Du Croo & Brauns was a Dutch machine factory which produced railway equipment and later locomotives. Many of them were built for customers in Indonesia.
Contents
Du Croo & Brauns was a Dutch machine factory which produced railway equipment and later locomotives. Many of them were built for customers in Indonesia.
Engelbert Adolf Du Croo, who had been born in Surabaya, Indonesia, worked for a foreign company manufacturing rolling stock for narrow gauge railways. In 1906, having gained experience in that field, he set up his own business in Amsterdam, with his first catalogue proclaiming: "Why not protect Dutch industry and make it possible to get Dutch-made rolling stock that is more solid and better finished at the same price as abroad?" Two years later, he entered into a partnership with Pieter Johan Christiaan Brauns, and the company became N.V. Du Croo & Brauns. Subsequently, the name changed again, to Constructiewerkplaatsen, v/h Du Croo & Brauns. [1]
In 1917, they set up a subsidiary company called N.V. Machinefabriek Du Croo & Brauns, which was based in Weesp, in the north of Holland. The subsidiary's main emphasis was on the production of narrow gauge locomotives. A large proportion of the products were exported to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. [1] The first locomotive was supplied in 1922, and the company built 276 steam locomotives, 117 diesel locomotives, 11 traction engines and five boilers. Most of these were produced prior to 1952, after which very few were built. Of the steam locomotives, around 75 per cent were exported to Indonesia. [2] In addition to conventional locomotives, the company also built 61 articulated Mallet locomotives. They produced 12 in 1926, which were rated at 60hp, and 48 between 1927 and 1940, which were rated at 80hp. A single machine rated at 100hp was produced in 1930. All were built for 700 mm (2 ft 3+9⁄16 in) gauge railways in Indonesia. [3]
In 1947, Du Croo & Brauns set up a joint venture with Linde-Teves & Stokvis, which was officially known as NV Smalspoorwerkplaatsen Ducrobrauns-Lindeteves, but was normally abbreviated to Ducrolinde. Linde-Teves had wide experience of supplying narrow gauge rolling stock to the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia and Thailand, prior to the Secord World War. The equipment was mainly of Genman origin, with locomotives from Henschel and wagons and trackwork from Dolberg. Ducrolinde was managed from Amsterdam by Linde-Teves, who worked entirely on commission. They promoted the sale of Du Croo & Brauns products, and where drawing or project work was required by their customers, this was passed to Du Croo & Brauns. The commission they earned varied from three percent on rails and four percent on locomotives, up to ten percent on items such as fasteners and axle boxes. [4] After 1952, the company concentrated on other products besides railway equipment, and was wound up in 1983. Most of its records were destroyed when the company ceased trading, and so details of its activities are sparse. [2]
There are still a number of Du Croo & Brauns locomotives working in Indonesia. In 2023, the Stoomtrein Katwijk Museum at Leiden obtained two and moved them to the museum. Negotiations had started 21 years previously, when the locomotives were still operational. With help from the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, the museum finally obtained them. One condition of the transfer is that they will offer their expertise at restoration to the Indonesians for future projects in that country. [5]
Locomotive 81 was built in 1925 for a sugar factory in Jakarta, and was later sold to the Sumberhadjo sugar factory. It continued to work there until 2017, when it was replaced by a diesel locomotive. It was relatively complete at the time of transfer, and was not expected to need much work to restore it to running order. Locomotive 159 of 1928 worked at the Klampok sugar factory in East Java, and moved to another sugar factory when the Klampok became bankrupt in the 1930s. It ceased to be used in 2005, and a number of its components had been removed by the time it was sold to the museum. Consequently, restoration will be more difficult. [5]
A Mallet locomotive is a type of compound articulated steam locomotive, invented by the Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (1837–1919).
0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used on both tender and tank locomotives in versions with both inside and outside cylinders.
Orenstein & Koppel was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876, in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel.
