The

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane 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 estate ...

(FS; Italian State Railways) Class 940 (Italian: ''Gruppo 940'') is a

2-8-2 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 two trailing wheel ...

steam

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

, derived from the Class 740 tender locomotive.

Design

The Class 940 was designed for the

Apennine mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

railways, and especially for the

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

- Sulmona-

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

line, an important coast-to-coast railway that presented steep gradients (up to 2.7%); until then those had been served by

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

locomotives such as the FS Class 851, that had become inadequate for the increasing needs. Therefore, it was decided to build a locomotive with eight driving wheels, by adapting the frames, the boiler and the engine of the Class 740 to a tank design, also adding a trailing wheel to the wheelbase to enable the new design to run well backwards as well as forwards. The locomotives were built from 1922 to 1924 by the

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 ...

Reggiane Officine Meccaniche Reggiane SpA (commonly referred to as ''Reggiane'') was an Italian industrial manufacturer and aviation company. Reggiane was founded during 1904 by its parent company Caproni, which was in turn owned by the aeronautical eng ...

and the Officine Meccaniche e Navali di Napoli, for a total of 50.

Service and modifications

Initially, most of the class was allocated to the Sulmona shed for service on the trans-apennine railway; 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 opposin ...

(in which four locomotives ended up remaining in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

n territory, and being taken up by the

Yugoslav Railways Yugoslav Railways ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Jugoslavenske željeznice/Jugoslovenske železnice, Југославенске жељезнице/Југословенске железнице; mk, Југословенски железници; sl, Jugoslovans ...

as JŽ 118 001-4), the Class was dispersed in many sheds throughout Italy. Since 1968 improved draughting and a larger chimney were fitted. In 1951 three locomotives identical to the Class 940 but built in 1924 for the ', numbered 941–943, were taken over by the FS, when the company was absorbed, and were given the running numbers from 940.051 to 940.053, therefore bringing to 53 the nominal total for the class. The Class 940 was a successful design, that remained in service till the end of regular steam services on the FS network, mostly for freight service but also for passenger trains and heavy shunting duties.

Preservation

Eighteen Class 940 survived into preservation; currently, only the 041 and the 006 are operational and available for heritage trains, while others (such as the 022 and the 036) are undergoing maintenance.

References

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

940 Year 940 ( CMXL) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * The tribe of the Polans begins the construction of the following fortified settlements (Gie ...

Reggiane locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1922 Standard gauge locomotives of Italy Freight locomotives