Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913

The Decauville Tramway at Exposition Universelle in Gent, 1913 (French Tramway de Decauville Ainé) was a temporary narrow gauge railroad with a gauge of 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in), which was operated during the World Fair held in Ghent from 26 April to 3 November 1913.^[1]

History

After the success of the Decauville railway at Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris, the Belgian subsidiary of the French company Decauville in Corbeil-Essonnes exhibited their products also at the Exposition universelle et internationale (1913).

Route

The route passed amongst others the following stations:

• Palais de Beaux Arts
• Ville de Paris
• Delhaize Freres & Cie ‹Le Leon›
• Modern Village
• Rue Belvedere
• Chateau d’eau^[2]

The Depot was between the Modernen Village and the sport fields.^[3]

• 
  Palais de Beaux Arts
• 
  Ville de Paris
• 
  Rue Belvedere
• 
  Chateau d'eau

Operation

Eight Montania locomotives of the Paris branch of Orenstein & Koppel and Arthur Koppel were used on the temporarily laid line. They could be operated with benzene, petrol, alcohol or petroleum. On the side of the engine cover they had a discreet lettering of the company 'Decauville', which was responsible for the distribution of this locomotive in Belgium.^[4]

The operation was carried out by a 24-strong team of 10 locomotive drivers, 12 uniformed conductors, a railway attendant dressed in white and the train dispatcher.

• 
  Locomotive
• 
  Engine drivers and conductors
• 
  Railway attendant
• 
  Tramcar

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Exposition Universelle (1913) Decauville tramway.

1. ^ Davy Depelchin: "The Ghent Universal and International Exhibition of 1913: Reconciling Historicism, Modernity and Exoticism", in Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940, edited by Marta Filipova (Farnham, 2015), p. 185. Partial preview on Google Books.
2. ^ Claude Faseur: Gent geprent: Bezoekerstreintje.
3. ^ Billen Jos: Tramway Decauville.
4. ^ Catalogue "Locomotives 'Montania' au Benzol, a la Benzine, a l'Alcool, au Petrole etc, O&K et Arthur Koppel, Paris" with postal stamp of 15 March 1919.