Old diesel locomotive saved from scrap heap

Railway enthusiasts will be delighted to know that an old diesel locomotive previously operated by the V-Zug household appliance-manufacturing company has been saved from the scrap heap.

It is not actually known how this two-axle locomotive used for shunting purposes has been left unused on the tracks to the east of Industriestrasse.

As can be seen in the photograph, the locomotive, number 57552, has the name V-Zug in white on yellow livery. It was built in Cologne in 1962 by the Klöckner-Humboldt Deutz company, now known as simply as Deutz AG, though no more were built after 1970. Weighing 14.5 tonnes, the locomotive was fitted with a 55-horse-power engine capable of a maximum speed of just 14 kph, not that speed was that important for locomotives used on industrial sites. It was bought initially by the Heinrich Schulte Eisen AG company in Düsseldorf, subsequently the Thyssen-Krupp company, before being acquired by the then Verzinkerei Zug AG, which later became V-Zug.

As Daniel Schwerzmann of the Corporation of Baar mentioned, the tracks it used formed a 500-metre semi-circle running alongside the border between Baar and Zug leading to the current Baar Lindenpark station and crossing Baarerstrasse and Industriestrasse before linking up with the current V-Zug site. It is thought the tracks, which are owned by the aforementioned Corporation, were laid shortly after the beginning of the First World War, i.e. in 1914.

Those who wonder what happened to the old locomotive used on the former Cham Paper Factory site until 2014 will be interested to know it is now in Frauenfeld in the canton of Thurgovia awaiting a buyer.