E401
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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 Rafa³ 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. |
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 Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) in 1913 (s/n 1629) for the Wüstewaltersdorfer Kleinbahn A.G. This company ran a short line –
only five kilometers – between Wüstewaltersdorf (now Walim) and Hausdorf (now
Jugowice) in Lower Silesia. At the early design stage it had been decided to
electrify the line (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. As far as I
know, only one example was built.
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 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 rolling stock, including
E401, was transferred to a railway school in Wroc³aw 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 Lubañ
Œl¹ski 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 perhaps
only formal. Currently the locomotive has only the national emblem (smaller
than typically carried by PKP stock)
and no service number at all. Main technical data
References and acknowledgments
Few
data is available on this machine. Concise description can be found at www.bluefish.foxnet.pl. Historical
information on the Jugowice-Walim line was taken from www.kolej.one.pl/~halski/. |
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