4-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading truck), eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. The type was nicknamed the Mastodon or Twelve-wheeler in North America. Mastodon (No. 229) was the unofficial name of Central Pacific Railroad's first 4-8-0, which was built in 1882 at the Sacramento Locomotive Works.
Other equivalent classifications are:
UIC classification: 2′D (also known as German classification and Italian classification)
French classification: 240
Turkish classification: 46
Swiss classification: 4/6
Russian classification: 2-4-0
The very first 4-8-0 is believed to be the Centipede, a "Winans Camel" built in 1855 for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. It entered service in 1864 and ran on the B&O for nearly 20 years.[1]
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[edit] Australasia
[edit] Australia
The 4-8-0 saw service in Australia from 1900.
In Tasmania the privately owned Emu Bay Railway ordered 4 4-8-0 tendered locomotives for their narrow gauge (1,066 mm/3 ft 6.0 in) system[2]. In 1910 another locomotive was delivered from the now reformed North British Coy. Two examples of these engines are preserved.
Initially designed in South Australia for use on the South Australian Railways (SAR) narrow gauge (1,066 mm/3 ft 6.0 in) system, a new class of 4-8-0 engine proved suitable workhorses and by 1917 there were seventy-eight locomotives in the class[2]. During 1922–23 five of the class were converted to state's broad gauge system (1,600 mm/5 ft 3 in) and then converted back to narrow gauge in 1949. In 1921–22 the Tasmanian Government purchased six of the narrow gauge SAR locomotives. During the Second World War the Commonwealth Railways also obtained four of the SAR narrow gauge 4-8-0s for a period. Several ex-SAR engines are preserved.
In Queensland, Queensland Government Railways (QGR) introduced the C16 class of 4-8-0 of locomotives in 1903[2]. A total of 152 engines were in service by 1917. During the Second World War (1939–45) the Commonwealth Government acquired eleven C16s on loan. Only one example of this class was preserved. From 1920, the QGR 4-8-0s were progressively re-designated to the C17 class as superheaters were installed. In total, the C17 class included 227 members. The Commonwealth Railways also ordered 22 engines of the same class for their narrow gauge rail system. Twenty examples of the class are preserved.
In 1922 QGR ordered 22 new 4-8-0s and designated them as the C19 class[2].
[edit] New Zealand
New Zealand's first 4-8-0 was built in the Addington Railway Workshops in 1899 and classified B class. Four more were completed the same year, and one more in 1901. Sharp Stewart and Company built four more over the next two years. Ten BA class locomotives were built at Addington between 1911 and 1913; and 30 BB class locomotives were built by A & G Price in New Zealand between 1915 and 1918. 1 BB class locomotive and 1 BA class locomotive have been preserved (BA 552 and BB 144). Both are at Mainline Steam's Parnell Depot in Auckland.
[edit] Europe
[edit] Austria
In Austria, the 4-8-0 wheel arrangement was used for express locomotives. The Class 570 locomotive was introduced in 1915 and the Austrian Federal Railways' class 113 locomotive was introduced in 1923. From 1938, both classes were re-designated as Class 33 under the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
[edit] Britain and Ireland
In the United Kingdom, there were two classes of 4-8-0 tank locomotives, both built for hump shunting. Ten were built by the North Eastern Railway in 1909–10, designated NER Class X (later LNER Class T1), to which the LNER added a further five in 1925. These had three cylinders, following Robinson's 0-8-4 design for the Great Central.[3] The London and South Western Railway also built four G16 class two-cylinder machines in 1921 to Urie's design for Feltham marshalling yard.[4] The Great Southern and Western Railway in Ireland similarly had a small class of inside-cylinder shunting machines.
Both the London Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway however contemplated 4-8-0 tender freight engines, but these never materialised.[5]
[edit] France
In France this wheel arrangement came into use twice. The first was in 1907, for the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée. They were intended for both for goods trains, and passenger trains on difficult routes. They were Baudry type compounds, which was similar to the de Glehn type, but the low pressure cylinders were fixed at 60% cut-off. All were originally saturated, but some later had superheaters; all others were provided with feedwater heaters. These locomotives had a speed limit of 52.8 mph, and were designed to hail 1,177 long tons at 22.4 mph. A total of 282 were built. The PLM had prepared designs for another, much larger 4-8-0 in about 1913, but nothing materialized due to the outbreak of World War I.
