E401
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
E401 (AEG
1629/1913), the oldest surviving electric locomotive in
Another
picture, taken on the same occasion.
Three
wonderful old photos from the Wüstewaltersdorfer Kleinbahn,
obtained via Rafał Wiernicki (thanks a lot!): E401 at the ceremony of line
opening (L.Fiedorowicz collection)...
...near the transformer station (G.Sztetner
collection)...
...and
hauling a draft typical for this line (from S.Bufe, J.Klaer Götz, Eisenbahnen in Schlesien, Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1971). Note
current collectors different than those currently fitted.
Another picture of the E401, taken on
September 21, 2010. |
After WWII Polish state railways PKP took over a number of locomotives
previously used by German private local railways. Most of them were tank
steam locomotives for mixed traffic, but there were several notable
exceptions. One of them was E401.
This diminutive electric locomotive was built by Hannoversche
Waggonfabrik in 1913 (s/n 1629) for the Wüstewaltersdorfer Kleinbahn A.G. Electric equipment was supplied
by Allgemeine Elektrizitäts
Gesellschaft (AEG). The company
ran a short line – less than five kilometers in length – between
Wüstewaltersdorf (now Walim) and Hausdorf (now Jugowice) in Lower Silesia. At
an early design stage it had been decided to electrify the line at 1 kV DC.
Construction works began in May 1913 and it was intended to open the line in
May 1914, as the first electrified line in Lower Silesia; however, due to
delayed delivery of rolling stock, it was opened in July and the priority
went to another local line. Rolling stock comprised a railcar with a trailer
car and E401, which was used for mixed traffic. It was a small, two-axle
locomotive, based on streetcar technology, with two nose-suspended electric
motors. According to data quoted in SK, it was able to haul an
80-tonne draft on a 30‰ gradient at 10 to 12 km/h and a 50-tonne draft at 20
km/h, tractive effort being about 3 300 kG. As far as I know, only one
example was built. In the 1920s two original bow-type current collectors were
replaced by a typical DRG pantograph. Cab roof, initially made of
impregnated sail-cloth, was later replaced by a steel sheet.
The
railway managed to survive the Great Crisis and WWII. Immediately after the
war almost all electrified tracks in this area fell victim to Soviet ‘booty
squads’, all locomotives, rolling stock, equipment and contact lines being
taken to the USSR. The Wüstewaltersdorfer
Kleinbahn somehow survived, probably due to its small length and
untypical current supply system. Like all pre-war private lines, it was taken
over by PKP. Operations
re-commenced in October 1947 and continued until October 1959, when they were
formally suspended due to deteriorating track condition and complete lack of
spares. Irregular small-scale traffic (with steam engines) continued until
early 1975, when the line was finally closed down. All vehicles, including
the E401, were transferred to a railway school in Wrocław in 1959 and
scrapped in the 1980s. Only the locomotive somehow escaped the cutter’s
torch. It was refurbished by the ZNTK
(Railway Stock Repair Works) of
Lubań Śląski in 1987 and transferred to Warsaw. E401 is the oldest electric
locomotive preserved in Poland. Currently it is plinthed at the Grochów depot
of Koleje Mazowieckie and will not
run anymore: there is no line electrified with 1 kV DC. According
to some sources (www.bluefish.foxnet.pl),
this locomotive was, or was to have been, re-designated EU40-01. In fact this
conforms to the designation system introduced in 1958; the problem is that
E401 was withdrawn only a few months later and re-designation was most
probably only formal. Currently the locomotive has only the national emblem
(smaller than typically carried by PKP
stock) and no service number at all. Photos from early 1990s show it, already
at the Grochów depot, with the PKP logo. Main
technical data
References and
acknowledgments
-
Monographic article on the Walim railway by Michał
Jerczyński (SK vol. 4/1995); -
www.kolej.one.pl/~halski
(this link is no longer active); -
Rafał Wiernicki (private communication – thanks for
the photos!). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
