Railways on South Georgia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whaling stations and settlements on South Georgia. With the exception of Godthul (and the research station on neighboring Bird Island ), all places had railroad facilities.

The railways on South Georgia were used between around 1910 and 1966 in six whaling stations and at the administrative headquarters of the South Atlantic island, which belongs to Great Britain as an overseas territory , to transport materials. The track width of the mostly non- locomotive operated simple field railways was 600 mm.

history

South Georgia was one of the largest centers of whaling because of its proximity to the Antarctic whaling areas . In 1904, Grytviken was the first whaling station on the island. From the hunted animals in the South Georgian whaling stations, in which - depending on the season - a total of up to 1000 people worked, oil , bone meal , whale meat , fertilizers, additives for animal feed and hard fat were obtained. In total, over 170,000 whales were processed in South Georgia. Steam saws, meat and bone boilers, warehouses and cold stores as well as supply facilities were built in the stations for processing. Because the island's permafrost thaws in summer, creating a layer of mud that made it impossible to use other means of transport, simple field railways were built, with which coal in particular to drive the machines and to heat the buildings, but also other materials, food and luggage as well as possibly the harpoon heads were promoted. The railways mostly extended from the landing stages to the individual factory buildings. There was no connection between the seven railways.

The whaling stations were abandoned by the 1960s at the latest, after the whales could be processed directly on the ships. In the early 1980s, the facilities were dismantled in many places. In Grytviken , Husvik , Leith Harbor , Prince Olav Harbor and Stromness , however, relics have been preserved. Only the remains in Grytviken are open to the public. Entering the existing buildings and facilities of other former whaling stations is prohibited because of their dilapidation and asbestos pollution .

Individual lanes

Historical photo of the Grytviken station: the railway systems cannot be seen.
  • Grytviken : Grytviken was the first whaling station in South Georgia. It existed from 1904 to 1966. The construction of the tracks began in 1912. They connected the waltz laying area (Flensplan) and led through the entire settlement. A track led to the cemetery and was used in 1922 to transfer the coffin of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton . A longer stretch was built in 1928 to build a reservoir above the station. Most of the tracks were removed in the 1950s. An approximately 50 m long track and several tipping lorries (capacity 0.75 m³) have been preserved to this day.
  • Husvik : In this whaling station, which existed from 1907 to 1961, there was an extensive track network of almost 2 km in length. Several short branch tracks led to the individual buildings of the whale processing factory. Two tracks had been laid on the landing stage. The station manager's house, which is still in use today, was also connected. Numerous tracks have been preserved.
  • King Edward Point : The administrative seat of the overseas territory has been located here since 1909. Until at least the 1950s there was an approximately 300 m long track from the landing stage to the buildings of the island administration located here.
  • Leith Harbor : The station was operated 1909-1966. At the beginning of the 1980s, the plants should be removed. Argentine scrap metal dealers, including Constantino Davidoff, who secretly worked with the Argentine military ,expressed interest inthis contract. Operation Alpha came about on March 19, 1982 , when Davidoff's workers and Argentine marines landed in Leith Harbor and raised the Argentine flag. The aim was to build a base in Leith Harbor for the conquest of South Georgia. This was the trigger for military clashes between the colonial power and Argentina on South Georgia during the Falklands War . In fact, Davidoff later offered rail material mined in South Georgiafor salein Buenos Aires . → Argentine invasion
  • Ocean Harbor (previously New Fortuna Bay ): The station only operated for a short time, from 1909 to 1920. The railway there operated steam locomotives (→ Section track material and vehicles ), possibly because a particularly long landing bridge had to be built due to the shallow water and therefore longer distances had to be covered. After the station was closed, a large part of the existing equipment came to Stromness.
  • Prince Olav Harbor : The station existed from 1911 to 1931. The British admiralty map of the area from 1931 shows two independently operated short and elevated railways; one of them connected the pier and the whale processing factory.
  • Stromness : Photos of this station, which operated from 1907 to 1961 and only served ship repair from the 1930s, show that a railway existed and that two tracks were laid on the landing stage, for example. When the facilities in Ocean Harbor were dismantled around 1926, some of the equipment was transferred to Stromness.

Track material and vehicles

The track material used came from the French manufacturer Decauville .

The coal and other goods were transported with carts , especially with tipping carts. In Grytviken there is still a cart that was made in the Peace Hut in Katowice.

The carts were moved with muscle power (manual feed) or by steam winches and - on a station - pulled by horses. The use of a steam locomotive has only been proven for Ocean Harbor . It was a two-axis machine built by Krauss & Co. in Munich , about which nothing is known. When the tracks in Ocean Harbor were dismantled, probably around 1926, the locomotive was knocked over. It is still in place today. It is unclear whether a locomotive was also used in Husvik; one of the buildings there resembles a locomotive shed .

literature

  • Michael Lenk: Light rail artifacts in the Antarctic. In: Werkbahnreport. No. 19, 2018, pp. 50–51.
  • Roderick A. Smith: Railways of South Georgia. In: The Narrow Gauge. No. 97, 1982, pp. 22-23.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: Expedition Policy and Application Procedures, p. 5 (accessed November 11, 2018).
  2. ^ Nancy Eleanor Brown: Antarctic Housewife. New edition. Hutchinson of Australia , Richmond 1996, ISBN 0-09-108510-1 , p. 7.
  3. ↑ Martin Coombs: Rails of the Far South, section "Surviving relics" (accessed November 11, 2018).

Coordinates: 54 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  S , 36 ° 39 ′ 0 ″  W.