]Newly out-shopped Class 13 tank No. 1308 gets up steam – note the traditional green and white paintwork in the cab.  Note the absence of the front bogie [truck], (c) James Waite. [5] A further image of a Class 13, No. 1316 at Nairobi MPD can be found on flickr, © CPH3. [37]

Class 29

The EAR 29 class was a class of oil-burning 2-8-2 steam locomotives based upon the Nigerian Railways River class. The 31 members of the 29 class were built for the East African Railways (EAR) in two batches, of 20 (in the years 1950 and 1951) and 11 locomotives (in the year 1955) respectively, by North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland. [8, p80f]Tribal Class 2930 Tiriki ahead of two 13 Class tank engines and a 5912 Mount Oldeani on the re-fuelling roads. Mount Oldeani can be distinguished by its unique smoke deflectors.  It also had an experimental blast pipe arrangement, ©  James Waite. [5]East African Railways – EAR 29 Class 2-8-2 steam locomotive No. 2908 “Elgeyo” in Nairobi Shed, December 1967. [38]Class 29 locomotive 2913 Kamasia, later Tugen behind the unidentifiable Class 31. Tanzania Railways had about a dozen Class 31 locomotives which were built between 1955 and 1956 by Vulcan Foundry, © David Addis. [39]Class 29, No. 2921 “Masai of Kenya” at Nairobi Ralway Museum. The loco was built in Glasgow. [41]

Class 30

The EAR 30 class was a class of oil-burning 2-8-4 steam locomotives. The class was built in 1955 by North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland, for the East African Railways (EAR). Its design was derived from the 2-8-2 EAR 29 class, which, in turn, was based upon the Nigerian Railways River class. [8, p81]

The 26 members of the class served their entire careers in Tanganyika/Tanzania, one of the three territories/countries served by the EAR.[36, p81]In 2003, Beyer Garratt No. 5918 was joined by this 2-8-4, Class 30 No. 3020 on a roster of available locomotives for steam journeys on the system in the early 21st Century.  Also rescued in decrepit condition from the museum, these locos can operate passenger excursions and the occasional revenue freight out of Nairobi. The loco is pictured in December 2004 at Kikuyu, © Trevor Heath. [40]

The video immediately above covers movements of a variety of different classes of locomotive on East African metals between Mombasa and Nairobi. The video above it shows Class 30 No. 3020 operating in the early years of the 21st Century in its restored state.

Class 31

The EAR 31 class was a class of oil-burning 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge 2-8-4 steam locomotives. The 46 members of the class were built in 1955 by Vulcan Foundry, in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now part of Merseyside), England, for the East African Railways (EAR). They were a lighter, branch-line version of the EAR 30 class, and worked from various sheds throughout the EAR system. [8, p80ff][36, p83]A 1/4 scale replica of Vulcan built East African Railways Class 31 locomotive. It has been built to be as an exact a replica as can be achieved albeit running on Kerosene rather than heavy oil with all the controls etc being scaled down from the original from works drawings. This powerful 10 1/4 inch gauge locomotive is a regularly works on the Stapleford railway and both the railway and the loco’s owner would love to hear from anyone that was involved with the  31 class build or operation although I guess they would be very old now! The loco is owned by John Wilks , © John Wilks. [42]East African Railways Class 31, No. 3101 at its naming ceremony. [35]Class 31, No. 3105 ‘Bagisu’ has just been out-shopped in Nairobi, © Anthony Potterton. [5]Class 31 No. 3130 Karamojong, © Anthony Potterton [5]

A dirty Tribal Class 31 No. 3133 ‘Lango’ with a very clean Class 29 behind © Anthony Potterton [5]

References

  1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_and_Uganda_Railways_and_Harbours, accessed on 17th June 2018.
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  4.  Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Mombasa and East African Steamers, Y30468L. Janus. Cambridge University Library.
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  8. Roel Ramaer; Steam Locomotives of the East African Railways; David & Charles Locomotive Studies. Newton Abbot, Devon, UK, 1974, p65-85.
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  30. https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/uganda-railways.1150502/page-2, accessed on 14th June 2018.
  31. http://www.mccrow.org.uk/eastafrica/eastafricanrailways/EARIainMulligan/IainMulliganEAR.htm, accessed on 1st June 2018.
  32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAR_13_class, accessed on 25th June 2018.
  33. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAR_29_class, accessed on 25th June 2018.
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  36. A. E. Durrant; C. P. Lewis; A.A. Jorgensen; Steam in Africa. London: Hamlyn, 1981.
  37. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/eastafricanrailways, accessed on 25th June 2018
  38. https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/38099089665, accessed on 26th June 2018.
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  40. http://www.trevorheath.com/livesteaming/trevor_heath_1.htm, accessed on 26th June 2018.
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  42. http://www.enuii.com/vulcan_foundry/models/live%20steam.htm, accessed on 26th June 2018.

