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 The Stephenson 0-4-2, 1834 | |||||||||||||||
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Under theWhyte notation for the classification ofsteam locomotives,0-4-2 represents thewheel arrangement with noleading wheels, four powered and coupleddriving wheels on two axles and twotrailing wheels on one axle. While the first locomotives of this wheel arrangement were tender engines, the configuration was later often used fortank engines, which is noted by adding letter suffixes to the configuration, such as0-4-2T for a conventional side-tank locomotive,0-4-2ST for a saddle-tank locomotive,0-4-2WT for a well-tank locomotive and0-4-2RT for arack-equipped tank locomotive.
The earliest recorded0-4-2 locomotives were three goods engines built byRobert Stephenson and Company for theStanhope and Tyne Railway in 1834.[1]
The first locomotive built in Germany in 1838, theSaxonia, was also an0-4-2. In the same yearTodd, Kitson & Laird built two examples for theLiverpool and Manchester Railway, one of which,LMR 57 Lion, has been preserved. The Lion had a top speed of 45 miles per hour (72 kilometres per hour) and could pull up to 200 long tons (203 metric tons; 224 short tons).[2]
Over the next quarter of a century, the type was adopted by many early British railways for freight haulage since it afforded greater adhesion than the contemporary2-2-2 passenger configuration, although in time they were also used formixed-traffic duties.
TheEmperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn) acquired the locomotivesMinotaurus andAjax from the British manufacturerJones, Turner and Evans in 1841, to work the line betweenVienna andStockerau. The locomotiveAjax has been preserved at theVienna Technical Museum since 1992 and is described as the oldest preserved steam locomotive on the European continent.[3]
In Finland, the 0-4-2 wheel arrangement was represented by the Classes B1 and B2.
TheFinnish Steam Locomotive Class B1 is an 0-4-2ST locomotive, built from 1868 to 1890 byBeyer, Peacock and Company at Gorton Foundry inManchester, England.
Although the type was not used by any major railroads in North America,HK Porter and theBaldwin Locomotive Works produced many small tank locomotives of this type for industrial and plantation work. The0-4-2STOlomana, built by Baldwin in 1883, arrived in theKingdom of Hawaii in August 1883 after a two-month journey aroundCape Horn. It was owned by Waimanalo Sugar Company on the island ofOahu and hauled cane from the fields to its refinery.[4][5]
In 1905, theNederlandsch Indische SpoorwegMaatschappij (NIS) opened a line betweenYogyakarta andAmbarawa viaMagelang to facilitate the mobilization ofRoyal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) forces from Fort Willem I, line between Secang–Kedungjati passed a hilly region which requiringrack railway because of the 6.5% gradients. So, the NIS ordered 5 units of 0-4-2RTs wood burning NIS Class 230s that were came in 1902 and 1906 fromMaschinenfabrik Esslingen,Germany.[6] They were four-cylindercompound locomotives with two of the cylinders working thepinion wheels.
DuringJapanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, all of Dutch East Indies railways locomotives had been renumbered, for all NIS Class 230s were changed to B25, from five of them only three left. There are two examples of B25 class locomotive still in operation, namely B25-02 and B25-03. Both were based inAmbarawa, where they have served for more than a hundred years. Locomotive B25-01 may also still be found as static display at the entrance to theAmbarawa Railway Museum.
On the island ofSumatra, there are some larger cousins of this class being used for hauling coal trains, namely the D18 and E10 classes.
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The 0-4-2T arrangement was used by twoclasses of locomotives operated by theNew Zealand Railways Department. The first was theC class of 1873, originally built as an0-4-0T. The class was found to be unstable at speeds higher than 15 mph (24 km/h), so by 1880 all members of the class had been converted to 0-4-2T to rectify this problem.
The second and more notable 0-4-2T class, and the only one actually built as 0-4-2T, was the uniqueH class designed to operate theRimutaka Incline on theWairarapa Line. The incline's steep gradient necessitated the use of theFell mountain railway system, and the six members of the H class spent their entire lives operating trains on the Incline. Except for a few brief experiments with other classes, the H class had exclusive use of the Incline from their introduction in 1875 until the Incline's closure in 1955. Class leader, H 199, is preserved on static display at theFell Engine Museum inFeatherston and is the only extant Fell locomotive in the world.
