The Ukraine is the last country with a large TU2-fleet in regular service. In fact the Ukrainian State Railways still uses almost exclusively class TU2s on her three remaining narrow gauge lines.
The Ukraine is the last country with a large TU2-fleet in regular service. In fact the Ukrainian State Railways still uses almost exclusively class TU2s on her three remaining narrow gauge lines.
The information on the Ukraine is divided in the following chapters:
MPS-lines in the Carpathian-Ukraine
The MPS-system of Antonivka in the West-Ukraine
The MPS-system of Gajvoron in the Central-Ukraine
Other MPS-lines in the Central-Ukraine
Industrial- and forestry railways
Pioneer railways
Dieselisation took place relatively late in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian narrow gauge lines used class GR steam locomotives on a large scale. When the class TU2 was produced, the class GR was only a few years old. The GR met the needs of these lines quite good and apparently it was decided not to replace them by diesel locomotives. Only 18 TU2s seem to have been supplied to the Ukraine directly from the factory.
Until the early 1970s the Ukrainian lines remained mainly steam operated. But then the Margutsek system in Siberia and the narrow gauge network in Estonia and Northern-Latvia were closed. These lines had dozens of TU2s and a large number of them came to the Ukraine. Thus the majority of the Ukrainian class TU2s can be considered to be second hand locomotives.
A total of 57 class TU2s could be identified on the narrow gauge public, forestry and industrial lines in the Ukraine. Today 21 TU2s are still in regular service:
In the past TU2s also worked on the state railways Vapnjarka - Jampol and Novopoltavka - Vladimirovka as well as on a number of industrial and forestry railways.
