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.
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 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. 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 Micha³
Jerczyñski (SK vol. 4/1995); -
www.kolej.one.pl/~halski
(this link is no longer active); -
Rafa³ Wiernicki (private communication – thanks for
the photos!). |
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