Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913
Stockton & Ione Railroad | |
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![]() "Depot du Tramway de la Societe Nouvelle des Etablissements Decauville Ainé, Bruxelles 58-60 Bv du Nord" | |
Technical | |
Line length | 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) |
Track gauge | 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) |
The Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913 (French Tramway de Decauville Ainé) was a temporary narrow gauge railroad with a gauge of 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in), which was operated during the World Fair held in Ghent from 26 April to 3 November 1913.[1]
History
[edit]After the success of the Decauville railway at Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris, the Belgian subsidiary of the French company Decauville in Corbeil-Essonnes exhibited their products also at the Exposition universelle et internationale (1913).
Route
[edit]The route passed amongst others the following stations:
- Palais de Beaux Arts
- Ville de Paris
- Delhaize Freres & Cie ‹Le Leon›
- Modern Village
- Rue Belvedere
- Chateau d’eau[2]
The Depot was between the Modernen Village and the sport fields.[3]
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Palais de Beaux Arts
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Ville de Paris
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Rue Belvedere
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Chateau d'eau
Operation
[edit]Eight Montania locomotives of the Paris branch of Orenstein & Koppel and Arthur Koppel were used on the temporarily laid line. They could be operated with benzene, petrol, alcohol or petroleum. On the side of the engine cover they had a discreet lettering of the company 'Decauville', which was responsible for the distribution of this locomotive in Belgium.[4]
The operation was carried out by a 24-strong team of 10 locomotive drivers, 12 uniformed conductors, a railway attendant dressed in white and the train dispatcher.
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Locomotive
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Engine drivers and conductors
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Railway attendant
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Tramcar
References
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ Davy Depelchin: "The Ghent Universal and International Exhibition of 1913: Reconciling Historicism, Modernity and Exoticism", in Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940, edited by Marta Filipova (Farnham, 2015), p. 185. Partial preview on Google Books.
- ^ Claude Faseur: Gent geprent: Bezoekerstreintje.
- ^ Billen Jos: Tramway Decauville.
- ^ Catalogue "Locomotives 'Montania' au Benzol, a la Benzine, a l'Alcool, au Petrole etc, O&K et Arthur Koppel, Paris" with postal stamp of 15 March 1919.