Innholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2025 i Locomotives International

Introduction Railways and their operations fascinate me. As I’ve aged my interests have become more widespread, and I now have a particular interest in railways in far off countries and in recent years I’ve been able to visit many “far flung” places including Madagascar, Peru and Mongolia, immersing myself in the culture, cuisine and nature along the way. At the end of 2024, when the opportunity was first presented to visit Gabon and study the Trans-Gabon Railway, along with five others, I immediately committed to a trip in 2025, which started by ensuring we had all the necessary prerequisites to enter the country. Of particular importance is a Yellow Fever vaccination; without this (and for British citizens a Visa) you won’t even be allowed to enter Gabon. Over the coming…

Contributions for this section should be sent to the Editorial Office, with the following exceptions: Southern Africa - John Middleton, c/o Editorial Office. Email: johnmiddleton3401@gmail.com South America - Lionel Price, 9, Liverpool Road West, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY11 1PE. Email: jldprice@btinternet.com Spain & Portugal - Joan Carles Salmerón, c/o Editorial Office. Email: cet@terminus.cat Contributions which are primarily photographic in nature should all be sent to the Editorial Office to give the best choice of material for covers etc. Similarly historical articles and features should be sent to the Editor. The Editor’s contact details are inside the front cover. AFRICA MOZAMBIQUE CFM A correction to the previous issue is that the shipment of three new Ziyang built locomotives included numbers D802-804. The whereabouts of D801 is unknown. SOUTH AFRICA Transnet On 15th…

Originally known as Villa de Pasco, the settlement's origins were as a mining town, believe it or not, dating from 1578. Cerro de Pasco became one of the world's richest silver-producing areas after silver was discovered there in 1630. It is still an active mining centre, mining silver, copper, zinc and lead. The railway is the only means of transporting the output. It originally was the Cerro De Pasco Railroad but changed its name to Centromin. Superintendent John Tinker Glidden, who was the leading light in railroads in Peru proposed, and supervised, the construction of the railroad. He also proposed paving, administering, and inaugurating a public cart road between Callao and Lima! His supervisorial duties for both "infrastructural" projects undermined his efforts to sustain a superintendence at Cerro de Pasco.…

Acs is a village situated east of Komarom along the Györ – Budapest railway line. Adjacent to the railway station there was a sugar factory. On 10 October 1981 I made a trip to Budapest. When my train passed Acs I noticed steam locomotive 376,531 pulling a rake of wagons loaded with sugar beet. I managed to obtain a photo from the passing train. It was only in 1984 that I returned to Acs. At that time the use of steam locomotives had finished although they were still in place in the factory yard. The oldest loco was 0-6-0T 377,041 (Budapest 184/1886). The loco had been built for MAV, in 1945 it was found in Austria and returned to Hungary in 1955. MAV sold it to Acs sugar factory in…

Introduction Laos is a land-locked country which makes the development of its economy challenging. Since the late nineteenth century there have been various initiatives that have attempted to address the “unblocking” of Laos by means of a railway. This is Part 2 of the article which follows recent initiatives from Thailand and China and presents photographs taken by the author in January 2025. Previously, Part 1 followed the history of French colonial initiatives from the 1890s to the 1940s. In 1949, after the end of WW2, but after the Viet Minh started their war of independence, P. Le Quang Huy reported that only 1250 km out of 2560 km of the non-conceded (government run) network in Indochina were in regular use. This did not include anything between Hue and Vandien…

The Peking Mukden Railway (PMR) is a former name for the railway from Beijing to Shenyang. Beijing is the present capital of China (北京 běi jīng, literally “North capital” – at certain times known as 北平 běi píng, literally “North level/flat”, the word “Peking” derives from an old Romanisation, possibly influenced by Cantonese). Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning province (沈阳 shěn yáng, previous names include Fengtian 奉天, Shengjing 盛京 and Mukden, this latter word being of Manchu derivation). The railway changed its name a number of times and the name normally used in English is Imperial Chinese Railways, later the Peking Mukden Railway. Chinese abbreviates names by omitting characters so the Beiping-Liaoning Railway becomes BeiNingTieLu (北宁铁路 or, using the unsimplified characters,北寧鐵路 – the use of 宁 is surprising as…

Skagen is Denmark’s most northerly station and is located on the tip of the Jutland Peninsula, which is where the Baltic meets the North Sea. The line runs from Frederikshavn to the aforementioned town and is known as the Skagensbanen. It was originally built through 1889/1890, and opened during the latter year as a 1000mm narrow-gauge line to this terminus station that ultimately had a branch line through the town to serve the fishing industry at the port, which its-self opened in 1907. The current station building was erected in 1919 and soon after, in 1924, the whole line was re-gauged to 4’ 8½” (1435mm). One of the main reasons for this conversion, was to alleviate the need to transfer cargoes of fish from Skagen at Frederikshavn, for onward movement…