Beyer-Garratts to IndoChina-Yunnan Railways

8 Replies

In working on a series of posts about East African Railways I have noticed that 6 Beyer-Garratt locomotives from The Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR) were sent to Indo-China to work on metre-gauge lines there. This post investigates two possible options for the location of those Garratts after they left East Africa. Their KUR numbers were 41, 42, 43, 44, 51 and 53. Various sources indicate that their reference numbers in Indo-China were 201-206. [8][9][10]

Research suggests that there are two possible locations for these locos operations after leaving East Africa. The first, initially seeming the most likely, is the Burma-Yunnan Railway which was a British project. The second was a French project. We spend a little time focussing on each project before some final observations are made at the end of this post

  1. The Burma to Yunnan Railway

The Burma–Yunnan railway was a failed British project to connect far southwest China’s Yunnan province with the recently established rail network in British-ruled Burma. The bulk of this post is taken from the Wikipedia article about this line. [5]

The British project was working against the background of the successful French Yunnan–Vietnam railway that had been established on the nearby Hanoi to Kunming route from 1904–1910, some 30 years earlier. To secure the rights to construction, Britain referred to Article IV of the Anglo-French Siam Convention for ‘mutual privileges’. It seems as though there was an element of competition in the decision to proceed with the building of the line.

Maria Bugrova‘s article The British expeditions to China in XIX century discusses the question of a railway to Yunnan from Burma.

In the 1880s, Great Britain drew special attention to the Upper Burma region and the roads to southwestern China. The former colonial officer of British Burma‘s administration, A.R. Colquhoun, and an engineer of the Civil Works Department in India, H. Hallett, traveled in 1882 from Canton to Rangoon. A.R Colquhoun returned to England and sent his proposal to the Chamber of Commerce of Great Britain to investigate the question of building a railway between Rangoon and southwestern China through the Shan states. His proposal was approved by the Chamber. According to a preliminary calculation, the cost of work was about seven thousand pound sterling. One half of this amount had to be presented by the Chambers of Commerce, and another part had to be contributed by the Government.
By the end of 1884, Hallett and Colquhoun received 3,500 pounds from the Chamber of Commerce for the investigation of building a railway. They found important information about climate, population and minerals. They drew special attention to Likin. From their point of view, penetration of British goods into China depended on the amount of this tax. The difficulty of Likin question substantially explained the British traders’ interest in building a railway. In case of this building it would be possible to avoid the payment of Likin transferring goods to the interior of China. Colquhoun telegraphed daily to The Times about the expedition. [1]

The wikipedia article says that there are references in the 1898 British Hansard regarding possible construction of the line. [2]

Archibald John Little‘s 1905 book The Far East mentioned the proposed route on page 124: [3]

A railway, starting from Mandalay, goes north-east to the bank of the Salwin which is to be crossed at Kunlong Ferry in latitude 23 degrees 20′, whence, if ever built, it is to be taken north in Chinese territory and run parallel with the prevailing strike of the mountains, due north to Tali-fu; but this line will pass through a wild thinly-peopled country and it is doubtful if a private company will be found to build it.

In 1911, Leo Borgholz, the US Consul General in Canton, published a trade report entitled ‘Yunnan Trade Districts and Routes’, in which he mentions that the British appeared to have shelved the project for lack of financial viability. [4]

In 1938, Edward Michael Law-Yone travelled to Yunnan from his native Burma to see the proposed route. [5] By 1938 construction had begun. In 1941 25 metre-gauge 2-8-8-2 mallet-type articulated engines were ordered from the American ALCO company, and America promised to supply steel for the construction effort. [26]

In 1939 it was proposed to construct the western section of the Yunnan–Burma railway using a gauge of 15 1⁄4 in (387 mm), since such minimum gauge facilitates the tightest of curves in difficult terrain. [6]

An article by Royal Arch Gunnison published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, 27th November 1941 stated that American Engineers still expected around 12 to 15 months to complete the railway. [6]

Research has resulted in a few images of the construction work coming to light. [11] These images show work in and around the Nam-ting River Gorge in 1942.

