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Wroclaw Zoo Railway - before 1945

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Wroclaw Zoo Railway - before 1945

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Jan 31, 10, 23:16 #1

Hello All,

I am a narrow gauge railway enthusiast from the United Kingdom and I'm writing to you to enquire about a 381 mm/15 inch gauge miniature steam railway that ran in Wroclaw in 1913.

I do not know a lot about it, apart from the train used on it was built by a company called Bassett Lowke Ltd in England.

It ran using one of his Atlantic 4-4-2 steam locomotives with closed coaches. The locomotive may have been called GREEN DRAGON or ENTENTE CORDIALE, but only maybe.

From a drawing of the station, it looks as though it ran near the Wroclaw Zoo, however we do not know what happened to the train afterwards.

However, on this link: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolej_w%C4%85skotorowa it says under 381mm, that a train ran in Wroclaw Zoo until 1945, when the zoo came under attack. As it is a rare gauge in Poland, I wondered if it was the same railway?

I am trying to trace any details about the railway in the zoo and what happened to the Bassett-Lowke train that may have operated on it, and I wondered if any members had any details, photos, or knows anyone who may have them?

Any help would be appreciated, and I look forward to hearing from you.

I do not speak Polish I'm afraid, or have any contacts in Poland so this is my first point of call!

Thanks in Advance

Peter Bryant

bilomnicThreads: - Posts: 4 Joined: Feb 12, 09 ♀	Feb 1, 10, 00:16 #2
You may want to try reaching out to Michal Dembinski in Warsaw (he's English and is a real train enthusiast). If he can't help you, he can probably put you in touch with someone who can. you can reach him on his blog: http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/ cheers

petermbryantThreads: 1 Posts: 2 Joined: Jan 31, 10 ♂	Feb 1, 10, 23:11 #3
Thanks for your response, I've been in touch with Michael and he has put me forward to someone. If anyone has any other ideas of this line, please do reply, we need all the help we can get with this!

WroclawThreads: 74 Posts: 7,236 Joined: Apr 1, 06 ♂ [Moderator]	Feb 1, 10, 23:50 #4
your problem might be that you are looking for wroclaw zoo. look for breslau zoo. a quick google brought up some maps. some of the maps may have the railway example map: http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_enlarge.cfm?id_image=368

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Edited by: jwojcie Feb 2, 10, 01:31 #5

Hi

I don't share you hobby, but I believe that I can help you to start your research.
This is site which is run by someone who shares your hobby. This site is about this narrow gauge railway in Wrocław:
http://kleinbahn.prv.pl/
In polish, but you can try to email the guy who runs it. Last guest entries are from 2009, so maybe it is not dead site.

some pictures can be found also here:
http://wroclaw.hydral.com.pl/13477,obiekt.html

this is Polish wiki site about this (probably not much use for you...)
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wroc%C5%82awska_kolej_w%C4%85skotorowa

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Feb 2, 10, 01:51 #6

Wow...thats a neat engine....not sure if its a British one tho...looks a bit German to me , not that i am any kind of expert , but i do like trains...

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Feb 2, 10, 15:59 #7

Thanks for all your replies, I've recieved an awful lot of help so far, which is great as we try to solve this mystery.

The railway Jwojcie mentioned is I'm afraid not the same one as what I'm after. The line I refer to ran 381mm gauge stock, which is considerably smaller than that posted above, though it does look like an interesting line!

I will have a look under Breslau Zoo, though the railway isn't on that particular map as its dated 1890. The railway at a guess would had run from 1913 - 1945.

Keep the replies coming

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