Locomotives International

For a short while I worked in the admissions kiosk at the Didcot Railway Centre. It was always interesting to meet visitors, some of whom had diverse backgrounds and nationalities, but the visitor who sticks in my mind was a Japanese railway enthusia

Whilst sorting out old photos I came across some I took in Georgia (Former Soviet Union) in 1995. This prompted me to look into the history of two LKM narrow gauge locomotives and to find out why they were in Georgia and if there were any more that I

The Peking-Kalgan Railway was the first major railway built by the Chinese themselves and is thus a source of considerable national pride. The name Peking is based on the pronunciation of the name Beijing in southern dialects of Chinese and means “No

Zhan Tianyou, (詹天佑, in Hanyu Pinyin Zhān Tiānyòu, in an older transliteration method Chan T’ien-yu - although when abroad he signed himself Jeme Tien-yow to reflect the Cantonese pronunciation of his name) was born on 26 April 1861 in Guangdong Provi

I have known that there is a freight branch a couple of kilometres from our home in Ottawa but, despite having seen the train occasionally, I have never taken any photos or looked into its history until recently. The results were certainly interestin

I was fortunate enough to spend two days in St Petersburg in August 2019. As well as exploring the metro and tram systems, and travelling on the two Children’s Railways, I also visited two railway museums and the Finland station. The Central Museum o

All photographs by the Author on 4th November 1983 ■

Sarkad is a small village near Bekescsaba close to the border with Romania. In 1912 a sugar factory was built at Sarkad, it was called “Sarkadi Cukorgyar” (Sarkad Sugar Factory). It once had a 760 mm gauge railway network on which sugar beet was brou

In January 2020, the V class Nasmyth Wilson (NW) locomotive V127 was exhumed from its muddy grave in the Oreti River at Mararoa Junction care of the Lumsden Heritage Trust, having been dumped there as bank strengthening along with V126 and Rogers K92

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,

Ebute Metta’, featured in Issue 129 of Locomotives International, prompts me to put pen to paper, to update readers on proposals for development at Ebute Metta and elsewhere in Nigeria. In May 1998, the Nigerian Railway Corporation authorised the dev

The Pressburgerbahn is a fascinating railway, only 47 kms long today, but with a great variety of names for the places it served, locomotives, electric currents and gauges! At the time that the railway was promoted, it was planned to connect Vienna w

The Tacna Railway Museum dates formally from 1978 and is sited in the grounds of the Tacna headquarters of the Tacna-Arica Railway (FCTA), shared with the station itself and the depot where active, or potentially active, rolling stock is kept and mai

Birmingham-based Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW) was based in Saltley and Washwood Heath, where it built locomotives, coaches and wagons until it was taken over by GEC-Alstom in May 1989 and closed down in 2005. In its 142 year

Departing Venezia Saint Lucia that Sunday night in 1969 it was with a certain amount of apprehension that our journey into the communist held country of Yugoslavia was embarked upon. General Tito had held this disparate mix of ethnic differences toge

Ron Smith has sent in the above photo of Romanian Faur locos 60001/3/4/6/8/9 stabled at Ponte Leccia on 23rd May 2008. They, and the wagons stabled on the adjacent siding, were on hire to support track renewal works. We have received responses from E

A package of anonymous photos arrived in the mail recently, without even the name of the sender, so we know nothing about them! The middle loco carries the number 6119, and the bottom one 2516, if that helps our band of researchers.… Future instalmen

For a short while I worked in the admissions kiosk at the Didcot Railway Centre. It was always interesting to meet visitors, some of whom had diverse backgrounds and nationalities, but the visitor who sticks in my mind was a Japanese railway enthusia

Whilst sorting out old photos I came across some I took in Georgia (Former Soviet Union) in 1995. This prompted me to look into the history of two LKM narrow gauge locomotives and to find out why they were in Georgia and if there were any more that I

The Peking-Kalgan Railway was the first major railway built by the Chinese themselves and is thus a source of considerable national pride. The name Peking is based on the pronunciation of the name Beijing in southern dialects of Chinese and means “No

Zhan Tianyou, (詹天佑, in Hanyu Pinyin Zhān Tiānyòu, in an older transliteration method Chan T’ien-yu - although when abroad he signed himself Jeme Tien-yow to reflect the Cantonese pronunciation of his name) was born on 26 April 1861 in Guangdong Provi

I have known that there is a freight branch a couple of kilometres from our home in Ottawa but, despite having seen the train occasionally, I have never taken any photos or looked into its history until recently. The results were certainly interestin

I was fortunate enough to spend two days in St Petersburg in August 2019. As well as exploring the metro and tram systems, and travelling on the two Children’s Railways, I also visited two railway museums and the Finland station. The Central Museum o

Sarkad is a small village near Bekescsaba close to the border with Romania. In 1912 a sugar factory was built at Sarkad, it was called “Sarkadi Cukorgyar” (Sarkad Sugar Factory). It once had a 760 mm gauge railway network on which sugar beet was brou

In January 2020, the V class Nasmyth Wilson (NW) locomotive V127 was exhumed from its muddy grave in the Oreti River at Mararoa Junction care of the Lumsden Heritage Trust, having been dumped there as bank strengthening along with V126 and Rogers K92

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,

Ebute Metta’, featured in Issue 129 of Locomotives International, prompts me to put pen to paper, to update readers on proposals for development at Ebute Metta and elsewhere in Nigeria. In May 1998, the Nigerian Railway Corporation authorised the dev

The Pressburgerbahn is a fascinating railway, only 47 kms long today, but with a great variety of names for the places it served, locomotives, electric currents and gauges! At the time that the railway was promoted, it was planned to connect Vienna w

The Tacna Railway Museum dates formally from 1978 and is sited in the grounds of the Tacna headquarters of the Tacna-Arica Railway (FCTA), shared with the station itself and the depot where active, or potentially active, rolling stock is kept and mai

Birmingham-based Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW) was based in Saltley and Washwood Heath, where it built locomotives, coaches and wagons until it was taken over by GEC-Alstom in May 1989 and closed down in 2005. In its 142 year

Departing Venezia Saint Lucia that Sunday night in 1969 it was with a certain amount of apprehension that our journey into the communist held country of Yugoslavia was embarked upon. General Tito had held this disparate mix of ethnic differences toge

Ron Smith has sent in the above photo of Romanian Faur locos 60001/3/4/6/8/9 stabled at Ponte Leccia on 23rd May 2008. They, and the wagons stabled on the adjacent siding, were on hire to support track renewal works. We have received responses from E

A package of anonymous photos arrived in the mail recently, without even the name of the sender, so we know nothing about them! The middle loco carries the number 6119, and the bottom one 2516, if that helps our band of researchers.… Future instalmen