| FS Class 910 RS Class 400 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 FS Class 910 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
FS Class 910 were 2-6-2 tank locomotives designed by Guglielmo Cappa for Rete Sicula where they were registered as RS Class 400. They were absorbed by Italian State Railways (FS) in 1905 and became FS Class 910.
With the conventions of 1885, Rete Sicula took over the lines of Società per le Strade Ferrate Calabro-Sicule and had to face the problems of constructing new lines and introducing modern locomotives. The engineer Guglielmo Cappa designed the Class 400 steam locomotives which were re-registered as FS Class 910 on nationalization in 1905. The locomotive was designed to tackle steeply-graded lines, such as Messina - Palermo with its pass of the Peloritani Mountains and its long tunnel. It also had to be suitable for minor local or commuter services and to have the characteristic of bidirectionality, to gain time at terminal stations by avoiding the need for turntables.
The choice was a 2-6-2T which allowed the same speed in both directions of travel. The locomotives were built by Ansaldo of Sampierdarena and deliveries took place during the passage of the Sicula Network to the FS. In 1906 a specimen was exhibited at the Milan Exposition. The first delivery was of 6 locomotives registered by the Sicula network as RS 401-406. Later deliveries were numbered in the FS 91xx series from the start. The entire group became concentrated in Milan for suburban services and those in Sicily were transferred to Milan. Over the years, they underwent small changes and continued to perform good service in the locomotive depots of Milano Centrale and Pavia for the service on the lines from Milan to Bergamo, Como, Lecco and Voghera.
In 1929 the 910.042 was experimentally converted to a Diesel-Zarlatti locomotive. This had a diesel engine and compressed-air transmission, using the original steam cylinders. It was not a great success and had no practical follow-up. [1]
During World War II, some locomotives were used for operations in Yugoslavia and seven of them remained there permanently at the end of the war, incorporated by the Yugoslavian Railways (JZ).
The locomotives used saturated steam and compound expansion. The high-pressure cylinder was on the left, with piston valves, and the low-pressure cylinder was on the right, with a slide valve. Outside Walschaerts valve gear was used.
The locomotive frame was carried on three coupled axles and two one-axle trucks, of the Adams type, at the two ends. This made the locomotive stable, even at high speeds, both in forward and reverse. The boiler had 222 fire tubes, increased to 226 in the second ordering series. Despite being a tank engine, the locomotive carried 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of coal and 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) of water.
A modification carried out from the second series onwards was the increase in the diameter of the carrying wheels from 830 to 960 mm (33 to 38 in) and the replacement of the Nathan lubrication system with a Friedmann lubrication pump. The locomotive was equipped with a compressed air brake and a proportional brake. It was also equipped for steam heating of the train.
Number 910.001 was restored and is at the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa.
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels.
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes also enjoyed a brief period of adoption in the United States, primarily on narrow-gauge railroads. Their limitations caused them to be progressively superseded by compressed air systems starting in the United Kingdom from the 1970s onward. The vacuum brake system is now obsolete; it is not in large-scale usage anywhere in the world, other than in South Africa, largely supplanted by air brakes.
Main components found on a typical steam locomotive include:
An automatic lubricator is a device fitted to a steam engine to supply lubricating oil to the cylinders and, sometimes, the bearings and axle box mountings as well. There are various types of automatic lubricator, which include various designs of displacement, hydrostatic and mechanical lubricators.
The steam locomotives of Alsace-Lorraine Class B 1 were procured by the Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine in 1871. In 1906 they were reorganised into Class P 1.
The Saxon Class XVIII was a German six-coupled tender locomotive built for the Royal Saxon State Railways in 1917/18 for express train services. The Deutsche Reichsbahn grouped them in 1925 into DRG Class 18.0.
The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Friedrich-Franz Railway grouped early, 2-4-0, passenger train locomotives from the Friedrich-Franz Railway into its Class III.
The Central South African Railways Rack 4-6-4RT of 1905 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in Transvaal Colony.
The Ferrovie dello Stato Class 685 is a class of 2-6-2 'Prairie' express train steam locomotives. These are colloquially known as Regine, mirroring their fame as one of the most successful and appreciated Italian steam locomotives.
The Rete Adriatica Class 500, classified after 1905 in the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane as Class 670 was an unorthodox and iconic cab forward 4-6-0 (2'C) steam locomotive.
The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Class 746 is a class of 2-8-2 'Mikado' steam locomotive. These were the biggest locomotives ever built by the Ferrovie dello Stato, even though not the fastest, which were the Class 691s.
The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Class 310, formerly Rete Mediterranea Class 380, was a 0-6-0 steam locomotive; they were the first Italian as-built compound locomotives.
The Ferrovia della Valtellina is a railway line in Italy that runs from Lecco to Valtellina and Valchiavenna. It was opened in 1894 and electrified on the three-phase system in 1902. It is now electrified at 3 kV direct current and operated by Trenord.
The FS Class E.430 locomotives, initially classed as RA 34, were three-phase alternating current electric locomotives of the Italian railways. They were built for Ferrovia della Valtellina by Ganz and MÁVAG in 1901 and had a power output of 440 kW and a haulage capacity of 300 tons. One locomotive is preserved.
FS Class 170 was a class of 2-4-0 steam locomotives acquired by Italian State Railways (FS) from Rete Mediterranea (RM) on nationalization in 1905.
Rete Sicula referred to all the railway lines in operation and under construction in Sicily which, following the 1885 Conventions, was assigned to the Società per le strade ferrate della Sicilia for operation.
FS Class 400 were steam locomotives of French construction, built for service in Italy. They were 0-8-0 tender locomotives with two outside cylinders.
FS Class 410 were 0-8-0 steam locomotives which the Italian State Railways (FS) acquired from Rete Sicula on nationalization in 1906.
Guglielmo Cappa was an Italian engineer who became Head of the Material and Traction Service of the newly formed Italian State Railways (FS) in 1905.
Class 851 locomotives were a class of steam locomotives of the Italian State Railways (FS).