Kattensloot Drawbridge

Hi all, show this picture really enlarged on your screens,
Just another nice picture of the old Kattensloot railway drawbridges in Amsterdam. As can be seen the railway lines are not yet electrified, which puts this photograph in the years before 1927. The clothing of people on the streets as well as the lack of motorised vehicles (one bus, probably the one from Centraal Station to Sloterdijk, coming our way) bear out this date as well. Notice the electric tramlines with the rather fancy masts that carry the wires. These days this is the terminating point at the Prinseneiland of tram number 3, which for the 16 years I lived in the city I could see (and hear) coming past from my third floor apartment in Bosboom Toussaintstraat. The Amsterdam tram had been electrified between 1900 and 1906, which puts the year of this picture having been made between 1906 and 1927. Going by that modernist Art Deco building, however, but also by the lack of any sign of the coming electrification of the railway, my bet is the second half of the 1910’s to the first half of the 1920’s. I don’t actually know what that rather nice Art Deco building next to the railway line is, to the left of the viaduct across the road; for all I know it might still be there, as the city was not much damaged during WWII. It did, however, suffer from a few crass “modernisation” urges by those in charge during the fifties and sixties, which might have cut short its happy life into the 21st Century.
Turn left after the viaduct ahead of you and you’re heading for the Prins Hendrikkade and Centraal Station. On a boat one could take a starboard turn just after the bridge (you can actually see the entrance under the drawbridge) and then enter the Haarlemmer trekvaart, the old canal towards the city of Haarlem from the long gone days when the inter-city public transport was provided by (in this case frequent) horse-drawn barges (to draw = trekken in Dutch. A vaart is a navigable stretch of water, usually a canal). Passed the bit under this bridge quite a few times in my days as tourist guide on those glass-topped tourist launches, invariably doing specials. The Kattensloot and the Singelgracht following from it were not on the normal one-hour routes. If, incidentally, you’d still sail on and then bear right into the Kostverlorenvaart and then the Schinkel you’d pass A) the Western end of the Vondelpark and then you are well on your way to the Nieuwe Meer and Ringvaart, along which you’d B) get close to Schiphol Airport. On turning into the Nieuwe Meer toward the Ringvaart there was, unfortunately, a very low bridge that could only be passed on the condition that no-one would lift his or her head higher than the roof of the boat, for which reason standard practice was to use the public address system for some stringent advice on the subject. We once had a job taking a group of US visitors to the airport this way and one gent unfortunately started his long flight home with a rather an interesting collection of bandaging and sticking plasters covering his pate. And, I would imagine, quite a lively headache as well. In the sunny and warm weather the two sliding roof hatches had been opened and he had been just that bit too eager to take a picture of the undoubtedly scenic stretch of the Nieuwe Meer through the Amsterdam Forest (well, forest) ahead. I still am singularly grateful his head did not end up between the roof of the boat and the underside of the bridge. Can’t stand blood, let alone someone’s brain matter to be inspected by all and sundry.
And oh yes, there is a steam locomotive with a gleaming brass steam dome (without the formerly officially prescribed Ramsbottom safety valve on top, but with a just visible Coale safety valve in front of the cab) approaching from the right along the Northern inbound track. Spotting something shiny against the smokebox under the chimney (the steam bell for use on branch lines) and looking at the proportions of the machine, it is a 1915 vintage, Werkspoor Amsterdam built, 2’B2′ (4-4-4) tank locomotive (tenderlocomotief), formerly HSM Holland Railway 806-812 but from 1917 onward NS Netherlands Railways series 5806-5812, doing its last miles with a local from Zaandam to Amsterdam Centraal and maybe beyond. After the 1917 merger all six were based at Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Weesperpoort sheds only, and that would put this picture after 1917 but before 1927. Also because, following electrification, they all were farmed out to depots well away from Amsterdam. Funny to see that thin ragged cloud of rising smoke from the funnel, as if the fireman is putting coal on before the stop at CS. Maybe that is what is happening, to ensure the coal is burning hot and fairly free of smoke before stopping under the train shed at CS. This ensures there’s enough pressure available to get away, without filling the station with dense and acrid smoke before departure. Enjoyed watching the fireman on a Great Western “Castle” class 2’C (ten-wheeler or 4-6-0) go wrong at Temple Meads on this issue and smoke out the train shed whilst doing some shunting. That was either bad coal or a bad fireman.
I am intrigued by the why and what of those shapes protruding from the left margin. And no graffiti; what a relief! Just what looks like remains of posters against the bridge.