Overseas railways worth modelling

[sir douglas]

one ive just found is the Usui pass in Japan, an abandoned part of the Shinetsu main line. which was worked at 1 in 15 gradient with rack assisted tank engine, initially 7 Esslingens and then 6 Beyer Peacocks. it was later electrified and then replaced by adhesion an a new alignment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usui_Pass

 

[whart57]

To go back to the Geldersche Tramwegen, some modellers have had a go at it.

 

http://www.geocities.ws/modelspoor/gtw.html

 

The steamtram is also modelled on a large display of the city of  Doetinchem in 1940 which is kept at the City Museum there.

 

https://www.zoover.nl/nederland/gelderland/doetinchem/stadsmuseum-doetinchem/fotos

[whart57]

The one overseas railway I don't think I've mentioned in this thread is the one I am actually working on. I have a blog, which I have revived and added to this last week or so

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by whart57

[whart57]

My layout is of Thai railways as they were in the first decade of this century, however steam era Thai railways could also make an interesting layout. Locomotives came from a variety of places, Japan provided most of the later ones, but before that locos came from American, German, British and even Swiss factories. The last were second hand ones bought when the Swiss RhB electrified their lines in the inter war years. Steam fizzled out in Thailand as recently as the 1980s and the redundant locos were just left to rot where they stood. None quite as badly as this little Krauss 2-4-0T in a coach park in northern Bangkok

 

More typical was the line of redundant locos on a siding at Makkasan works

 

 

In recent years these old iron horses have been taken into the works, cleaned up and given a fresh coat of paint and then sent out to various places around the country to be put on a plinth. As a result there is no shortage of images on the internet as tourists post their snaps in Pinterest and Instagram.

 

The internet also has pictures of Thai steam taken while it was still in revenue service. Rob Dickinson used to produce a CD of pictures taken in Thailand during the 1970s which he sold as "Tiger Steam". If you can get hold of a copy it's fascinating.

 

 

What that CD does show is that local trains in Thailand in the steam era were often mixed. The author R. Ramaer even reports a local train on the Kanchanaburi branch having ballast wagons in the consist and that it stopped underway to do a quick bit of reballasting work. Thai rail passengers must have been incredibly patient.

 

Ramaer's book, The Railways of Thailand, is also a good source for line drawings of most of the Thai steam locomotives.

 

Rolling stock is not so well covered, but a determined modeller can surely do something with pictures of the small number of survivors dotted around the country. The plan is apparently to convert Bangkok's Hualamphong station into a railway museum when the new station at Bang Sue comes into service, so when we are finally able to travel freely again when Covid is under control we will probably find much of the remaining stock ending up there. Such as this 3rd class coach that I photographed in the Ekkamai museum in 2006 and is now - I believe - on display in Pak Nam.

 

 

Another coach type that must date from the steam period is this coach festering in the yard at Thonburi c2008.

 

 

Most freight stock of that period was four wheeled, and apart from some vans that were in the Railway Hall of Fame in Chatuchak Park, quite a few were parked on sidings around the network no more than ten years ago. Some examples:

 

 

So while this would be a challenge, it could be done. As  a final pitch, there is this interesting YouTube movie. The date is probably the 1960s, but I can't say that for certain

 

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by whart57

[whart57]

Of course the Thai railway that everyone knows about is the Maeklong line, star of countless Instagram pics and YouTube videos

 

 

At least one model, complete with collapsing market stalls, has been created of this railway. However apart from the extreme novelty aspect of the market, the Maeklong railway today would make for a rather dull model. Today the line is operated by a single railcar pair shuttling back and forth between single track termini. However that was not always the case. The line has a richer history.

 

The Maeklong railway is, and always has been, disconnected from the main SRT network. As it shares the same meter gauge it is now operated using standard SRT rolling stock. 50 years ago that was not the case, then the Maeklong railway was operated using its own stock

 

The Maeklong railway is in fact two railways, the Thachin Railway from Bangkok to Mahachai and the actual Maeklong Railway from Ban Laem, across the river from Mahachai, to Maeklong. The two companies merged back in 1905, but the lines were never connected and even today the connection between the two is via a small river ferry

 

 

The two lines are quite different in character. The line to Mahachai is really a Bangkok suburban line, operated as frequently as the single track allows. The Ban Laem - Maeklong line on the other hand is a rural branch with somewhat relaxed timekeeping. In many places it is more like a roadside tramway

 

 

The two termini at Ban Laem and Maeklong used to be bigger too. At both there are disused tracks that suggest both were more like the single track terminus we are more used to seeing on model railways

 

The station at Ban Laem has a sharply curving platform, and at one time there were tracks for locomotive stabling and goods traffic on the outside of the curve. When I visited in 2008 there were just a couple of rusting low sided wagons and an odd little rail-tractor axle deep in the grass to show for it, but photographs from the 1980s show more activity.

