Stephan Kallee:

Unusual Decauville Railways

Ungewöhnliche Decauville-Bahnen

Chemins de fer Decauville insolites

Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Kallee 

AluStir and Wikipedia

Decauville Railway at Ferme de Galande, Réau, 1881

— System mit fliegendem Gleis und Kipploren 

— Système de chemin de fer «portable» et wagons à bascule

• System of portable track and V-skip wagons, invented by Paul Decauville in autumn 1875 to harvest sugar beet in wet and muddy conditions
• Aîné = firstborn, oldest brother
• 400, 500 or 600 mm gauge
• Rails rivetted to the metal sleepers
• 3000 orders received by 1880, one of them in 1879 by Earl of Castex in Freiburg i. Br.

Decauville Railways in Winyards and Cellars, 1883

— Weinberge, Keltereien und Keller

— Vignobles, Pressoirs et Caves

• Initially, 400 mm or  500 mm gauge
• 4,5 or 7 kg/m rails
• Typically only 25 to  470 m long per site (one exception: 1000 m long near the Pyrénées)
• Customers (1883) 
• • 250 in France 
  • 48 Italy

Decauville Railway of the Cobazet Estate, 1885–1950 

— Landgut in den Pyrenäen

— Domaine dans les Pyrénées

• 600 mm gauge
• 12 km long
• Near Mosset in the Pyrénées
• Track laying at 300 m per day
• Transport of talc-containing soapstone (French: Stéatite) from the quarry at 1,600 m to an aerial tramway at 1,220 m above sea level
• To make Poudre Chefdebien, which was used to treat vine diseases 
• Funnel shaped sand boxes on loco 
• HOe model by Jouef/Egger-Bahn 

Decauville Railway at Naphta Mountain, 1885–1889

— Naphtaberg, Turkestan

— Montagne Naphta, Turkestan

• 500 mm gauge
• Horse-drawn rail-way (Pferdebahn)
• At Bala-Ischem near Balkanabat in Turkestan, now Turkmenistan
• Ozokerite deposits
• Oil fired locos:
• • Малютка/Maljutka (»Baby«)
  • Бы́стрый/Bystry (»Fast«)

Decauville Railway at Tien-Tsin – Tshing-Yang, 1886

— Erste Decauville-Bahn in China

— Premier chemin de fer Decauville en Chine

• 600 mm gauge
• 2 km long
• Officially opened on 21 Nov 1886
• The military administration objected to the progress, as reported in March 1887 

Maréchaux-Quarry near Paris, France, 1885–1930 

— Steinbruch, 36 km südöstlich von Paris

— Carrière, 36 km au sud-est de Paris

• 600 mm gauge
• 6.5 km long
• From les Essarts-le-Roi to Senlisse
• In its heyday, it transported 30,000 t of millstones and 750,000 paving stones per year
• 230 employees in the quarries 
• 20 for the railway

Military Académie, Guadalajara, Spain, 1885

— Militärakademie in Spanien, 50 km nördlich von Madrid

— Académie des Igénieurs, Guadalajara

• 500 mm gauge
• Dec 42/1885, 0-4-0T, Général Zarco, 3 t
• King Don Alfonso XIII inspected the railway on 30 April 1904 

Yokohama Water Works, Japan, 1886–1887

— Trinkwasserleitung, Japan

— Conduite d'eau potable japonaise

• 500 mm gauge
• Hand operated
• Henry Spencer Palmer
• Hirano Tomij at IHI, Decauville agent
• Color photos by Shinichi Suzuki 
• 12.000 Tubes
• • 6 tubes faulty 
  • 3 joints leaked

Gunboat Cannoniere Farcy in Paris, 1888

— Kanonenboot in Paris

— Transport d'un bateau

• 19,8 m long x 4,9 m wide
• Draught: 0.6 m (2 ft)
• From the bottom of the Seine to Palace of Industry
• Two triple-axle 9-t-trucks 
• Turn-tables at corners
• 1000 m of track for the 
• 2000 m long distance laid by
• 8 men at 1.5 km/h
• Transport needed 15 hours because of trams
• Boat was 1.5 cm wider than the entrance door

Decauville Railway at Exposition Universelle, 1889

— Weltausstellung in Paris

— Chemin de fer intérieur de l’Exposition Universelle de 1889

• 6 May to 31 October 1889
• 6.342.446 passengers
• 4 km/h to 10 km/h
• Every 10 minutes
• 90-150 trains per day
• Up to 50 m long trains
• Cost: 120 £ per day
• Tickets: 240 £ per day

