In north part of the country there are few standard gauge lines ( the eastern line to China is a dual gauge, while the line to Halong Bay is only standard gauge. It was planned to connect the harbour with the steel work ( the two small tanklocos in the rain on the film are in the steel work, one is a standard gauge also).
In the main scrapyard there was even a huge Baldwin GP1055 also a standard gauge engine.
Here are some of my RR videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDaXL96fhG8eRgI75dCgt-Q3Brf8XHmS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF2674BF4E3765682
That "Railways in Vietnam" site is fascinating. I was amazed to see there were (are?) BR-52 "Kriegsloks" in Vietnam, even if they couldn't use them at the time.
Reminds me of a photo I saw years ago of a derelict Junkers JU-52 at the Da Nang airport. It's astounding what turns up in different corners of the world.
The GE U8B's in the south are fairly well known and generally date from the 1960's. How many are still in service?
That is correct and according to my information the 141-190 is in service again (since 2014). Of course it was not known in 2002 when my film was made. That ti e there was one more Mikado in operation the 141-210, but in very bad condition.
The engine is not a French one, it was built in Vietnam as a French copy. In Hanoi workshops there were few original French locos for reconstruction. When I correctly remember two were already dismantled and the workers worked on them. Since that time I never heard that any of those engines is really finished and operational.
The refurbished 141-190 is used for some touristic trains.
The main line between Hanoi and Saigon was in 2002 extremely busy, it was also not possible to find a time slot for our train and we lost most of the time with waiting on some stations south from Hanoi. It was not even planned to continue on that main line. Some modern coaches were that time in preparation, even some bilevel sleepers. I had a chance to see the prototype in Hanoi.
I cannot remember any German diesels on Vietnam tracks. In North most of the diesels were Russian (D4), and the Czechoslovakian ones (D12). There were some green Australian engines (D5).
On the main line to Saigon the passenger trains were pulled by the Romanian D11 and that time arrived the first Chinese engines ( now the most powerful locomotives in Vietnam).
In south part of the country there are some GE diesels, but I had no chance to see them.
More details are here:
http://www.railwaysinvietnam.com/
Sam, I can't take credit for "lighting up " Krokodil's vids, Overmod and Krokodil deserve the credit, not me, although I did make the offer.
I have read somewhere, don't remember where, that the Vietnamese are in the process of restoring one of those old French Mikados for excursion service. Isn't that something? Looks like steam is a language we all understand!
Flintlock76 Very interesting! Thanks for posting! I wonder how many Vietnamese stand by trackside now when the diesels roll past and mutter to themselves "Not the same. Just not the same!"
Very interesting! Thanks for posting!
I wonder how many Vietnamese stand by trackside now when the diesels roll past and mutter to themselves "Not the same. Just not the same!"
I have not been in RVN since I left in '69. By the time I had arrived in late 67, The rails and the Rows were pretty much unusable. The line roughly followed Hwy 1 from Duc Pho thru ChuLai and DaNang, and north over HaiVan Pass on to points farther north. [?spellings?].
The railroad station in DaNang was recognizable, but completely unusable. There was a diesel engine[German origins?]there, but like most everything there had been victim of various forms of gunnery practices.
In the last several years, I have been amazed to see the 'recovery' of their rail facilities, in particular, the line paralleling Hwy 1, up and over the HaiVan Pass. There are numerous You Tube videos of the railroads, and their lines and equipment. So the new set of videos was very interesting to see.
Thank you! I do not know what happened with the link.
here it is again.
https://youtu.be/7v-6vP_A2J0
And there are the diesel trains:
https://youtu.be/4zG4c9pKz-0
Flintlock76I tried that YouTube link and it doesn't seem to work.
Try this:
Hi Krokodil! I tried that YouTube link and it doesn't seem to work. If you like send me the complete link and I'll try and "light it up" for you.
Here is my film made in 2002 on all lines of North Vietnam.
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