 

http://2bangkok.com/images/2bangkok/srt/3.jpg

 

http://2bangkok.com/images/2bangkok/srt/locoB.jpg

 

The terminus at Maeklong also has tracks leading into what was once goods and loco facilities. There was also once a pier sticking out into the river which was also the end of the run round loop. The points still existed in 2008 but there was no track beyond the point blades

 

 

Once again photos by Robert M Boer on the 2bangkok.com website give an insight to how things were in earlier years

 

 

Somewhere around 1990 the need for the run round ceased with the introduction of second generation railcars which had a driving position in the trailer car and the trackwork slowly disappeared. As did the railway pier.

 

The Maeklong railway was initially operated using small Krauss-built tank engines. A surprisingly high proportion of these have survived albeit none in working order. The first were three 0-4-2Ts supplied to the Thachin Railway. I first encountered one of these in the Ekkamai museum back in 2006

 

 

That was the typical state of the Ekkamai railway exhibits but when I went back a year or two later this little loco had received some TLC

 

I spent an afternoon taking measurements and produced a line drawing that eventually appeared in Continental Modeller

 

 

These locos were then supplemented by four 2-4-0Ts also supplied by Krauss. Again a few still exist. One was rusting away in a coach park in Northern Bangkok but a better example is mounted on a plinth outside the Bang Sue locomotive maintenance workshops

 

 

The livery on this is probably a bit more fanciful than originally carried. Again I took measurements - actually of the rusting wreck in the coach park, and produced a drawing.

 

 

The observant may note that I use this drawing as my avatar on this site

 

to be continued

 

[Nick_Burman]

Narrow gauge in northern Spain... and I'm not talking of the meter gauge either. Rather, I'm thinking about the huge network of mine railways which once plastered the hills to the south and west of Bilbao and in the Asturias coalfield. Built to gauges ranging from 500mm to 750mm these lines connected pits to washeries and also to the nearest MG or BG connection.  Two of them, the Santullano - Cabanaquinta (750mm) and Laviana - Rioseco (650mm) were common-carriers which also offered passenger services.

 

http://www.grupotrabajosferroviarios.es/laviana-riosecohistoria.html

 

http://www.grupotrabajosferroviarios.es/santullano.html

 

https://territoriomuseo.com/noticias/show/870--el-zurron-un-siglo-del-tranvia-de-vapor-del-valle-de-aller

 

(the SMDF map refers to the Santullano line after it was downgraded from common-carrier use with the arrival of the Vasco-Asturiano Railway from Oviedo)

 

As one can see from the maps, it was an absolute warren of levels, adits, shafts, inclined planes e track flying in all directions, a sort of coal-mining Penhryn dropped in the green hills of Asturias.

 

 

[sir douglas]

2 manning wardles at Bilbao Iron, No's 9 & 10. MW 429 & 658 respectively

[009 micro modeller]

21 minutes ago, sir douglas said:

2 manning wardles at Bilbao Iron, No's 9 & 10. MW 429 & 658 respectively

 

What gauge?

[Nick_Burman]

5 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

What gauge?

 

A very oddball 1150mm (3'9"). This was the connection from the Sestao - Galdames railway which fed the AHV steelworks at Sestao.

 

 

Cheers NB

[Nick_Burman]

1 minute ago, Nick_Burman said:

 

A very oddball 1150mm (3'9"). This was the connection from the Sestao - Galdames railway which fed the AHV steelworks at Sestao.

 

 

Cheers NB

 

Forgot: http://historiastren.blogspot.com/2012/08/el-ferrocarril-de-sestao-galdames-i.html

 

Cheers NB

[009 micro modeller]

6 hours ago, Nick_Burman said:

A very oddball 1150mm (3'9").

