Towbar at the Iron Gate
| Towbar at the Iron Gate Sipska Lokomotivska Vuča |
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 Location of the canal and the towing railway as built in 1916
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| Route length: | 2,630 km | ||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||
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The tow rail at the Iron Gate ( Serbian Sipska Lokomotivska Vuča ) was a standard gauge railway on the Serbian bank of the Danube . It had the task of supporting ships sailing upriver against the strong current in the shipping channel. This railway was an island operation , it had no connection with other railway lines.
history
The gorge-like narrow valley of the Danube at the Iron Gate , which also forms the border between Romania and Serbia , has always been an obstacle to navigation on the Danube . With the regulatory measures concluded by Austria-Hungary in 1896, a shipping channel was created in this section along the Serbian bank created constant water depth. The high flow speed in this "Iron Gate Canal" or Serbian "Sip Canal" made the ascent of the steamships at that time considerably more difficult, so that two chain tugboats were stationed there for biasing. These ships, which were Hungarian-owned, were confiscated by Serbia at the beginning of the First World War .
After the occupation of Serbia by the Central Powers , they endeavored to resume freight traffic on the Danube as soon as possible. In February 1916, the German Army Administration and the Austro-Hungarian Army decided to set up a towing railway on the Serbian bank of the Sip Canal, initially provisionally . The standard gauge railway with a length of 2,230 meters was built by the German reserve railway construction company No. 25, the costs for the railway systems and vehicles amounted to approx. 500,000 marks. The line was double-tracked for the first two-thirds of its length for more efficient operations: while a ship was being towed on the bank-side track, a locomotive could return to the starting point on the other. After a few tests, operations began on May 27, 1916, and operations were carried out by Hungary until 1918. On their retreat from Serbia in 1918, German troops almost completely destroyed the facility.
After the end of the war, shipping on the Sip Canal was initially resumed with a tugboat. The reconstruction of the Treidelbahn was not fully completed until 1928, while the route was extended by a further 400 m, which now made a total length of 2,630 m. The tugboat also remained in operation until 1933. In 1934 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia leased the facility for an annual payment to the Danube Commission . During the Second World War , the strategically important canal and the railway were the target of several Allied bombing raids. After repairing the damage, operations were resumed shortly after the end of the war. In 1952, the railway was nationalized and subordinated to the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, but was not an operation of the State Railways Jugoslovenske Železnice .
In the early 1960s, the railway administration was still considering converting to diesel locomotives. With the start of construction of the Yugoslav-Romanian joint power plant Eisernes Tor 1 in 1964, however, it became apparent that the towing operation on the Sip Canal would be discontinued, as this was to sink into the resulting Đerdap Lake when the backwater area was flooded . The railway ceased its service towards the end of 1969, the vehicles were mostly scrapped on the spot.
Operations management
In accordance with international agreements, the tow railway was available to ships of all nationalities for a fixed fee. The use of the service was at the discretion of the master, depending on the water level, the towing power of the tug and the attached tonnage. A signal at the entrance to the fairway showed whether entry was permitted, the desired support from the railway was indicated by the hoisting of a blue flag. The towing operation was only permitted in daylight and with sufficient visibility.
Behind the locomotive, a winch wagon weighed down with weights was pulled, the pulling rope was attached to the barges so that the payload was pulled by the locomotive and the tug only had to carry its own weight. The maximum speed was set at 5 km / h, and depending on the load, the journey through the canal took between 20 and 45 minutes.
vehicles
Since the Treidelbahn had no connection to the railway network, vehicles had to be delivered and transported away by water. In order to keep the number of these transports as low as possible, all repair and maintenance work, including the main inspections of the steam locomotives, was carried out in our own depot. As a rule, this work was carried out by JŽ specialists from the Zaječar depot.
Locomotives
The first locomotives were tank locomotives of German origin procured by the German Army Administration , including machines of the T9 and T13 series . In 1922 the fleet was expanded by two locomotives of the Austrian series 80 , the T9s were handed over to the state railways around 1925. From 1949 the locomotives were exchanged for heavy freight train locomotives with a tender of the Yugoslav series 30 . A total of five of these machines, which Borsig delivered to the Yugoslav state railways in the 1930s , were in use on the towing railway between 1949 and 1969.
Until recently, two locomotives were planned for daily use, the third was available as a reserve. After operations ceased in 1969, two locomotives were scrapped on the spot. Since, contrary to the original announcement, the flooding did not begin in spring 1970, but on December 31, 1969, one of the three locomotives, the 30-031, remained undamaged and sank in the reservoir. At the same time, it is the only surviving copy of the 30. According to literature, this locomotive came back to the light of day when the water was low.
Winch car
In addition to the locomotives, the only vehicles on the railroad were the three-axle winch wagons, which made the connection between the locomotive and the barges via a steel cable. These cars were built on the frames of war-damaged locomotives in 1916. They were provided with ballast weights and were equipped with a steam-powered cable winch . Towards the end of rail operations, two cars were still operational; they were also scrapped in 1969.
literature
- Hellmuth Fröhlich: The ship's railroad in the Iron Gate . Railway magazine , October 1966, Ployer Verlag, Vienna, pp. 201–203
- The towing railway at the Iron Gate . LOK-Magazin 12/1973 (No. 62), pp. 418–419
- Zoran Veresić: Steam in Serbia 1882-2007 . Royal Railway Society of Serbia, Belgrade, 2007
- Tadej Braté: The steam locomotives of Yugoslavia . Slezak publishing house, Vienna, 1971, ISBN 3-900134-01-4
Web links
- Entry Treidelbahn in Lueger, Otto: Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences, vol. 1 . Stuttgart, Leipzig 1920., p. 642. on Zeno.org [1]
- Private website with a photo of a class 30 locomotive and winch car, taken from the ship [2]
- Article with color photos on the website of the Kladovo Cultural Center in Serbian [3]
- Report from the steam operation in Yugoslavia in 1966 including photos of one of the T13s in Bosnia after its use in the Iron Gate [4]
- Traction mécanique sur les voies navigables - annexe (2-4) (with photos; French)