Because of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the creation of the modern state of Turkey, most of the week was a public holiday. As a consequence a lot of people would be traveling by train, and we therefore decided to travel by car. Not only would this avoid the crowded trains it allowed us to see the southwest of the country, where there were few railways. It also permitted us to visit places along the way, both railway and historical, including the depot at Eskisehir, approximately halfway between Ankara and Istanbul. The depot was adjacent to the works, where the TCDD built its locomotives, but we were unable to visit there. The roundhouse was visible from the railway station and was home to various class DH7000 ‘Yunus Emre’, DE11000, and DE24000 locomotives. However it was what was behind the roundhouse that was interesting, as among the lines of stored locomotives were examples of classes DE18000 and 44100. The former were built by the nearby works as a lightweight version of the class DE24000, but only five were built before production ceased and was replaced by the DE18100 class. The latter were supplied in 1953 for the Mersin-Taurus-Adana line, with six being produced by MAK of Germany. Returning to the roundhouse I was offered a ride on DE24163 as it was moved out of its stall. The engine was picked because of its clean condition, having apparently just come off the nearby works. However despite the best efforts of the crew they cannot coax the engine into life and we transferred to an equally immaculate DE24203, which fortunately started. The next railway station we stopped at was Kutahya, where a DE24000 had just arrived. We jumped out of the car and took a couple of photos, unaware that we had attracted the attention of the railway security guards. Despite the language barrier they were able to inform us that photography was forbidden, apparently the TCDD had recently prohibited photography of the railways in response to the threat of terrorist action by the Kurdish Workers Party. At the next town, Tavşanlı, we were more cautious, asking for permission to photograph the steam engine on display at the station, which was granted. We continued our journey west and arrived at Balikesir, where we were allowed to look around the depot, photographing an old railcar that was in storage. We also photographed a 2-10-2 steam engine on display near the station as well as a diesel locomotive switching a train. However we soon realized that the train was hauling military equipment and decided to depart before attracting attention. We did not arrive in Soma until after dark and were therefore unable to photograph the five steam locomotives parked adjacent to the station. After several more hours of driving we arrived at our hotel in Izmir and after dinner walked to Basmane station. The number of platforms had recently been reduced due to the construction of the Izmir Metro, with the result that no sooner had a train arrived than a switcher was attached to the rear and pulled it out of the platform. Before we walked back to the hotel a reminder of the next day’s significance arrived from Bandirma, with a blue DE24199 displaying a decorated headboard displaying the special seventy-fifth anniversary Turkish flag across the front of the engine.