Decauville Railway at Exposition Universelle, 1889

— Weltausstellung 

— Expo Universelle

• 600 mm gauge
• 3 km long
• 106 m long tunnel
• Approx 12 locos:
• • 2 Couillet
  • 1 Péchot 
  • 9 Tubize
• 100 wagons
• Rolling stock sold to: 
• • Sweden
  • Madagaskar
  • Vietnam
  • Royan
  • Calvados

Searchlights on the 4th level of the Eiffel Tower, 1889

— Eiffelturm, Paris

— Tour Eiffel, Paris

• Probably one of the shortest Decauville loops ever
• Two Mangin  type lamps of the by Sauter & Lemon-nier with 900 mm diameter and 100 A current each, built in collaboration with Augustin Fresnel

H. Kuppers’ Cotton factory Helvetia, Egypt, 1890

— Baumwollfabrik in Ägypten 

— Usine de coton en Égypte

• 400 and 600 mm gauge
• Built by the Swiss business man 
• H. Kupper built around 1890
• The factory was  located on the Nile at Kifta near Cairo. It used egrening machines to separate the bolls and seeds from the cotton fibres and pressed the latter into transportable bales
• In the egrening machine hall was a three-rail track with 400 and 600 mm gauge. After processing, the sacked cotton bales were transported on bogie flat wagons pulled by animals for shipment to the Nile

Escola Practica de Engenharia, Tancos, Portugal 1889

— Militärschule, Portugal

— École militaire, Tancos

• 500 mm gauge
• 1.3 km long
• In 1887 Decauville supplied two 0−4−0 side tanks: Almoural (Dec 20/1882) and Tancos (Dec 103/1889), one small carriage (Dec type K) and four wagons (two type 65, one 4, and one 61)
• King Manuel II inspected the railway in 1910

Drying of Pine Cones in Modane, Dépt. Savoie, France, 1892

— Zirbelkieferzapfentrocknung für Lebensmittel,  Zirbenlkör und -schnaps in Modane

— Sécherie des cônes de pin cembro à Modane, Savoie

• 600 mm gauge
• 1892–1893
• In Modane in Savoie was a large, drying place for stone pine cones, which was accessed via a Decauville three-way switch
• The seeds were used to produce food as well as spirits such as stone pine liqueur and stone pine schnapps

Tramway at Darvault near Nemours, France, 1893–1939

— Sandgruben für Glasfabriken

— Carrières de sable pour la fabrication du verre en Île-de-France

• High quality quartz glass is made from the white sand mined in Fontainebleau. It is used for making crystal glass and optical glass, e.g. for the optical instruments of NASA
• Weidknecht made the loco in 1891. Decauville used it as Hermanville in Calvados. On 3 July 1893 it was sold as Henriette to “C. Besse, Sablières, Darvault, S & M”

Railway Line Hanoi – Đồng Đăng, Vietnam, 1894

— Bahnlinie Line Hanoi –Đồng Đăng in Vietnam

— Ligne Line Hanoi – Đồng Đăng in Vietnam

• 600 mm gauge
• 168 km long
  
  
• 40 “Amiral Courbet”
• 62 “Langson”
• 80 “Haiphong”
• 83 “Eugène Étienne”
• 84 “Phu-Lang-Thuong”
• 85 “Comdt Rivière”
• 86 “Carnot”
• 126 “Comdt de Lagrée”
• 188 “Kinh Luoc”
• 195 “Francis Garnier”

Pier Railways on Anticosti Island, Québec, Canada, 1896

— Insel Anticosti: Buchten von Sainte-Claire und Ellis

— Île d'Anticosti : Baie-Sainte-Claire et Baie Ellis

• First 600 mm gauge, later 750 mm 
• 1,6 km long
• 100 m long wooden pier
• The harbour was moved in 1899 by 13,5 km to the Baie Gamache (later Port-Menier) 
• Import of Dec 416/1904, 5 t, 750 mm gauge. Mothballed in the cellar of the Club House, water tanks used for storing oil, scrapped in 1944/45
• Rail track re-gauged to standard gauge in 1910/1911

Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris

— Kunst- und Gewerbemuseum in Paris, Gleis mit Trambahnschiene rechts und
    Vignolschiene links

— Rail de tramway rainuré à droite et rail Vignol à gauche

• 500 mm gauge
• To transport the exhibits from the showcases in the exhibition hall to the lecture halls
• The tracks consist of a grooved Broca tram rail on the right and a Vignol rail on the left, on which a flangeless wheel ran
• The groove of the tram rail is now filled with silicone or rubber

