by jsimantov » Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:28 am
Hi folks,
Just to add a few details to Andreas's reply.
This locomotive was nicknamed 'Gagarin' since its building (conversion, kitbashing or whatever) roughly coincided with Yuri Gagarin's first flight to space in 1961.
Since it was a low-powered unit, built in order to investigate if a conversion of steam locomotives to diesel could be interesting, its first assignment was a fast Piraeus-Patra service (an 'Hypertakheia') consisting of Gagarin and two Breda Coaches, which lasted well into the 60s, at least until the arrival of the ALCOs. Unfortunately I don't have more details about the timetables, but I recall having seen it in the middle 60s approaching the Corinth Canal station ('Isthmos').
The last years of service saw Gagarin running the Lefktron-Megalopolis local with one coach.
Strangely enough, Gagarin had a good reputation among SPAP railwaymen mostly due to the quality of its engine; it remained in service practically until the early 80s and its definitive withdrawal came when, it literally committed suicide! one day, it was running idle at the Piraeus roundhouse when it started on its own initiative and fell into the turntable pit (obviously the turntable track was facing a different slot...)
It's my personal point of view, but I believe Gagarin should be preserved; it's part of our Railway history; as it usually happened in the History of our Nation, it was a personal initiative from Ing. Papageorgiou (btw, they were a family of engineers), which was not continued for various reasons...
Cheers,
Iossif
