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 744 (Italian: ''Gruppo 744)'' is a class of

2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...

steam locomotives; they were the last orthodox steam locomotives built for the FS.

Design and construction

The Class 744 derived from the earlier Class 745 locomotives, with which they shared the boiler and the wheelbase; they were only partially successful, as their inside cylinders (chosen to keep the axle load as low as possible) forced the use of inadequately dimensioned big ends, which tended to run hot. The weight limits had been subsequently relaxed, and a 14.6 tons (later elevated to 14.85 for the Caprotti locomotives) axle load was permitted; this allowed the designers to place the two cylinders outside, avoiding the issue altogether. The first batch of 25 locomotives was outshopped by

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

in 1927, and had

Walschaerts valve gear The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgium, Belgian railway mechanical engineering, engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes name ...

. The subsequent 25 locomotives were built by

Ansaldo Ansaldo Energia S.p.A. is an Italian power engineering company. It is based in Genoa, Italy. The absorbed parent company, Gio. Ansaldo & C., started in 1853. It was taken over by Leonardo S.p.A. In 2011, Leonardo S.p.A. sold 45% stake in An ...

(15) and

Officine Meccaniche Officine Meccaniche or OM was an Italian car and truck manufacturing company. It was founded in 1899 in Milan as Società Anonima Officine Meccaniche to manufacture railway rolling stock and car production began in 1918. It disappeared as s ...

(10) in 1928, and were all fitted with Caprotti valve gear; these were originally classified Class 743, but in 1930 they were reclassified Class 744.1XX.Kalla-Bishop, ibidem

Operations and modifications

Designed for mixed traffic working, the Class 744 was mainly allocated to southern Italy, with eighteen of them stationed at

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

for service on the

Salerno–Reggio di Calabria railway The Salerno–Reggio Calabria railway (known in Italian as the ''ferrovia Tirrenica Meridionale'', literally "the Southern Tyrrhenian railway") is the most important north–south railway connection between Sicily, Calabria and the rest of the I ...

, and a further twenty at

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

and

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

. After the Tyrrhenian line was electrified, some locomotives were transferred to northern Italy, while others were assigned to

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. In 1956 the 744.024 was experimentally fitted with a

Giesl ejector A Giesl ejector is a suction draught system for steam locomotives that works on the same principle as a feedwater injector. This ejector (German: ''Ejektor'', ''Flachschornstein'' or ''Quetschesse'') was invented in 1951 by the Austrian engineer ...

. The Class 744 was completely withdrawn from service in the 1970s.Cornolò, p. 405

Preservation

Two Class 744 locomotives have survived into preservation: * The 744.003, with Walschaerts valve gear, is preserved as a static exhibit at

Cagliari railway station Cagliari is the main railway station of the Italian city of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. It is owned by the ''Ferrovie dello Stato'', the national rail company of Italy, and is the most important station of its region. The station is sometime ...

; * The 744.118, with Caprotti valve gear, was initially kept at the

National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa The National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa ( it, Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa, italic=no) lies beside the Naples–Portici railway, between the city of Naples and the towns of Portici and San Giorgio a Cremano. Pietrarsa is an area am ...

, before being transferred to

Pistoia Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...

, pending a possible restoration to active service for heritage trains.

References

Bibliography

* * {{FS locos 2-8-0 locomotives

744 __NOTOC__ Year 744 ( DCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 744 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...

Railway locomotives introduced in 1928 Standard gauge locomotives of Italy Freight locomotives