Unfortunately, it seems that construction of the line was abandoned due to Japanese advances, and was never resumed. Burma’s limited trading value to China and its internal political and military instability have probably been two major contributing factors.

Commemorative sign at the site of the Manzhuan Tunnel.

Today the Yunnan side of the line lies in ruin. Though signs here and there attest to its presence, there is little actual rail left, and the line has all but vanished from local history and barely graces itineraries of all but the most determined travellers.

One such sign can be glimpsed opposite the ferry to Baodian, slightly south of Manwan in the far north-eastern section of Lincang prefecture. The sign records a tunnel from the construction, but the entry has long been covered over and there is no visual hint to the line’s presence whatsoever.

In the Geographical Journal of March 1940 (Volume 45 No.3) there is an article about the Yunnan-Burma Road, work on which was taking place during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and in the final stages of Britain’s long rule over Burma. Brief mention is made of the Yunnan-Burma Railway which was then under construction, a British project to connect China’s Yunnan province with the then recently established rail network in Burma, which ultimately failed. [7]

So, although it initially appears as though this would be the natural location for the Garratts after leaving East Africa in 1939, our investigation suggests that it is actually very unlikely to have been their destination.

If correct, this means that the British probably sold the Garratts to their erstwhile competitors in Indo-China – the French.

2. The Yunnan to Vietnam Railway

The Faux Namti (Wujiazhai) Bridge over the Sicha River, in the Nanxi Valley region (right). More than 800 Chinese coolies died here. [12]

The Yunnan–Haiphong railway is an 855 km (531mile) railway built by France between 1904–1910, connecting Haiphong, Vietnam with Kunming, Yunnan province, China. The section within China from Kunming to Hekou is known as the Kunming–Hekou railway, and is 466 km long. The section within Vietnam is 389 km (242 mile) long, and is known as the Hanoi–Lào Cai railway. The railway was built as a metre-gauge line due to the mountainous terrain along the route. Currently it is the only metre-gauge main line in China.

In the 19th century, the French colonial administration worked to develop regular trading networks and an efficient transport infrastructure between Indo-china and south-west China. The primary motivation for such an effort was to facilitate export of European goods to China. A railway would also give France access to Yunnan’s natural resources, mineral resources and opium, and open up the Chinese market for Indochinese products such as rice, dry fish, wood and coal.[13]

Prior to the construction of the railway, the standard travel time from Haiphong (the closest sea port to most of Yunnan) to Kunming was reckoned by the Western authorities to be 28 days: 16 days by steamer and then a small boat up the Red River to Manhao (425 miles), and then 12 days overland (194 miles).[14]

The right to build the railway was obtained following China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). At a cost of 95 million francs (€362 million), the railway was among the most ambitious colonial projects undertaken by France, and was put into use on 1 April 1910.[13][15]

In the context of French technology and manufacturing over a century ago, the construction of a several-hundred-km long railroad through the red-earth mountain plateau of Yunnan called for political will allied with vision, courage and hard work; without these, one of the most magnificent projects in the history of railroad construction would not have been possible.

This railroad represents the highest level of engineering technology in the early 20th century. For 80 percent of its length it runs between perilous and precipitous mountains. Within a linear” distance of 200km. Between Hekou at 76m above sea level to Mengzi at 2,000m above sea level, there is an altitude disparity of over 1,900m: the section between Baogu and Baizhai involves a climb of 1,200 m within just 44 km.

In order to complete the project at the least time and cost, the Hekou to Kunming project was divided into 12 separate sections which were progressed simultaneously. The French Yunnan-Vietnam Railway Construction Company recruited more than 60,000 Chinese labourers from all over China and there were over 3,000 French, American, British, Italian and Canadian engineers involved in the construction. Along this 465-km-long railway, 107 permanent railway bridges of various types were built and 155 tunnels excavated; 1.66 million cubic metres of earth and stones were dug out and over 3,000 temporary bridges and haulage routes were built. The difficulties encountered were beyond the imagination of the decision-makers in Paris.

