Last year in a demonstration of how much you can rely on TV news to get facts right, TV3 said that Frichs was a German manufacturer. Well of course, it was Danish, based near Århus.
Scandia (not to be confused with Scania in Södertälje, Sweden, the second largest automotive concern in Scandinavia after Volvo) was a locomotive manufacturer based in Randers, Denmark, later purchased by Adtranz, which itself was subsequently acquired by Bombardier Transportation.
The reason for the mention of Frichs by TV3 last year is that NZR's 9 Vulcan class railcars, built just prior to WW2 and delivered while the war was in progress, had motors and some other componentry supplied by Frichs. Four of these 9 railcars have been preserved and one made a Labour Weekend trip up the old Otago Central Branch as far as Middlemarch, the reason for the news cameras. A colour photo and brief details of the Vulcans are contained in this comprehensive book which is a nicely produced catalogue of all the motorised railway vehicles produced by the two companies between 1932 and 1978, accompanied by plenty of photos and line drawings.
No comments:
Post a Comment