Deutz 401 "Patricia"

History

Our small diesel shunting locomotive, built by the Deutz company in 1961 and christened Patricia, started work that year at the BP (British Petroleum) oil depot in the newly built port of Rotterdam. On paper, her model is called KS55B, the K stands for smalllok, the S stands for Stanger and refers to the connecting rod on the outside, the 55 refers to the 55 hp Patricia possesses and the B refers to the axle layout (2 axles). She rolled out of the factory with the construction number 57179 and was soon used for moving chemical trucks in the port. This period Patricia drove around in the colours yellow and green with the old BP logo. In the beginning she would have been busy, the petrochemical industry was big and the location where she worked was new, it would often have happened that all tracks there were full, a lot of work meant a lot of work for Patricia. However in the 1980s those days were over, around that time only tankers of white spirit (paint thinner) were delivered to her dock. Her last major work in the port formed a great story.

In 1987, two barges on the Rhine collided with a bridge near Karlsruhe, Germany. This blocked waterborne traffic towards Switzerland for several weeks. BP, however, was tasked with moving oil across the Rhine from Rotterdam. So the dock, the Botlek, where Patricia worked, was asked if they could transfer the oil onto tankers to take the oil to Switzerland by rail. The job was done, white spirit tankers were cleaned out and oil was pumped over. All made possible by Patricia who will have turned more revs those weekends than she would turn in the following five years. So it slowly became quiet for Patricia, until 1992 they actually found no more use for her, she was transferred to another dock where she sometimes came in handy but couldn't really do much either. There she sometimes stood still for months at a stretch, actually not good for that kind of machine. This was partly caused by the fact that she was the weakest even among the older locomotives, during this period she was recognisable by her green and blue livery. In 1999, she was donated to Stoomtrein Dendermonde Puurs. 

At the association

At the association she got a second chance, in Baasrode there was plenty of shunting work and for a few years some of it was done by Patricia. However, Patricia had already seen a lot of wear and tear in her previous life. The engine was in wretched condition, when Patricia left service it was with cracks in the cylinders. So in 2012 she began a thorough restoration, the engine was sent to the local technical institute where students were able to learn how to repair an engine using a good example.

In the meantime, the cab, hood (bonnet) and chassis were undergoing work in Baasrode. This project went a long way, the dismantling and servicing of those parts were successful, however, the project was halted due to other priorities.

Only in 2022 was the project restarted to train the youth and prepare them for upcoming restoration projects. To make Patricia roadworthy, members have to build a compressed air system that Patricia did not originally have, which is compulsory to run passenger trains because one uses compressed air to operate a train's brakes. Also, everything from electricity has to be redrawn and placed, given that all the originals have been removed. Gauges, switches and controls in the cab also have to be recreated.

The association is trying to employ Patricia as soon as possible.