Mont des Cats Abbey near Dunkirk, France, ca 1898

— Trappistenkloster auf dem Katsberg bei Dünkirchen in Frankreich

— Abbaye Saint-Marie-du-Mont en Go-de-waersvelde près de Dunkerque

• Transport of soil in the agriculture
• Transport of beer barrels in the brewery
• The monastery finances itself by making cheese of the ‘Mont des Cats‘ brand
• The Trappist beer ‘Mont des Cats‘ is no longer brewed on the monastery hill, but in Scourmont Abbey near Chimay in Belgium

Diego Suarez – Camp d’Ambre, Madagascar, 1900

— Militärische Feld-bahn in Madagaskar

— Voie ferrée militaire

• 600 mm gauge
• Originally 13 km long
• From Antsirane (now Antsiranana) to Fontaine Tunisienne
• Diagonal bridge and a radius of 40 m at the gorge 
• 6.30 m deep cut 
• Decauville rails with 7.5 kg/m or 9.5 kg/m with 8 sleepers per 5 m long element

Decauville Railway of Guadalajara, Mexico, 1900–1903 

— Trinkwasserversorgung, Mexiko

— Travaux d'eau, Mexique

• 500 mm gauge
• 5,5 km long
• From Guadalajara nach Colomos
• Transporting stones for building the aqueduct of the water works
• Decauville loco N° 297/1899 and Baladeuse wagons

Trâmuei and Trolleys in Beira under Portuguese Rule, 1901

— Beira, Mosambik

— Beira, Mozambi-que portugais

• 610 mm gauge
• 5.5 km long
• Decauville loco D. Carlos belonged to the construction company Pauling & Co, ca 1901–1906
• 500 mm gauge hand-operated trolleys for passenger transport

Relocation of the Papeete Post Office in Tahiti, 1902

— Postamt, Tahiti

— Bureau de poste, Tahiti

• In 1885, a 45 km long 600 mm gauge railway was proposed & approved on the island of Tahiti but never built
• Steeply inclined 600mm gauge railway used for building a water tower near Papeete in 1886

Empresa de Transportes y Iquitos Urbano, Peru, 1904–1935

— Dampfstraßenbahn in Peru

— Société de trans-port et urbanisme, Iquitos

• 600 mm gauge
• 8 km long
• From Iquitos to the Lago Moronacocha
• • Dec 413/1904, № 1, Moronacocha, 0-4-0, 3,25 t
  • Dec 445/1906, № 2, Arana, 0-4-0, 5 t
  • O&K, № 3, 0-4-0

Le Decauville Municipal de Rufisque, Senegal, 1905

— Erdnuss-Transport in Senegal

— Transport d’arachides au Sénégal

• 400 and 600 mm gauge
• 14 km long
• Near Dakar, Senegal
• Mainly for transporting peanuts
• A toll of 2-3 Franc per ton of peanuts had to be paid
• Dakar had a deeper harbour than Rufisque

Forrest Tramway at Marchenoir, France, 1906-1908

— Waldbahn von Marche-noir (Loir-et-Cher)

— Scierie de l'Exploita-tion de la Foret de Marchenoir

• 600 mm gauge
• 40 km long network
• Three Locomotives
• Dec N° 284/1899, 0-4-0,
• B n2t, 5 t, Porthos
• Dec N° 508/1908, 0-4-0,
• B n2t, 5 t, Françoise
• O&K
• No rear panel at the loco

Decauville Railway at World Fair in Gent, 1913

— Genter Weltausstellung, 1913

— Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913

• 600 mm gauge
• Eight Montania Benzol locos of the Paris branch of O&K and Arthur Koppel
    
• 10 loco drivers
• 12 conductors
• 1 railway attendant dressed in white 
• 1 train dispatcher

Peat Railways at Bavois in Switzerland, 1914–1918

— Torfstiche in der Schweiz

— Les carrières de tourbe en Suisse

• Portable track:
• • 636 m 500 mm gauge
  • 6358 m 600 mm gauge
• Total length: 13 km
• 4 locos
• 10 + 80 wagons
• 104 V-skip wagons
• 15 platform wag.
• 39 switches
• Also at Zuzwil SG, Les Ponts-de-Martel and Rechthalten 

Forêt de Hesse near Aubréville, France, 1915

— Bahnhof ‘Frischling‘ (Wildschwein) im Hessewald

— Près d'Aubréville, dépt. Meuse

• From Aubréville to the Forêt de Hesse
• 600 mm gauge
• From the station
•  ‘Le Marcassin’, horses  pulled the trains  to the front
• The mascot was a baby wild boar with the name Guigui or Guillaume

