The International Steam Pages


Preserved Narrow Gauge Steam in Lithuania 2007

James Waite reports:

There are only three surviving narrow (750mm) gauge steam locos in Lithuania. All three are PT-4 type 0-8-0's. Perhaps the most interesting is PT-4-274 (Tampella works no. 660 of 1948) preserved at Siauliai station in the north of the country. It's one of only three survivors of the 570 of these locos built by Tampella and Lokomo, the two Finnish manufacturers, and supplied from 1946 onwards by way of WW2 reparations by the Finns to the USSR. Apart from nine prototype locos built in 1941 by Kolomna these were the earliest of the PT-4's (the pictures unfortunately taken in the heavy rain which has characterised our north European summer in 2007!) The loco is immediately to the west of the station on the north side of the line and is readily accessible. Siaulai was the most western point on the Panevezys 750mm gauge system - see below.

No. Kch-4-017 (Skoda works no. 2032 of 1949) lives in a new purpose-built museum building at Anyksciai station on the Panevezys-Anyksciai-Rubikiai preserved railway in the north-east of the country. This is a delightful place. I arrived there mid-afternoon, the only visitor at the time, and was greeted by the curator-cum-stationmaster Mr. Raimondas Guobis, a most welcoming person, and his family. They brewed up coffee for me and encouraged their young daughter to practise her English with me before taking me for a tour of the site. They also insisted on firing up their TU2 diesel at the station platform which they thought would make for more interesting pics. The station building has been restored to its 1920's condition - it's a pretty, old, wooden building. The new museum building where the PT-4 lives was funded by an EU grant. The loco formerly worked at a factory at Svencioneliai, on a part of the line which is now closed, and was purchased for preservation by Jozef Fiedorowicz, a Lithuanian emigre from Svencioneliai who now lives in the UK. In addition to the loco there's quite a variety of rolling stock in the new building. The railway itself was the last commercially operated narrow gauge line in Lithuania. It closed to freight in 1999 and to passengers in 2001. The stretch between Anyksciai and Rubikiai now runs on Saturdays until 20th September 2007 and there are occasional workings at the Panevezys end of the line. 

The railway's timetable is at http://www.siaurukas.eu/index.php?cid=2658. The Anyksciai museum is open every day until the end of October 2007 from 10.00 to 17.00. They have their own site at http://www.baranauskas.lt/siaurukas/tour_inf.en.htm (link is dead). The picture shows the loco with the enthusiastic Mr. Guobis on board. 

No. Kp-4-708 (Chrzanow works no. 3699 of 1957) is preserved outside the Lithuanian Railways station at Panevezys. It comes from Panevezys sugar factory and doesn't seem to have any obvious connection with the preserved railway.


Rob Dickinson

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