The climate was sweltering, particularly around the Nanxi River valley area, where summer temperatures could exceed 40 centigrade; it was humid and oppressive, and infections from tropical diseases and plague were always possible. Statistics show that during those six years, 12,000 people died and are buried alongside the 465km of railway. 10,000 of these died in the Nanxi River valley, most of them Chinese labourers who gave up their lives in order to earn a living. There were also several hundred Frenchmen and other foreigners, drawn from afar by this railroad, who never made it back to their native soil.

One of many bridges along the route is the 67 metre-long steel railway bridge over the Sicha River in the Nanxi valley. To Chinese, this handsome and delicate structure is known as “Wishbone Bridge.” Since its completion in 1909, the “Wishbone Bridge” has never had an adverse impact on railroad traffic. Hardly a bolt has had to be changed. [27]

Under pressure from Japan, France closed the line on 16 July 1940 to cut supplies to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the Japanese occupation Japanese National Railways Class 9600 2-8-0 locomotives were shipped to aid their invasion, and after the completion of the “death railway” it was possible for a time to send through traffic to Burma and hence to the Indian metre gauge network. This is now not possible, as sections of the railway were destroyed during the conflicts since World War II. [16]

During the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, the railway bridge across the Nanxi River at the two countries’ border was destroyed, and the trade between China and Vietnam came to a halt for several years. [17]

Twice-a-week, cross-border passenger services operated as late as 2000; the second-class passengers had to transfer from a Chinese train to a Vietnamese train at the border station, while the first-class car passengers could remain on board as their car was transferred to the train across the border. However, landslides caused frequent delays. [18]

Eventually, in 2005 the passenger service on the Chinese section of the railway (the Kunming–Hekou railway) was terminated,[9] [10] and most of the passenger coaches were donated to Myanmar. [19]

In 2008, a passenger service on a small part (37 km long) of the Chinese section of the railway was resumed, but on a very limited scale. As of 2012, two daily trains ran from Kunming North railway station on the metre-gauge tracks to Shizui (石咀) Station on the western outskirts of Kunming, and to Wangjiaying (王家营) east of the city. [19]

As of 2016, this service still continued, with 2 daily trains to Wangjiaying and one to Shizui. In December 2017, in order to leave room for the construction of the Kunming No.4 Metro line, the commuter train service between Shizui and Wangjiaying was terminated again, and parts of the metre-gauge railway in the urban area was demolished. Freight services continued to operate throughout the Kunming–Hekou railway. [20] Some rolling stock continues to be maintained in working condition. According to a 2015 news report, over the seven preceding years, 63 metre-gauge flatcars had been refurbished at the Kunming North Station’s workshop, for use in trans-border container shipping. [21] In 2016, 100 mothballed freight railcars were selected to be refurbished at the Kaiyuan workshop and to be put into use again. [22]

Among important cargo types moved internationally on this line are chemical fertilizers. [21] Since 2015, direct trains have been run from the phosphate fertilizer manufacturers in Kaiyuan to consumers in Vietnam. [23][24] In the opposite direction, sulphur and zinc ore concentrate are imported to China from Vietnam. [24]

The overall role of the Kunming–Hekou meter-gauge line in the Sino-Vietnamese trade significantly declined in the 21st century, as compared to the railway’s heyday in the first half of the 20th century. According to one article dated 2015 and describing the trade as it operated prior to the opening of the standard-gauge railway to Hekou in 2014, the most common route for cargo shipped from Kunming to Vietnam would be the rather circuitous one: via the Nanning–Kunming railway (opened 1997), the sea port of Fangchenggang, and then by ship to Haiphong. [25] However, since 2015, the amount of trans-border shipments on the meter-gauge line has been on the increase again. [23][24] According to a 2017 report, the first quarter of 2017 saw 166,200 tons of freight shipped by rail on the trans-border line, which represented a 66.2% increase from the same period of the previous year, and 12-year record. [24] This consisted of 74,100 tons of fertilizers exported from China to Vietnam and 92,100 tons of sulphur and zinc ore concentrate imported to China from Vietnam. [24]

On the Vietnamese side, the Hanoi–Haiphong and Hanoi–Lào Cai railways continue to be important for domestic and trans-border cargo transportation. Passenger trains continue to run both from Hanoi to Haiphong and from Hanoi to the border town of Lào Cai. [20]

3. The Disposition of the Beyer-Garratt Locomotives from East Africa.

Whatever the intention of the Kenya Uganda Railway (KUR) in sending their locos to Indo-China, it seems that they will have ended up on the French-owned line from Vietnam to Yunnan. There is some supporting evidence for this …..

