The German Baureihe 01 was and still is the biggest and most powerful German steam locomotive of all times. Designed and built in the 1930s, they were originally covered by an aerodynamically shaped cover plating, but that was eventually removed as being difficult and harmful for operational maintenance. Hitler's Third Reich originally ordered 205 units of these 150 km/h (93 mph) fast 2´C1´(2-6-0) huge machines, but because of the war only 55 could finally be delivered by the famous company Schwarzkopff. After the war they served in DB's service in Western Germany until 1975. One example is held in working condition by the Railway museum in Nürnberg, Germany. The one shown in this picture passing the station of Erpel 8.7.2010 at 11:42 by the river Rhein at a speed of at least 100 km/h (over 62 mph), the 01 1066 is owned by UEF or Eisenbahnfreunde Ulm. It is being used for expensive touristic special steam train runs. Well, operating a steam locomotive of this caliber can also be very costly!

Picture by Ilkka Siissalo.

The German Baureihe 50 was a very common heavy cargo locomotive in the times of World War II and thereafter. Building the type was part of Hitler's Germany preparation for war. A total of 3164 machines were built until 1948 by almost all the possible European locomotive producers. After the war the common Br50 became a universal locomotive, being powerful, yet capable of using even less important and less well built side tracks due to its axle weight load of less than 20 tons. It was a 1'E h2 (2-10-0) construction, 22,94 metres long, weighed 88,2 tons and could operate at 80 km/h (50 mph) in both directions. This example, held in prime operating connection was hauling a touristic train at the so called Sauschwänzlebahn.

Pictures by Ilkka Siissalo.

The island of Borkum is a beautiful beach resort with tens of kilometres of wonderful sand beaches, great food and nice small hotels and hostels. A tourist paradise.

Borkum once had an extensive narrow gauge railway system of over 30 km, most of which was built by Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht just before World War II. Borkum was then a very important military base with a lot of bunkers and with a large military airfield. Gradually the railroad however lost importance, especially after Germany lost the war and after 1945 all military installments had to be destroyed on the islands. In the 1970s the remining railroad was close to be closed down, but luckily was eventually saved. Today the "Borkum" steam locomotive is among many interesting old vehicles to be seen.

Pictures by Ilkka Siissalo.

The PLM, Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, Bourbonnais 0-6-0 / C / 3/3 type steam loco, later SNCF 030 TB 2 is one of the very oldest surviving French steam locomotives and now on public display in front of the French national train museum, Cité du train, in Mulhouse.

Picture by Ilkka Siissalo.

The old days Finland had a very lively steam railroading. While the "Ukko Pekka" (Hr1), Risto (Tr1) and similar locomotives took care on the traffic on busy main lines, smaller 'steamers' handled traffic on much smaller volumes around the country. Many of these survive as monuments around Finnish networks stations. Some are still steaming on, like the privately owned Tk3 number 1168.

The Tk3 were built right after WW2, when the West was already partly dieselizing. After war the looser Finland was a very poor country and overly burdened by product compensations to the winners of the war. So at the same time as locomotives were built to various parts of Soviet Union, a few of local type were also manufactured. Tk3 was used on many duties for 3 decades and many units still survive today, some rebuilt to almost pristine condition and always ready to transport tourists around attractions.

One of the Tk3 is located in Porvoo, on the branch line to the southern coast from Kerava. The locomotive is stored in the old roundhouse and can occasionally be found warmed up. The location of these pictures is at Porvoo station and the fields just north of it.

Enjoy the pictures!

All pictures by Hannu Peltola.

Imagine a steam locomotive built for maximum traction for rural rail tracks of the old days. You could not add weight to add traction like you would normally do, but you could use the whole weight of the locomotive and spread it evenly on the whole area so the track would not collapse. This is the basic idea behind the shay type of steam locomotive.

To achieve the even weight distribution some quite unusual solutions needed to be found. It would be uneconomical and technically very difficult to spread the pressure of steam evenly through the 3 bogies of the shay using the traditional design. What you need is a cardan axle, which is the same kind of solution that is found on many modern trains and most of the backwheel drive modern cars. Except that on the shay the cardan axle is on the sides probably for easier handling and maintenance. To drive the cardan axles, the steam cylinders were located right in front of the driver. And finally you need the gearing to operate heavy loads of logs on steep grades, so shays trade power for speed.

All pictures by Gerry Putz.