VARIOUS STEAMS - THE FRANCO ETHIOPIAN RAILWAY FROM 1900 TO 1980.
Gallery N°28 : Various Streams (C.F.E. period)
PINGUELY LOCOMOTIVES
In 1898 the Company acquired two type 030 locomotives, designated No 1 and No 2. They weighed 19 tons each and were named DJIBOUTI and HARRAR respectively.They were followed in 1899 by two more locomotives of the same type: Nos 3 and 4 named EL BAH and SEINE.
Nine "Pinguely" locomotives from the Beaujolais Railways, manufactured in 1900, were handed over to the C.F.E. in 1935. They were designated 70 to 76, 79 and 80. They never reached their destination; however, as the cargo ship which carried them was torpedoed by an Italian submarine. (Jean-Pierre Vergez)
CORPET LOUVET LOCOMOTIVES
1899 saw the delivery of two type 030 locomotives, designated No 7 and No 8. They weighed 12 tons each and were named ALSACE and SAONE.BATIGNOLES LOCOMOTIVES 1.4.1.T type
Around 1935 four type 141 T locomotives, originating from the Yunnan Railways, were sold second-hand to the C.F.E. They were designated Nos 301, 302, 303 and 304.OFF.NAVAL Gr.302 NAPOLI LOCOMOTIVES
At the beginning of 1937 six Italian locomotives of type Gr.R 302 joined the stock. They were designated N°14, N°16, N°26, N°32, N°34 et N°39. Their gauge was increased to 1000mm. They had a tender capacity of 18 m3. They kept their original designation for a long time, as can be seen from the pictures taken at Djibouti and Dire Dawa Stations. N°34 was later re-converted to a 950 mm gauge, and transferred to Massawa in 1939 where it ended its career. All the locomotives were destroyed during the war but the tenders survived and were used for the transport of water to work sites on the line.GARRATT ANSALDO ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVES
Ordered in 1937, six of these Garratt Ansaldo 141-141 1175 hp locomotives were supposed to be brought into service. They were designated 501 to 506. Only three were delivered, between 1938 and 1940. As they often broke down, they were little used. The locomotives numbered 501 and 503 were de-commissioned and scrapped in the 1960s. The boiler of No 502 would later be used as a press at the sugar cane factory of Akaki. As part of war compensation, Italy was to reimburse the C.F.E. for the three missing locomotives.Information regarding the GARRATT articulated locomotives :
| Builder | ANSALDO, Genoa, Italy |
| Net weight | 63.000 kg |
| Operating weight | 87.000 kg |
| Weight on coupled wheels | 43.500 kg |
| Weight on coupled wheels | 6.500 kg |
| Weight on front bissel | 7.000kg |
| Grip weight | 60.000 kg |
| Boiler length | 8.485 mm |
| Boiler pressure | 14 bar |
| Steam production | 8.000 kg/H |
| Distribution mechanism | Walschaerts |
| Exhaust | Kylchap |
| Core | Crampton |
| Boiler heating surface | 134 m2 |
| Overheat heating surface | 52,50 m2 |
| grid surface | 3 m2 |
| Coupled wheels diameter | 1,050 m |
| Bissel wheels diameter | 0,710 m |
Mallet 030-030 HENSHEL SHON LOCOMOTIVE. (Daniel Ammann)
In 1916 "Ministère de Brussel (MGD Brüssel), the managers of the German Army Railways, ordered a series of 20 Mallet CC locomotives from the HENSCHEL factory in Kassel, Germany. They were superheated locomotives with a maximum load of 9 tons per axle. Delivered in 1917 with factory designations 18150 to 18169, they were given the numbers H.K. 11 to 30.At the end of the First World War two of these locomotives, H.K.13 (Henschel 18152 ) and H.K. 23 (Henschel 18162) were among the locomotives kept quarantined at Montmédy station.
H.K. 23 was sold in 1922 to the Commercial Railway of the Meuse (Chemins de Fer Economiques de la Meuse). Appointed to the Woëvre line with number 6.001, this locomotive quickly proved underpowered and therefore of little use. It was consequently handed over to the Swiss Company Yverdon-Sainte-Croix in 1928, where it was renamed No 5.
Considered a great consumer of coal, it was only rarely put to use after 1930. During the second World War it was given to the Swiss Army. From 1941 to 1945 it was stationed at Montbovon (GFM/MOB line) as a reserve cold locomotive, independent of electric traction. Upon its return to Yverdon, it was kept at the station and not used. According to Yverdon-Sainte-Croix, it was destroyed shortly afterwards. It seems that it was never put into service.
To this day it is not possible to discover how and why this locomotive was sold in Ethiopia. A sale which seems surprising, with hindsight, as this locomotive was ill-suited to either long distance, or switching (shunting) service.