Vivi's Decauville Railway
| Vivi's Decauville Railway | |||||||||||||
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 Historical map with the two rapids
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| Route length: | approx. 0.8 km | ||||||||||||
| Gauge : | probably 500 mm | ||||||||||||
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The Decauville train from Vivi was built in February 1884 narrow-gauge railway from Old Vivi to New Vivi in the province of Congo Central today's Democratic Republic of Congo .
history
After the African explorer Henry Morton Stanley founded Old Vivi in 1880 , he decided to build the city on a plateau 800 m further east due to the common malaria fiber there. To do this, he built a road that descended slightly from Old Vivi to the river, crossed it on a bridge and on the other side of the river led uphill to New Vivi. Then he laid the narrow-gauge railway with prefabricated yokes of the Decauville system. It probably had the usual track width of 500 mm at the time. The flying tracks were also reportedly used to transport the collapsible steamship for the upper Congo over the plateau and around the two rapids to the Stanley Pool .
The Austrian geographer Josef Chavanne wondered why this downhill and uphill railroad was created, which apparently was no longer used during his visit and, according to his assumption, was never used at all. He considered it useless, since the transport of goods on such a railway would have required more manpower than if they had been carried on the head according to local custom. It was therefore assumed that the presence of a railroad - neglecting his condition - should be used for an upcoming promotion procedure.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Henry Morton Stanley: The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State: A Story of Work and Exploration. Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 223.
- ↑ Josef Chavanne: Travel and Research in the Old and New Congo States. Books on Demand, 2012, pp. 238-239.
Coordinates: 5 ° 47 ′ 31.8 " S , 13 ° 28 ′ 26.7" E