Decauville
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The Decauville manufacturing company was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers; this track was portable and could be disassembled and transported very easily. The first Decauville railway used 400 mm (15 3⁄4 in) gauge; Decauville later refined his invention and switched to 500 mm (19 3⁄4 in) and 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge.
Contents
History
Starting in 1875, his company produced track elements, engines and cars. Those were exported to many countries, in particular to the colonial possessions of European powers.[1] In 1878 Paul Decauville was given permission to build the Jardin d'Acclimatation railway in order to demonstrate passenger transport operations on his railway system during the Exposition Universelle of 1878.
Military use
The French military became interested in the Decauville system as early as 1888 and chose the 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge track to equip its strongholds and to carry artillery pieces and ammunition during military campaigns. Decauville track was used during the French military expeditions to Madagascar and Morocco.
Similar feldbahn equipment was used in German South-West Africa where Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft built the 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge Otavibahn.[2]
By the First World War, the Decauville system had become a military standard and the French and British eventually built thousands of miles of trench railways track. The Germans had a similar system, with normalized engines.[3]
Civilian use
Decauville railways were widely used in construction yards, quarries, farms, cane fields and mountain railways up to the 1950s. The company also produced road vehicles and construction engines.
Decauville tram installations for henequen plantations in the Mexican region of the Yucatán, were so extensive (approximately 4,500 kilometers of track) that the system became the de facto mass transit system for the region. Some ex-haciendas of the area still have small operating, usually burro (donkey) powered, Decauville systems.
Two Portuguese beaches (Barril and Caparica) have seasonal tourist trains in Decauville system (600 mm/1 ft 11 5⁄8 in gauge) totalling 10 km.
Gallery
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Decauville track in the Maginot Line in the French Alps
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Preserved Decauville locomotive, built for the West Melbourne Gasworks in Australia and now on the Puffing Billy Railway
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Decauville system tourist train at Costa da Caparica
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Decauville track from Transpraia, Costa da Caparica, Portugal
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Decauville track on a small bridge, Costa da Caparica, Portugal
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Decauville track junction, Costa da Caparica, Portugal
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Decauville track switch, Costa da Caparica, Portugal
See also
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References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Decauville. |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military rail transport in World War I. |
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. A paper read before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers [1].
- http://www.decauville.nl
- Map of Decauville railways in the Yucatan, Mexico
- Light Railways April 2013, has an article with illustrations on portable railways such as Decauville.
- Articles that mention track gauge 400 mm
- Articles that mention track gauge 500 mm
- Articles that mention track gauge 600 mm
- Pages using div col with unknown parameters
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- Articles using template 'Track gauge' with unrecognized input
- Minimum gauge railways
- Narrow gauge railways
- Locomotive manufacturers of France
- Military railway equipment
- Military railways
- 400 mm gauge railways
- 500 mm gauge railways
- 600 mm gauge railways
- Railways by type