 

But not unique. Fayle’s Tramway at Purbeck in the UK was also 3’ 9”. I’m trying to think where else it was used. 650mm is also new to me although I’m familiar with 700mm (common in the Netherlands and on Malaysian oil palm railways, which I did have a quick go at modelling a few years ago).

[Patrick SPF]

Another oddball gauge is 1093mm used by the Köping Utterbergs Railway in Sweden, apparently there was a communication error and the gauge was meant to be 1067mm (3'6" Imperial), the first locos were ordered to 3.59 Swedish feet and delivered as 3.59 Imperial feet hence the odd gauge...

[EddieB]

On 20/01/2021 at 12:13, whart57 said:

The internet also has pictures of Thai steam taken while it was still in revenue service. Rob Dickinson used to produce a CD of pictures taken in Thailand during the 1970s which he sold as "Tiger Steam". If you can get hold of a copy it's fascinating.

 

 

What that CD does show is that local trains in Thailand in the steam era were often mixed. The author R. Ramaer even reports a local train on the Kanchanaburi branch having ballast wagons in the consist and that it stopped underway to do a quick bit of reballasting work. Thai rail passengers must have been incredibly patient.

 

"Tiger Steam" can now be purchased as an on-line download: http://www.imagesofrail.co.uk/cd/tigeronline.htm

[whart57]

Maeklong Railway story continued .......

 

The small tank engines described earlier worked the two lines of the Maeklong Railway until just after World War Two. The concessions granted to the company had expired during the war so after the war the two companies were nationalised and brought under SRT control. The SRT still regarded the lines as completely separate entities from the main network so instead of moving locomotives from the main pool the SRT ordered two new steam engines from Henschel. These 4-6-2s were the last steam engines bought for use in Thailand. They only lasted some ten years in service, being replaced by diesels in the mid 1960s. They did remain in the yard at Ban Laem until the 1980s which allowed them to be photographed by Robert M Boer.

 

http://2bangkok.com/images/2bangkok/srt/1.jpg

 

After they were removed from Ban Laem both locos were put on display, one in Pattaya and one in a park on the track bed of the Death Railway from Kanchanaburi to Hellfire Pass. Their present whereabouts are uncertain.

 

The last locomotives bought for the Maeklong lines were a pair of diesel hydraulics with the unusual 1C1 wheel formation. These also came from Henschel and were also derelict at Ban Laem in 1986 when Robert Boer photographed them.

 

http://2bangkok.com/images/2bangkok/srt/locoB.jpg

 

Other diesel locomotives were brought over from the main network, but from the late 1960s on all trains were run by diesel railcars. Six diesel railcars were bought for the lines in 1961, one example is in the photograph above. These railcars had outside cranks on the motor bogie, rather like the County Donegal rail buses, and they pulled a trailer, so running round was still required.

 

Robert M Boer - http://2bangkok.com/images/2bangkok/srt/maeklong/maeklong04.jpg

 

Newer railcars were brought over from the mainline network in the mid-80s and these had driving trailers which meant running round was no longer necessary. The pier at Maeklong subsequently fell into disuse and rotted away.

 

Some of these railcars were lying derelict beside the track at Mahachai when I visited in 2010

 

 

All these railcars were supplied by Japanese manufacturers, as were the railcars that have been operating the service since the 1990s. These latter railcars are proper multiple unit types that can be put into various formations.

 

Photographs of Maeklong railway rolling stock are exceedingly rare, so perhaps we have to resort to guesswork. However when I visited Mahachai and Maerklong in 2010 I did find this 4 wheel van in the Mahachai yard. It has the same centre buffer and chain coupling the surviving Krauss locos have so presumably this van is a Maeklong railway original

 

 

I was wondering why the Thai railway authorities bought only two new engines a time when they modernised the stock and that they ended up on the quieter Ban Laem to Maeklong section. The answer was found in another piece on the 2bangkok.com website. In 1927 the Maeklong Railway started operating electric trams on the section of the line from their Bangkok terminus to Wat Singh, about 5 miles, the trams running with a 30 minute headway. The trams lasted until 1955 when they were replaced by the first diesel locomotives to be transferred from the mainline operation.

