Re: Strategic Reserve.

[Roy Wilke <royboy@bit.dotnet.dotau>]

No coal or oil - but can't steam locomotives also burn wood? Or anything that
can be burnt in the loco's firebox, for that matter? Diesels and electrics, I
take it, are a bit more fussy on what fuel they use.

But getting away from the war-type thing, the idea of a railway retaining a
'strategic reserve' of locomotives and rolling stock for unforeseen
emergencies sounds like a wise thing to do. Floods, for example. If the track
isn't washed away, the idea of retaining a handful of steam locos or
diesel-hydraulic locos for use in flood-affected areas wouldn't be a bad
idea.

David Bromage wrote:

> David Bromage wrote:
> > I've never heard of a strategic reserve of locomotives in the UK, but
> > several countries in Central and Eastern Europe had locomotive reserves
> > in case of war.
>
> I should clarify this by adding that it was the Soviet military and the
> Ministry of Transportation, not the various state railways, which
> maintained the strategic reserve of locomotives in eastern Europe. A
> good summary can be found in "Soviet Locomotives: The Union Legacy" by
> Frank Stenvall.
>
> About 300 Kriegsloks were still in storage in 1991. Some were in East
> Germany and others in Poland, Hungary and Romania. Some were sold to MAV
> in (I think) 1965, and later returned to the Hungarian strategic reserve
> when replaced with diesels. A handful of Kriegsloks were converted to
> broad gauge, but about 6000 Er and L class locos were also in storage so
> there was little need for them.
>
> Unfortunately most of them were cut up by the cash strapped Russians,
> but some in the former East Germany survived and have been restored. One
> ex-reserve steam loco hauled a trainload of departing Russian troops as
> its test run. Dramatic irony indeed!
>
> For examples, see:
>
> http://www.bahnhofplatz.com/tog/ztog.dir/ztog_br52.html
> http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3976/bdz/bdzstratres.html (list
> of the entire Bulgarian strategic reserve!)
>
> Sweden and Finland also had reserves. There is a company selling ex-SJ
> reserve locomotive to American tourist railroads.
>
> Cheers
> David