Huochemi on the National Preservation Forum [28] comments that:

“although Charles Small in “Far Wheels” has a chapter on the KUR/EAR, he does not deal with these Garratts. The roster info is truncated as Small notes that this info was given in the Railway Magazine. He does not mention the date but it must have been prior to 1959, the date of his book. There is a distant shot of a Garratt in service on the Yunnan Railway in “Chemins de Fer de la France d’Outre-Mer” (p131).

After Pearl Harbour, there was good reason for Britain to help out with motive power for the (essentially French) Yunnan Railway but in 1939 it does not seem so likely and indeed, according to Chang Kia-Ngau, Britain was still minded to take note of what the Japanese thought of potential unfriendly actions such as providing anything that might be construed as military aid to the Chinese.

It could of course have simply been a meeting of minds i.e. France wanted some more motive power and the KUR was happy to sell. My first thought was that the locos may have been intended for the Burma-Yunnan Railway, in which British had a greater interest, and discussions were underway from 1938 on this. Only a portion of that line was built and it may be that the Garratts’ use on the Yunnan Railway line was intended to be temporary (the only route in was via Vietnam and the Yunnan Railway), but in the event they remained there permanently.”

M636C on the Vietnam thread on the Classic Trains Forum [29] comments:

“There was … a former French line to Kunming … which remained metre-gauge. This line had 4-8-2+2-8-4 Beyer-Garratts purchased second hand from the East African Railways.”

Tkautzor on Les Forums de Passions Metrique et Etroite provides some very helpful comments in French (translation below):

“Selon Frédéric Hulot dans “Les Chemins de Fer de la France d’Outre-Mer” les six Garratts du KUR ont été achetés par le CIY en 1939 et déchargés en octobre de la même année, mais n’ont vu que peu de service avant que la ligne coupée en juillet 1940. Alors qu’elles étaient capables de soulever des charges de 500 tonnes sur les pentes les plus raides de la ligne, ils n’étaient pas populaires auprès des équipages car elles ne pouvaient pas être tournées sur les plaques tournantes de la ligne en raison de leurs longueurs.”

(According to Frédéric Hulot in “The Railways of France Overseas” the six Garratts of KUR were bought by the CIY in 1939 and unloaded in October of the same year, but saw little service before the line was closed in July 1940. While they were able to pull loads of 500 tonnes on the steeper slopes of the line, they were not popular with crews as they could not be turned on the turntables on the line because of their lengths.)

My thanks for the comments made by members of different railway forums which appear to have answered the question raised by this blog!☺ As huochemi says on 25th June 2018:

“Just to be clear, we know what happened to the Garratts. All six are shown on the 1948 roster for the Yunnan Railway, and five for the “1960s” (60 年代) (from Yunnan Province History – Railway History 云南省志 – 铁道志 published by the Yunnan People’s Publishing House in 1994). My interest is how they came to be sold by the KUR to Yunnan. Incidentally, looking at your updated note, I cannot see anything in the ALCO Works List for 2-8-8-2s for Burma/China around 1941, and I wonder if it ever got as far as a firm order.” [28]

