AA61 - AA63 MAN Railcar ex-CFFH

[jsimantov]

Hello everyone,

These are probably among the last pix of the MAN diesel railcars bought by the CFFH in the early 50s. I shot it in autumn 1978 at the Athens Rentis shed (MAI), where it had been laying derelict for a number of years.
Even the shedmaster at that time had almost forgotten its existence!

To my knowledge, no other pix were taken of that particular object in Athens, and I must say I was lucky enough to be able to take pix of both its ends.

When I stepped in the railcar (quite a risky operation...) I noticed to my surprise that the floor was made of wood; he two diesel engines had obviously been removed (that railcar was twin-powered), and the engine compartments were jus two big holes on the floor...

BTW, these pix's were uploaded 'as is'; in order to show the real colors, I haven't applied any photoshop (GIMP in my case..)

A number of interesting questions arise though: to begin with, how can its presence in Athens be explained...has there been any repair plan?
Since 1978 I haven't heard anything concerning the railcar's whereabouts; it was probably scrapped during the early 80s wave..
Any contribution/correction/discussion is of course highly welcome!

Cheers,

Iossif

[christo]

Iossif, eye popping photos, thanks.

christo.

[GAZKGK]

Once more, Thanks for your amazing and rare photos, Iossif !

To begin with, the unit in Iossif's photos is AA 62, the last one to be withdrawn. The exact date of withdrawal remains unknown, but she appears to have had some serious, non-repairable mechanical damage around the early-mid 1970s. In 1973, spare parts were stripped off one of the ex- German small diesel locomotives, A6, and were sent to ΚΕΠ in order to be used for AA62, which indicates that for some reason Piraeus Works was responsible for her maintenance until the end, and justifies her presence in Athens.

Around then, OSE also announced a competitive tender for spare parts for AA62, which apparently failed, and was about to be repeated in 1976. Although it is still unknown if the tender was finally repeated and failed again or not repeated at all, around then was the time when thoughts of official withdrawal arose, and apparently became truth, with the unit being scrapped during the 1984-1985 wave.

During this wave, another unit of the same class, AA63 was scrapped as well. She was the one that had been modified with only one power bogie by ΤΖΩΝΗΣ, Piraeus in 1953. Some time before 1968 (probably mid 1960s?), she was entirely burned somewhere in Thessaloniki region. After many years in Thessaloniki Works, where all useful and removable parts were removed, she was moved to Lachanokipi during the 1970s and was cut in half (at Thessaloniki Works? or at Lachanokipi? Still unknown), the two pieces waiting to be scrapped along with her sister.

I attach a slightly more recent photo of AA 62, taken by Dimitris Koutelidis (†) in 1982.

[christo]

Thanks, Jason. But what is the history of the third unit AA61? Did it stay at Alexandroupolis?

christo.

[GAZKGK]

The only thing known about AA 61 is that it was burned in February 1955, so I don't think it ever ran as AA 61 = with a ΣΕΚ number. I guess it was scrapped before 1963.

[BarbaPanagos]

Thanks again Iossif for these great shots!!!
and Jason for all that info!!!

...

[jsimantov]

Thanks Iason for the update!

Also a thought in memory of our friend Dimitris Koutelidis...

Iossif

[christo]

I want to confess that I had tried to model this railcar commercially but could find a good drawing.

The lid design for the unrealized MAN model based on the photo that Les bought on ebay.

christo.

[jsimantov]

One more confession...

I have a couple of Piko VT137's lying idle in their boxes; it was only a matter of minutes after the posting, to lay down a project...

The main thing is, in order to create one AA, it is necessary o 'sacrifice' two VT137s; the second will only supply the motor bogie (VT137s were single-powered, so the two bogies were different). Of course, there is no way I'd sacrifice a Liliput or a Kato VT; too expensive even on ebay!!

Iossif

[christo]

Originally, I bought the Liliput set, with that in mind. But I found that the bogie profile looked very different to the Greek ones and that is why I contemplated designing one. However, no suitable drawing was discovered hence the project finished prematurely.

christo.