The 0-4-2T arrangement was also employed for steam locomotives operated by small private industrial railways andbush and mineral tramways. One such locomotive, built byPeckett and Sons in 1957, is currently operational on the Heritage Park Railway, Whangarei. It is one of four such locomotives imported from Peckett, and was the last steam locomotive imported into New Zealand beforedieselization.
Two others worked alongside her and are preserved, whilst the fourth was owned by a forestry railway, who converted it to a diesel locomotive.
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In September 1859, Messrs. E. & J. Pickering, contractors to the Cape Town Railway & Dock Company for the construction of the Cape Town-Wellington Railway, imported a small0-4-0S steam locomotive from England for use during the construction of the railway. This was the first locomotive in South Africa. Inc. 1874, the locomotive was rebuilt to a0-4-2T configuration before it was shipped toPort Alfred, where it served as construction locomotive on the banks of the Kowie river and wasnicknamedBlackie. It has been declared aheritage object and was plinthed in the main concourse of Cape Town station.[7][8]
In 1860, the Cape Town Railway & Dock Company took delivery ofeight standard gauge tender locomotives with an0-4-2 wheel arrangement for service on theCape Town-Wellington Railway, which was still under construction. They remained in service on this line while it was beingconverted todual standard-and-Cape gauges from around 1872 and were only retired in 1881, when sufficient Cape gauge locomotives were in service.[7]
Two3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)Cape gauge tank engine classes of this wheel arrangement were supplied to theNederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM) by Maschinenfabriek Esslingen and Breda, Nederland between 1890 and 1894.[9]
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Between 1897 and 1901, several 0-4-2 saddle tank steam locomotives, built for600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge byDickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton in Pennsylvania, were delivered to various gold mines on the Witwatersrand byArthur Koppel, acting as importing agents. In 1915, when an urgent need arose for additional locomotives inDeutsch-Südwest-Afrika duringWorld War I, two of these0-4-2ST locomotives were purchased second-hand by the SAR for use on the narrow gauge lines in that territory. The two locomotives remained in South West Africa after the war and were later designatedClass NG2 on the SAR.[9][11][12]
The Namaqua Copper Company's first2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge locomotive, acquired in 1901, was aDick, Kerr & Co. built0-4-2STnamedPioneer which was rebuilt from the0-4-0ST configuration, possibly due to the additional weight of fuel tanks which were installed under the cab when it was converted to use fuel oil. The company also operated four more0-4-2T locomotives, one 9 Ton and three 12 Ton, possibly also acquired from Dick, Kerr & Company.[13]
In 1904, a single2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge0-4-2IST locomotivenamedCaledonia was placed in service by the Cape Copper Company as a shunting engine atO'okiep in the Cape Colony.[13]
In 1905, the Cape Copper Company also placed a single0-4-2T locomotivenamedBritannia in service as a shunting engine atPort Nolloth in the Cape Colony.[13]
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From the mid-1860s onwards, the0-4-2 wheel arrangement tended only to be used on tank engines in the United Kingdom. Exceptions were in Scotland on theCaledonian andGlasgow and South Western railways and in southern England on theLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and theLondon and South Western Railway. The LB&SCR uniquely built express passenger0-4-2 tender classes until 1891.
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From 1868, the Great Western Railway built a number ofstandard gauge0-4-2T classes forbranch line passenger work to a design known as the517 class byengineer George Armstrong. This design was developed until theGWR 1400 Class was built between 1932 and 1936, designed forpush-pull autotrains. These were the last British examples of this wheel arrangement. Four of them have been preserved.
William Stroudley of the LB&SCR built four very successful0-4-2 classes, three tenders and one tank, between 1873 and 1891. The first of these was his powerfulD-tank for suburban passenger work. By 1887, 125 of these had been built, some of which survived in service until 1951. However, the most famous0-4-2 class were hisGladstone class express passenger locomotives, the first of which has been preserved.
The Caspar, South Fork & Eastern Railroad used locomotive number two "Daisey", an 1885 Baldwin0-4-2T locomotive hauling if its logging operations in its early days (Baldwin builder number 7558). That locomotive still survives and is on display next to the Skunk Train depot on Laurel Street in Fort Bragg.
Viewing the locomotive is free to the public in the little mall next door to the train depot. There is also an18 in (457 mm) gauge0-4-0T locomotive on display. That locomotive isCalifornia Western Railroad locomotive number 1 (was assembled in 1875 by a smaller locomotive manufacture, but serial numbers on the frame point to the Baldwin locomotive works).
Media related to0-4-2 locomotives at Wikimedia Commons