References

  1. http://bumali.com/03expeditions.shtml, accessed on 23rd June 2018.
  2. British Hansard, 17 February 1898 – Early discussion of the line. … Vol 53 c865 … (MR. JOSEPH WALTON(Yorkshire, W.R., Barnsley): … I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the great commercial importance to British interests of opening up early railway communication between Burma and China, the recently reported acquiescence of the Chinese Government in such a policy will be promptly acted on by Her Majesty’s Government causing the necessary surveys to be made for a continuation of the Burma railway system into Yunnan? …….. THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. CURZON,)Lancashire, S.W., Southport: … The question of the hon. Member is based upon a report which I am not in a position to confirm. In any case, I think it will be advisable to construct the railway to the Chinese Frontier before coming to any decision with reference to possible continuations beyond.)
  3. Archibald John Little, The Far East, The Far East Cambridge Library Collection – Travel and Exploration in Asia Edition illustrated, reprint, reissue, Cambridge University Press 2010, p124.
  4. Yunnan Trade Districts and Routes”, 1911 as published in Daily Consular and Trade Reports, p1223ffp1223ff
  5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan–Burma_railway, accessed on 23rd June 2018.
  6.  “TOY railway”. The Northern Standard. Darwin, NT: National Library of Australia. 8 December 1939. p. 15, accessed on 23rd June 2018 & Construction Miracle: China’s Yunnan Burma Railroad. Royal Arch Gunnison, San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, 27th November 1941.
  7. The Yunnan-Burma Road; The Geographical Journal, Vol. 45 No. 3, March 1940, p161ff.
  8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUR_EC1_class, accessed on 14th June 2018.
  9. Roel Ramaer; Steam Locomotives of the East African Railways; David & Charles Locomotive Studies. Newton Abbot, Devon, UK, 1974, p88.
  10. A. E. Durrant; Garratt Locomotives of the World (rev. and enl. ed.). Newton Abbot, Devon, UK, 1981, p177.
  11. http://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/George-Rodger/1942/BURMA-WWII-Yunan-to-Burma-Railway-1942-NN143288.html, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  12. http://www.highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Nami-Ti_Railway_Bridge accessed on 24th June 2018.
  13. Jean-François Rousseau; “An Imperial Railway Failure: The Indochina-Yunnan Railway, 1898–1941;” Journal of Transport History, Vol. 35, No. 1, June 2014.
  14. H. Whates, The Politician’s Handbook, Vacher & Sons, 1901, p. 146.
  15. Clarence B. Davis; Kenneth E. Wilburn Jr.; Ronald E. Robinson; “Railway Imperialism in China, 1895–1939”. Railway Imperialism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1991. p159.
  16.  A Picture Album of Steam Locomotives in China, 1876 – 2001. China Rail Publishing House.
  17. William D. Middleton;  Yet There Isn’t a Train I Wouldn’t Take: Railway Journeys, Railroads Past and Present Series, Indiana University Press, 2000. p189.
  18. Wayne Arnold; “This Train Beats Walking (Sometimes);” New York Times, 3rd December 2000;  https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/03/travel/this-train-beats-walking-sometimes.html, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  19. 滇越铁路徒步第一程（昆明——宜良） (A walk along the Kunming-Vietnam Railway. Part 1: Kunming-Chenggong); http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/856012.html, (Chinese), accessed on 24th June 2018.
  20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E2%80%93Haiphong_railway, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  21. 昆明铁路局修竣63辆米轨平车投入国际联运, 4th May 2015 (Chinese), accessed on 24th June 2018.
  22. “上半年中越米轨铁路国际联运增长106.9% (The first six months’ international freight volume on the meter-gauge China–Vietnam railway has increased by 106.9% [compared to the previous year])”, 新华云南 (Xinhua Yunnan), 4th August 2016 (Chinese), accessed on 24th June 2018.
  23. Yunnan’s First Fertilizer Train Bounded for Vietnam, 19th March 2015, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  24. 胡, 晓蓉 (Hu Xiaorong); 张, 伟明 (Zhang Weiming) (2017-04-04), “中越米轨铁路国际联运运量持续攀升 (The volume of international shipments on the China-Vietnam meter-gauge railway continues to climb)”, 云南日报 (Yunnan Ribao) (Chinese, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  25. Lu, Hua (陆华); Guo, Weina (郭薇娜) (2015-04-24), 昆明铁路局：国际铁路联运开启云南货运新篇章 (Kunming Railway Bureau: An international railway link opens a new chapter in Yunnan’s freight transportation)(Chinese), accessed on 24th June 2018.
  26. Mallets built for export by North American locomotive builders. Includes reference to Yunnan/Burma railway 2-8-8-2 engines, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  27. http://en.kunming.cn/index/content/2008-11/07/content_1656057.htm, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  28. https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/uganda-railways.1150502/page-2#post-2179888, accessed on 24th and 25th June 2018.
  29. http://cs.trains.com/ctr/f/3/t/267615.aspx, accessed on 24th June 2018.
  30. http://www.passion-metrique.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=419608#p419608, accessed on 25th June 2018.