 

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by whart57
Edited to provide extra information

[whart57]

Just out of interest I thought I'd plot the locations of the various railways mentioned in this thread on a world map:

 

 

Colour coding is

green: standard and broad gauge

red: gauges 3'6" and narrower (which may be the 'standard' gauge in the country)

pink:  industrial lines

 

The markers representing lines on South Georgia and Nauru are not mistakes btw

 

It's interesting how the narrower gauges predominate, and also how North America has been completely ignored. Even the narrow gauge lines in the Rockies or in Maine failed to get a mention. Perhaps their existing popularity among American modellers meant no-one thought they needed mentioning

 

Another significant omission in my opinion is Scandinavia, Swedish narrow gauge seems to have been overlooked as well as the mainline systems.

 

What do others think?

[DavidB-AU]

There are some very interesting railways in Sardinia but the 950mm gauge Il Trenino Verde della Sardegna is one of the more visually spectacular. Lots of tight curves and impressive bridges, but also relatively simple station layouts, fairly basic buildings and limited rollingstock. As well as the scheduled service the historic tourist stock wouldn't be overly complex to build a representative sample either. Possibly in HOm (12mm gauge - slightly over scale but would give the right impression).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by DavidB-AU

[Allegheny1600]

2 hours ago, whart57 said:

What do others think?

I’d say it’s due to a lack of knowledge.

 I am aware of fascinating railways throughout Africa for example but I know too little about them and have no experience of them.

Similarly about South and Central America, the Middle East, Far East and Siberia. A notable omission has to be the trans Siberian railway, the longest railway journey on earth but how could you represent it?

 I agree about Scandinavia, a serious omission. The iron ore lines are fascinating in themselves but would a single commodity line be particularly interesting to model?

Then there’s Jamaica, Cuba etc.

Note that there are modellers on this forum who model China, Cuba and Finland, perhaps that is why they haven’t been mentioned.

[009 micro modeller]

4 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

There are some very interesting railways in Sardinia but the 950mm gauge Il Trenino Verde della Sardegna is one of the more visually spectacular. Lots of tight curves and impressive bridges, but also relatively simply station layouts and fairly basic buildings. The historic rollingstock for tourist services wouldn't be overly complex to build a representative sample either, possibly in HOm (12mm gauge - slightly over scale but would give the right impression).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also 950mm lines in Eritrea and San Marino, among others. Potentially H0n3 could also be an option in some cases.

[009 micro modeller]

These are interesting, as well as managing to be both UK and overseas at the same time (sort of): http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/uk/falklands.html

http://www.railwaysofthefarsouth.co.uk/11botherfalklands.html

 

The whole website is interesting of course. I quite like the idea of modelling one of the jetty lines as an automatic shuttle layout.

 

Famously there was also an early funicular on St Helena. The 3ft gauge hand-worked trolleys on Ascension wouldn’t make for a very interesting layout but this scene would make an unusual static diorama: http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/uk/ascension.html

[Johann Marsbar]

In the wonderful world of G scale I've managed to cover quite a few different countries and have them all running on the same 45mm tracks - Rubber Scale Rulers "R" Us !

 

Argentina(ish) - (Linea Belgrano Sur)

 

 

Australia....(J&A Brown Collieries, NSW)

 

 

Jamaica  (Ipswich Station, St Elizabeth Parish)

 

 

USA - Interuban Traction

 

 

Am back to square one though now, as the layout shown was dismantled 2 years ago and I'm now building a different arrangement at the new property.....

[Ian Morgan]

By way of a contrast, not overseas, and probably not worth modelling:

 

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/11/caithness-double-track-narrow-gauge-line/

 

 

[whart57]

There are now some stretches in Thailand that are triple track narrow gauge

[009 micro modeller]

2 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

By way of a contrast, not overseas, and probably not worth modelling:

 

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/11/caithness-double-track-narrow-gauge-line/

 

 

 

Heard about this before (after having seen the bizarre symbol for a dead straight, isolated industrial line in the middle of nowhere on an OS map). Is it definitely metre gauge and not some more unusual measurement? If so it would make an interesting heritage line (home to some of the interesting overseas stock discussed here, perhaps) if it becomes surplus to requirements.

[DavidB-AU]

13 hours ago, whart57 said:

There are now some stretches in Thailand that are triple track narrow gauge

 

That's cute.

 

 

[whart57]

Queensland Railways are another line overlooked in this thread so far.