Travels Around the Ukraine by Steam

Today the Branch membership was treated to their second foreign tour this month - today we went travelling with Michael Smyth to see his “Travels around Ukraine by Steam”.

Michael & his wife did a couple of railtours in the mid 1990’s - we saw much of the country covered in winter snow and also in the summer sun. Michael’s aim was to photograph the huge 2-10-0 loco’s, two of which were the haulage on his tours. These engines were 18 ft tall with huge fire boxes, as the coal used produced copious amounts of ash, this is reason why the boilers were set so high above the axles. We saw some great photo’s, particularly of those engines when doing run pasts in varying locations, Michael also highlighted some of Ukraine’s cultural and countryside, some of which included housing built with Russian help following the severe damage caused in WW2 by the Germans.

We were brought right into the modern era as we saw new automated track gauge-changing equipment to assist the export of grain into Romania. Combined with some memorabilia and maps Michael brought along, it was a fascinating insight into this now devasted country.

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary