Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-6-4 locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. The wheel arrangement was usually used on tank locomotives, with two exceptions.
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Other equivalent classifications are:
The earliest known example was the South African Class 6 2-6-4 designed by Cape Government Railways (CGR) Chief Locomotive Superintendent H.M. Beatty in 1903.[1]
Two Austrian express locomotives were also of the same type: the Class 210 of 1908 and Class 310 of 1911, both designed by Karl Gölsdorf. The type was therefore sometimes known as the Adriatic arrangement, named for the Adriatic Sea which bordered Austria-Hungary until 1918.
2-6-4T tank engines were produced for many different railway systems worldwide for suburban passenger and freight working. They have been less successful on express passenger trains.
Six 2-6-4T locomotives were ordered by the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway (PPR) from Beyer, Peacock and Company in 1897 and 1900. In 1912 they became the South African Railways (SAR) Class D.[2]
In 1901 the CGR placed four Class 6 2-6-2 steam locomotives in service, built by Neilson, Reid and Company, that were soon modified to a 2-6-4 "Adriatic" wheel arrangement. In 1902 another four were placed in service, built with the 2-6-4 wheel arrangement. In 1912, when they were assimilated into the SAR, later renamed Spoornet and eventually Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), they were all renumbered and reclassified to Class 6Z.[2][3]
Ferrymead Railway, Christchurch, New Zealand has a 42 inch (1067 mm) gauge 2-6-4T that was in regular operation until recently taken off-line for boiler repairs. It was built by Baldwin in 1901.[4]
The New Zealand Government Railways Wf class was built between 1903 and 1928 and was a general purpose tank design. It was used all over New Zealand, and also ran as the Tasmanian Government Railways Ds class. Three survived for preservation, including:
The first British examples of the 2-6-4T type were two locomotives built for the narrow-gauge Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway in 1904; the first standard-gauge (1,435 mm/4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) examples were the class 1B of the Great Central Railway built in 1914.[5]
Richard Maunsell of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) designed the K class in 1914 for express passenger duties, and later introduced a 3-cylinder variant K1 class for he Southern Railway in 1925. These locomotives proved to be unsteady at speed, and following the Sevenoaks railway accident in 1927 they were rebuilt as 2-6-0 tender locomotives. Maunsell did however use the type more successfully for his W class freight locomotives of 1930.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR) built nearly 500 2-6-4Ts for suburban passenger work to four similar designs between 1927 and 1947 (see LMS/BR Class 4 2-6-4T locomotives. The last of these, the LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T, continued to be built by British Railways until 1951. George Ivatt of the LMS also built eighteen examples of a very similar design at Derby Works, for use in Northern Ireland between 1946 and 1950. These later became the Northern Counties Committee WT class.
Fairburn's LMSR design also formed the basis of the very successful BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T which continued to be produced until 1957.
A prototype of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) L1 class designed by Edward Thompson was built in 1945. The remaining 99 members of the class were built under British Railways during the period 1948-1950.
Two Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) Class 66 locomotives designed for fast goods train and passenger train were built in 1955 as part of the DB's Neubaulok construction programme. They were both withdrawn in 1968, one has been preserved.
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