The second appeared was the famous 240P, 2-4-0 referring to the number and arrangement of axles rather than wheels. These machines were technically rebuilds of some of the earliest Pacifics in Europe, built for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans. The 240P was considered to be one of André Chapelon's finest works and benefited from his thorough understanding of thermodynamics and his appreciation of the need to consider the entirety of the steam circuit. The locomotive was a 4-cylinder compound fitted with Lentz-Dabeg poppet valves. With a power output of 4700 horsepower[6] the 240P was reported to have the highest power-to-weight ratio of any steam locomotive. Discussion continues as to how robust they were mechanically - whether the size of the bearings was too near the bone, or whether they were simply worked to death during the difficult war years. Coupled with the elegant French style tender the second batch at least was also a very aesthetic locomotive. Unfortunately none have survived into preservation.
[edit] Hungary
MAV (Hungarian Railways) adopted the 4-8-0 type as their standard mixed-traffic locomotive in the shape of the 424 class which was built between 1924 and 1958. Of these 365 were built for Hungary, and 149 for foreign systems, including Yugoslavia, the USSR and North Korea. The last of the Hungarian examples were withdrawn from service in 1984.
[edit] Spain
RENFE, the Spanish rail system nationalised in 1938, inherited 4-8-0s from the Madrid, Zaragoza and Alicante Railway, and continued to construct the class as standard. The last survivors, all oil-burners, were concentrated at Salamanca shed around 1970.
[edit] Soviet Union
In Soviet Union 4-8-0 were the first passenger locomotives built by the new state. They were represented by one hundred M-class locomotives built by Putilov Works in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in 1927. Initially built as a 3-cylinder machines they were later rebuilt as a 2-cylinder ones and re-designated as Mr (Мр in Cyrillic). The M series were not considered a great success.
[edit] Africa
[edit] South Africa
Locomotives of the 4-8-0 wheel arrangement used in South Africa included the following:
- The Cape Government Railways (CGR) Class 7 and Class 8, later South African Railways (SAR) Class 7 and 8.
- The Natal Government Railways (NGR) Class Hendrie B, later SAR Class 1.
- The SAR also created the Class 13 by rebuilding the Central South African Railways (CSAR) Class H1 and H2 4-8-2T.
- In 1926 twenty-one ex NGR Class A 4-8-2T locomotives, known as the "Improved Dübs A" on the NGR or “Class A Belpaire” on the SAR, were rebuilt to Class 17 4-8-0 tender locomotives.
[edit] North America
In the United States the 4-8-0 was essentially a freight locomotive—a marginal development of the 2-8-0. Most US 4-8-0s were built in the late 19th century or early 20th century, but the type never achieved great popularity, although there were four occasions where a 4-8-0 was claimed as the "heaviest and/or most powerful locomotive in the world." Those locomotives were Lehigh Valley #20 "Champion" of 1880, Central Pacific #229 "Mastodon" of 1882, Great Northern's G5 class of 1897, and Illinois Central #640 of 1899[1]. It is worth noting that the G5's had 16-inch-diameter (410 mm) piston valves (most railways used slide valves until superheating caused lubrication difficulties), which was as large as the cylinders on some other locomotives.[7] The wide-firebox 2-8-2 Mikado had much more potential as far as speed but the Norfolk & Western's (N&W) class M 4-8-0s needed the short wheelbase and 4-wheel lead or engine truck for stability and the ability to have over 90 percent of the engine's weight on the driving wheels. N&W's class M2 4-8-0s were the largest 4-8-0s built and many lasted into the 1950s. Two were even converted into a high-availability, low-maintenance automatic type locomotive for switching (shunting) service.
[edit] References
- Marsden, Richard. The Worsdell Class T1 4-8-0 Tank Locomotives. Retrieved on April 27, 2005.
- 4-8-0 Locomotives maintained by Wes Barris
- ^ a b Carling, D. Rock (1972). 4-8-0 Tender Locomotives. Drake Publishers Inc.. ISBN 87749-150-X.
- ^ a b c d Oberg, Leon (1975). Locomotives of Australia. Sydney, New South Wales: Reed Books. ISBN 0589071734.
- ^ Boddy, M.G.; Brown, W.A.; Fry, E.V.; Hennigan, W.; Hoole, K.; Manners, F.; Neve, E.; Platt, E.N.T. et al (June 1977). Fry, E.V.. ed. Part 9B: Tank Engines - Classes Q1 to Z5. Locomotives of the L.N.E.R.. Kenilworth: RCTS. p. 29. ISBN 0 901115 41 X.
- ^ Bradley, D.L. (1967). Locomotives of the L.S.W.R.: Part 2. Kenilworth: RCTS. pp. 189–190.
- ^ Cox, Locomotive Panorama, Volume 1; Holcroft, Locomotive Adventure, Volume 1
- ^ http://thierry.stora.free.fr/english/techdat2.htm
- ^ 4-8-0 Locomotives maintained by Wes Barris
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