In the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotive wheel arrangement, an 0-4-4-0 is a locomotive with no leading wheels, two sets of four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. The arrangement is chosen to give the articulation of a locomotive with only the short rigid wheelbase of an 0-4-0, but with its weight spread across eight wheels, and with all the weight carried on the driving wheels; effectively a flexible 0-8-0. Articulated examples were constructed as Mallet, Meyer, BMAG and Double Fairlie locomotives and also as geared locomotives such as Shay, Heisler, and Climax types. A similar configuration was used on some Garratt locomotives, but it is referred to as 0-4-0+0-4-0. In the electric and diesel eras, the Bo-Bo is comparable and closest to the Meyer arrangement of two swivelling bogies.
Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works was a railway equipment manufacturer based in Winterthur in Switzerland. Much of the world's mountain railway equipment was constructed by the company.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, 2-6-6-0 is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and no trailing wheels. The wheel arrangement was principally used on Mallet-type articulated locomotives. Some tank locomotive examples were also built, for which various suffixes to indicate the type of tank would be added to the wheel arrangement, for example 2-6-6-0T for an engine with side-tanks.
MÁVAG was the largest Hungarian rail vehicle producer. MÁVAG company was the second largest industrial enterprise after the Manfréd Weiss Steel and Metal Works in the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. MÁVAG was the property of the Kingdom of Hungary. After World War II MÁVAG was nationalized, and "Királyi" ("Royal") was removed from its name.
Decauville was a manufacturing company which 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 Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway based near Tamworth, Staffordshire and partially in Warwickshire, England. Founded by engineering entrepreneur Graham Lee and his wife Carol at their farm-based home, they originally designed what is still termed the garden railway, in which Graham could run his trains and Carol could design an extensive English country garden around a lake.
The Cepu Forest Railway is a 1,067 mm narrow gauge light logging railway that runs through teak plantations to the northwest of the town of Cepu, in Cepu district, on the boundary between Central and East Java provinces, on the island of Java in Indonesia. It is owned by Perhutani, a state-owned forestry company of Indonesia. Steam traction is still dominant.
A Luttermöller axle is an unusual steam locomotive component. Steam locomotives with several axles or wheelsets connected to one another by coupling rods are not able to negotiate tight curves well. In order to assist such locomotives, the manager of the Orenstein & Koppel factory in Berlin, Dr. Luttermöller, built the axle system named after him.
The Ambarawa Railway Museum is a museum located in Ambarawa in Central Java, Indonesia. The museum preserves around 21 steam locomotives and focuses on tourism train tours hauled by 3 operational steam engines and a hydraulic diesel engine, using the remains of the closing of the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) railway line.
Werkspoor N.V. was the shortened, and later the official name of the Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel. It was a Dutch machine factory, known for rolling stock, (ship) steam engines, and diesel engines. It was a successor of the company Van Vlissingen en Dudok van Heel, later named Koninklijke Fabriek van Stoom- en andere Werktuigen. In 1954 Werkspoor was merged with Stork.
The South African Railways Class MD 2-6-6-2 of 1910 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in Transvaal.
In the early 1900s, 2 ft narrow-gauge railway lines started playing a significant role in South Africa. They facilitated the transport of various agricultural and mineral produce from locations hardly accessible by road. They therefore enabled many communities to become prosperous.
The Atjeh Tram was a railroad line in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra. It was built from 1874 by the Military engineering section of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. Originally a loop for the port of Oleh Leh, it was rebuilt as a route for the transport of military goods stretching from Ule Lheu to the port of Pangkalan Susu in the Sultanate of Langkat. The line was 511 kilometers long, with 120 stops and stations along the way. It was finished in 1917. During the Aceh War the railroad proved of great importance for the quick transportation of troops and material.
Sawit Seberang - also referred to as Sawit Sebrang - is the name of a district (kecamatan) in Langkat Regency, the northernmost regency of North Sumatra.
The Manila Railroad 160 class[a] of 1914 was a class of four 2-6-0+0-6-2 Double Mogul-type Kitson-Meyer locomotives. This particular class was the only type of articulated locomotive used by both the Manila Railway/Railroad Company, which were the predecessors to the Philippine National Railways. The class was introduced in 1914 and was originally intended for mixed traffic services on the Antipolo line. After that line's closure in 1917, the locomotives were transferred to the South Main Line to serve in Lucena, Quezon, and Pagsanjan, Laguna. All were withdrawn in 1925, shortly after the arrival of their replacements such as the Manila Railroad 200 class.
Media related to Du Croo & Brauns at Wikimedia Commons