Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. In normal circumstances, the wheels on each end of the axles are connected with coupling rods to form a single driven set.
Other equivalent classifications are:
In the UIC classification used in Europe and in more recent years in simplified form in the United States, an 0-4-0 is classified as B (German/Italian) (if the axles are connected by side rods or gearing) and 020 (French) (independent of axle motoring). (UIC's Bo classification indicates the axles are independently motored, which would be 0-2-2-0 in Whyte notation.)
The terms four-wheeled and four-coupled are often used for 0-4-0 locomotives. These terms also encompass other wheel arrangements: Stephenson's Rocket was an 0-2-2 four-wheeled locomotive, and Forney locomotive 4-4-0s are four-coupled.[1]
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A four-wheeled conguration where all the wheels are driving wheels uses all the locomotive's weight for traction, but is inherently unstable at speed. The type was therefore mainly used for switchers (UK: shunters) 0-4-0 locomotives could either be tank locomotives or tender locomotives, with the former more common in Europe and the latter in the United States, except in the tightest of situations such as that of a shop switcher, where overall length was a concern. The possible tractive effort of an 0-4-0 within normal axle load limits was not enough to move large loads, and so they had largely been superseded for most purposes by 1900. Nevertheless they continued to be used in situations where tighter radius curves existed or the shorter length was an advantage. Thus they were commonly employed in dockyard work, industrial tramways, or as shop switchers.
The wheel arrangement is also used on specialised types such as fireless locomotives, crane tanks, tram engines, and geared steam locomotives. It was also widely used on narrow gauge railways.
Because of the lack of stability, tender engines of this type were only built for a few decades in the UK, although built for a longer period in the USA.
Richard Trevithick's Coalbrookedale (1802), Pen-y-Darren (1804) and Newcastle (1805) locomotives were of the 0-4-0 type, although in their cases the wheels were connected by a single gear wheel. The first 0-4-0 to use coupling rods was Locomotion No. 1 built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. Stephenson also built the Lancashire Witch 1828, and Timothy Hackworth built Sans Pareil which ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. Both of these locomotives later worked on the Bolton and Leigh Railway.
The wheel arrangement was widely used by Edward Bury during the 1840s on the bar-framed locomotives built for the London and Birmingham Railway. However, with the exception of a few isolated examples used by the smaller companies such as the Cambrian Railway, the Furness Railway and the Taff Vale Railway, and four examples by Edward Fletcher (engineer) of the North Eastern Railway (UK) between 1854 and 1868, the 0-4-0 tender locomotive had been largely superseded on Britain's main-line railways by 1850.[2]
In the U.S.A., the Best Friend of Charleston was the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States. It was built for the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company by the West Point Foundry of New York in 1830. The John Bull was built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey in 1831, but was later rebuilt as a 2-4-0. Another early example of the 0-4-0 type was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Atlantic #2 built in 1832 by Phineas Davis and Israel Gartner.
The Pennsylvania Railroad kept producing 0-4-0 classes long after all other major railroads had abandoned development of the type, building their final A5s class into the 1920s. The A5s was a monster among 0-4-0s, larger than many 0-6-0 designs, with modern features found on few others of its type: superheating, power reverse, piston valves, and many others. The Pennsy continued building the type because it had a large number of confined and tight industrial branches, more than most other railroads.
0-4-0 tank engines were introduced in the early 1850s. The type was found to be so useful in many locations that they continued to be built for more than a century and existed until the end of steam.
The tank engine version of the wheel arrangement begins to appear in the early 1850s, with the first significant class being six saddle tanks designed by Robert Sinclair (locomotive engineer) for the Caledonian Railway. By 1860 the type was very popular and continued to be built in significant numbers for both mainline and industrial railways almost to the end of steam traction. Hudswell Clarke were supplying industrial saddle tanks until at least 1947,[3] and both Barclay and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns in 1949.[4] The last British Railways dock shunters were built by Horwich Works as late as 1955 and survived until 1966.
The first locomotive to run in railway service in South Africa was a small standard gauge 0-4-0WT well tank engine named "Natal", manufactured by Carrett, Marshall and Company of Leeds. It made its inaugural run in Durban during the official opening of the first operating railway in South Africa on Tuesday, 26 June 1860.[5][6][7][8][9]
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century a number of 0-4-0ST saddle tank locomotives were imported into South Africa from the UK for use in harbours. These locomotives, which included designs by Black, Hawthorn and Company in 1889 and 1894, Neilson and Company in 1892, the Hunslet Engine Company in 1904, and Hudswell Clarke in 1910, eventually became part of South African Railways (SAR) stock.[10]
In 1900 the British War Office placed two Sirdar class 0-4-0T tank steam locomotives in service on a 600 millimetres (23.62 inches) narrow gauge line near Germiston in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, where the Royal Engineers had established a siege park during the Second Freedom War. The locomotives were built by Kerr, Stuart and Company.[10][11]
At the end of the war the two locomotives were sold to a farmer, who used them on a firewood line between Pienaarsrivier and Pankop until the line and locomotives were taken over by the Central South African Railways. In 1912, when these locomotives were assimilated into the SAR, they were renumbered with an "NG" prefix to their numbers. When a system of grouping narrow gauge locomotives into classes was eventually introduced by the SAR somewhere between 1928 and 1930, they were classified as Class NG1.[10]
The 0-4-0 tank was principally used in the USA for Industrial railway purposes.
Semarang-Cheribon Stoomtram Maatschappij (SCS) imported 27 standard gauge 0-4-0 locomotives of the B52 class 1908-1911, originally to operate services from Kalibrodi-Semarang to Tanggung and Yogyakarta. They were built by Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in Chemnitz, Germany. They were a modern locomotive design for the time, equipped with a superheater. The largest allocation of B52 class locomotives was in Tegal, Central Java for services to Purwokerto. Some were later converted to tram engines and worked in Tegal and Purwokerto. All 27 locomotives were in existence at the end of 1960 but by 1970 only 15 units remained. Two locomotives have been preserved, B5212 at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah Museum of Transport and B5210 at the Railway Museum Ambarawa.
The wheel arrangement was also used on a number of small diesel-mechanical shunters produced by John Fowler & Co. in the 1930s. Similarly, it was perpetuated on a number of diesel-mechanical and diesel-hydraulic classes between 1953 and 1960 (see List of British Rail modern traction locomotive classes. Many of these were later sold for industrial use.
There are 0-4-0 diesel locomotives too, although small in number. The smallest diesel switchers, such as the EMD Model 40, were of this arrangement.
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