Continuation and complement of the article published on 13/03/2023 at 23:05 .
Thanks to jani who made this work possible thanks to the new sources brought.
How did the CIY become the owners and operators of the two Mallet 030+030T Henschel N°15154 and 15156 ?
- At the end of the 1930s, the Yunnan line was short of powerful locomotives to cope with the increasing traffic. A letter from the CIY, posted in Hanoi, dated 9 February 1939 and intended for the central administration in Paris, explains: "It is certain that, between the planned arrival of the wagons and the locomotives of the new type, we will find ourselves very short of traction equipment. It is therefore necessary to buy or hire all the available locomotives for 1 metre track, in good condition, ...".
- The dealer Brunner & Marchand made a proposal to the Yunnan Railway Administration, two locomotives, referenced in its list n°251 and 252 (NB - this completes the Renaud list, where no machines are precisely noted under these numbers), Mallet 030+030T Henschel: "Built 1914 or later for German operations in Eastern France, machines having apparently worked very little, only in the said service - Superheater and heater; grid 1 m2 85, boilers of satisfactory proportion - Supplies to be increased (no major difficulty). Price: machine restored to condition 485,000Fr. but 200,000 Fr. less in their present state", as described by Mr Bodin, employee of the CIY, in a letter dated 1/2 February 1939.
- If the CIY takes the two Mallet Brunner and Marchand in cash and carry, 200,000 Fr. is already a lot. Could there be a "wolf" hidden somewhere?
- At the same time, the Yunnan Railways were negotiating with Couthon who offered them the Henschel 13304. They were also in contact with the KUR (Kenya-Uganda Railway), as they hoped to buy 6 powerful Garratt locomotives, manufactured by Beyer-Peacock. In November 1939 these locomotives had already been delivered to Indochina and were only waiting for their new couplers, manufactured by Franco-Belge, to enter service.
- Finally, the transaction took place. Machine n°251 from Brunner et Marchand was bought by the CIY for 295,000 Fr, and n°252 for 251,000 Fr, plus 9,000 Fr for spare parts, sent by the port of Dunkirk. The Yunnan Railway thought it was doing a good deal by carrying out the work itself in its workshop at Gia Lam. A letter dated 29 March 1939 from Paris, signed by Bodin, and addressed to the operating management in Hanoi, states: "the two Mallet machines... are being sent these days", but it adds that they "must undergo major repairs"!
- After the arrival of the two locomotives in Indochina, the Gia Lâm workshops were not short of work: installation of fittings (pressure gauges, grease nipples, springs, etc.), work on the rear plate of the distribution boxes, distribution spool with rods and rings, low-pressure pistons with rods and rings, replacement of the compressed-air brake with a vacuum brake, debottlenecking and retubing of the boilers, etc.
In a letter dated 24 April 1939, the chief engineer of equipment and traction, Mr Préclaire, stated: "These locomotives should be able to enter service as quickly as possible and ensure an intense and sustained service. However, they are going to arrive with missing parts and almost no spares, which is abnormal for these locomotives, which are far from new and which will have to provide a hard service while waiting for the GARRATTs. [...] The savings that could be made by making spares in the Gia Lâm workshops would be largely lost by immobilising the rolling stock and locomotives, from which we must try to get the most out of them". But also "we must increase the capacity of the water and fuel tanks of the Mallet, which are less important than those of our extra-lourdes[...]".
- The two Mallets spent many months in the workshops of Gia Lam.
- The acceptance report for the commissioning of the Mallet, numbered 191 at the CIY is dated 9 May 1941 and that of the Mallet numbered 192, 8 December 1941 (RMQ: I cannot find, for the moment, the correspondence between the Henschel construction number and that of the CIY. Did the chronological order prevail? Henschel 15154 / CIY 191 and Henschel 15156 / CIY 192 ???).
- These machines had been extensively converted and were returned to service as 030+031Ts, by extending the chassis. A rear axle was required to support the increased weight of water and coal caused by the enlarged bunkers. After the modifications, the capacity of the water tanks increased from 4.6 m3 to 9 m3, and the coal tanks from 2 m3 to 5 m3. The total loaded weight before the modification was 54 tonnes, now it is 60 tonnes - (source Bleu " CIY matériel et traction 7154 ").
(see the plan, published by Jani _ https://postlmg.cc/3dk7BBWq).
- Finally, a letter dated 15 March 1941 tells us that it is planned to put engines 191 and 192 into service to tow heavy phosphate trains between Pho-Moi and the port of Viétri.
These two Mallet Henschel ex-030+030T no longer seem to appear in the last state of the equipment in service on the CIYs, dated June 1954.
