Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913 explained

Stockton & Ione Railroad
Linelength:3km (02miles)

The Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913 (French Tramway de Decauville Ainé) was a temporary narrow gauge railroad with a gauge of, which was operated during the World Fair held in Ghent from 26 April to 3 November 1913.[1]

History

After the success of the Decauville railway at Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris, the Belgian subsidiary of the French company Decauville in Corbeil-Essonnes exhibited their products also at the Exposition universelle et internationale (1913).

Route

The route passed amongst others the following stations:

The Depot was between the Modernen Village and the sport fields.

Operation

Eight Montania locomotives of the Paris branch of Orenstein & Koppel and Arthur Koppel were used on the temporarily laid line. They could be operated with benzene, petrol, alcohol or petroleum. On the side of the engine cover they had a discreet lettering of the company 'Decauville', which was responsible for the distribution of this locomotive in Belgium.[2]

The operation was carried out by a 24-strong team of 10 locomotive drivers, 12 uniformed conductors, a railway attendant dressed in white and the train dispatcher.

References

  1. Davy Depelchin: "The Ghent Universal and International Exhibition of 1913: Reconciling Historicism, Modernity and Exoticism", in Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940, edited by Marta Filipova (Farnham, 2015), p. 185. Partial preview on Google Books.
  2. [:File:Locomotives 'Montania' au Benzol, a la Benzine, a l'Alcool, au Petrole etc, O&K et Arthur Koppel, Paris (stamped 1919-03-15) a.jpg|''Catalogue "Locomotives 'Montania' au Benzol, a la Benzine, a l'Alcool, au Petrole etc, O&K et Arthur Koppel, Paris" with postal stamp of 15 March 1919.'']

[3] [4]

External links