The

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

(FS; Italian State Railways) Class 741 is a class of 2-8-0 'Consolidation' steam locomotives, rebuilds from the FS Class 740 with a

Franco-Crosti boiler The Franco–Crosti boiler is a type of boiler used for steam locomotives. It was designed in the 1930s by Attilio Franco and Dr Piero Crosti. The main difference between it and conventional feedwater heaters widely used on the continent is that t ...

; it was the last class of steam locomotives introduced in Italy.

Design

From 1940 the FS had experimented with the Franco-Crosti boiler, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

it had been applied to several locomotives, including 90 Class 740 which were subsequently reclassified as Class 743. These rebuilds all had the preheater arranged in two barrels placed on the sides of the boiler; this arrangement had the disadvantage of subsequently increasing the

axle load An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearin ...

(therefore restricting route availability) and stretching the loading gauge to the limit, and precluded similar attempts from interested parties such as the British Railways. An alternative arrangement had been experimented by the

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...

in 1952 on two DRB Class 42 locomotives, in which the barrels were placed below the boiler, which had been appropriately raised. To accede to BR's entreaties, the ''Società Franco'' studied a similar concept to transform a Class 740 with a single preheater barrel, and a single chimney placed on the right side of the locomotive, to test the concept (which would eventually lead to the ten Franco-Crosti BR Standard Class 9F locomotives). This concept was also interesting for the FS, as it promised to keep down the axle load, while keeping the system's fuel savings. To keep down the cost of transformations, the boiler was left largely unmodified, and only an exhaust

steam injector An injector is a system of ducting and nozzles used to direct the flow of a high-pressure fluid in such a way that a lower pressure fluid is entrained in the jet and carried through a duct to a region of higher pressure. It is a fluid-dynamic ...

was fitted.

Rebuilds

The first locomotive was outshopped from the

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

Porta Vescovo workshop in 1954, and was originally classified as Class 743.433; tests showed that the locomotive's performance was practically the same of the two-barreled Franco-Crosti 743, having a power output of at , to the Class 740's at the same speed, while enjoying a greater route availability. Therefore, in 1958 the FS approved the transformation of a batch of 80 Class 740 locomotives, which were subsequently reclassified as Class 741 (the 743.433 was likewise reclassified as 741.433).

Service

The Class 741 locomotives mainly operated in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and in

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

; they notably operated on the

Pustertal The Puster Valley ( it, Val Pusteria ; german: Pustertal, ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The Sou ...

line, renowned among enthusiasts as one of the last Italian lines where steam locomotives were in regular service, up to the latter half of the 1970s. Withdrawals began in 1968, and ended in the early 1980s.Kalla-Bishop, ibidem

Preservation

Two Class 741 locomotives were preserved: * The 741.120 was restored for mainline use in 2007 and is currently operational. * The 741.137 is a static exhibit at the Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa.

In popular culture

* In ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

'', Lorenzo (

Vincenzo Nicoli Vincenzo Nicoli (born 27 July 1958) is a British actor who appears in film, television and theatre. He is best known for roles in blockbuster films, such as Alan Jude in the 1992 science fiction film '' Alien³'' (1992), Enrico Biscaglia in the ...

) is based on this locomotive.

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{FS locos 741 II 2-8-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1954 Standard gauge locomotives of Italy 1′D h2 locomotives Freight locomotives