Kodza-Déré-Decauville near Thesaloniki, Greece, 1917

— Nord-Griechenland

— Macédoine, Grèce

• 13,5 km long
• 600 mm gauge
• To prepare the battle of Skra-di-Legen (May 1917) of Greece/France/UK versus Bulgaria/(Germany)
• On 7 February 1918, the Greek King Alexander, the French general Adolphe Guillaumat, and the commander of the Greek 1st Division, inspected the village of Pigí by the Decauville railway

Brick factories at Chagny, France, ca 1918–1962

— Ziegeleien bei Chagn

— Grandes Tuileries de Bourgogne Chagny-Montchanin

• 13 Locos: Decauville 353 and 636, Weidknecht, O&K, Henschel 13442, 13552 and 14448, Hohenzollern 3702, Baldwin built in 1917, Krauss 6999, O&K 13324, Baldwin 46261 and 46620
• See also: Quarry of Bernard Mestrallet in Chagny with a narrow-gauge pneumatic drill

Cathedral of Noyon, France, 1918–1938

— Dachgeschoss der Kathedrale von Noyon

— Les combles de la cathédrale de Noyon

• 400 mm gauge (?)
• In the second level unterneath
• the roof, which burnt and collapsed after being bombed on 1 April 1918

Excavation of Tutankhamun’s Tomb in Egypt, 1922

— Tutanchamuns Grab in Ägypten, Ausgrabung

— Tombeau de Toutankhamon en Égypte

• Harry Burton brought the finds by Decauville railway and ship to the Museum in Cairo 
• The tracks were dismantled and re-laid in front of the railway, which was very difficult due to the heat
• The transport over the 10 km route took 15 hours 
• It was documented with more than 10 photos

Excavation of the Sphinx Temple in Gizeh, Egypt, 1936

— Ausgrabungen bei den Pyramiden von Gizeh

— Fouilles archéologiques aux pyramides de Gizeh

• Selim Hassan of Cairo University used a Decauville railway to excavate the Sphinx Temple of the at Giza in 1936
• Gaston Maspero had bought 800 metres of track at a very reasonable price in 1885 for archaeological excavations in Egypt and larger Decauville skip trucks in May 1886 and he deeply regretted that he had not used these from the beginning

Logging by Legros Comp. near Ayem, Gabon, ca 1936

— Waldbahn der Firma Legros in Gabun

— Exploitation forestière à la Société Legros autour d'Ayem, Gabon

• Dec 1048/1927, 0-4-0T
• Dec 1073/1929, 0-4-0T
• Dec 1863/1933, 0-6-0T
• Three Campagne ("CLM tractors") were delivered around 1927
• Clearing at Aguémoné
• The late date of manufacture explains the unusual appearance of the 0-6-0T 

Decauville Locos at Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum

— FFM, Frankfurt

— Musée des chemins de fer de campagne à Francfort

• Steam locomotive 03, Dec 648/1912, Dimitrias, B n2t, 20 hp, 5 t, 600 mm, Typ II new, now at Richmond Light Railway (RLR) in England, refurbished and operational
• Steam locomotive 07, Dec 1593/1915, Progrès 8t, C n2t, 60 hp, refurbished and operational
• Both have been used in Greece
• A total of 51 locos is known

AluStir and Wikipedia: „Open Access“ by volunteers

— Freies Wissen

— Wikipédia, L'encyclo-pédie libre que vous pouvez améliorer

• Wikipedia searches for more photos on narrow gauge railways
• These must be either „public domain“ or „Creative Commons licenced“
• Do you want to upload some of your photos and/or write or improve an article about a narrow gauge railway?

Conclusions: Summary on Decauville’s History

— Zusammenfassung der Geschichte von Decauville

— Conclusions : Résumé de l'histoire de Decauville

• The portable track was invented by Paul Decauville in 1875
• The gauge grew from initially 400 mm over 500 mm to 600 mm and beyond
• A Decauville railway existed in nearly every French colony and further afield
• Decauville focussed on portable track and V-skip wagons and sold locomotives
• Decauville produced cars since 1898 
• 1000 employees in 1957 declined to 560 in 1962 and less. They produce now parts for roll-off skip trucks and cranes

1.  NearEMPTiness (88,5%), PerfektesChaos, Roehrensee, Phzh, JG-Brill, Chief tin cloud, Dietrich, KaiKemmann, Sänger, Robert Schediwy, Leuni, Wolny1, Buch-t, Falk2, Aka, Mef.ellingen, Invisigoth67, Lómelinde, ⵓ, Heied, BurghardRichter, Bicycle Tourer et al.: “Decauville” (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decauville), licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported, CC-BY-SA-4.0.