FS Class 691
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Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (; ; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the initialism FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate services and other services in ...
(FS; Italian State Railways) Class 691 () is a class of
4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomoti ...
'Pacific' locomotives; they were the fastest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built for the Italian railways.


Origin

By the end of the 1920s the FS were considering the possibility of building a new class of Pacific locomotives for mainline express duties; the existing Class 690 ones were poor steamers (because of the small firebox) and therefore not being successful (with the much lighter Class S.685
2-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Prairie. Overview The maj ...
locomotives having the same performance as them). This class, which should have been the Class 695, would have had however a very high axle load (as much as ), which would have required strengthening of the lines they were supposed to serve; as electrification was becoming more and more prominent, such an expense was considered unwarranted. Therefore, a less ambitious plan, which involved rebuilding the Class 690 locomotives (and which would have entailed a lower axle load), was approved. The boiler of the Class 690 was replaced by the one fitted on the Class 746 locomotives; the trailing axle was replaced by a
Bissel truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...
, to sustain the weight of the new, larger firebox, and a Nielebock-Knorr pre-heater was added. The 33 locomotives were rebuilt, part by the FS workshops, and part by the
Ernesto Breda Ernesto, form of the name Ernest in several Romance languages, may refer to: * Ernesto (novel), ''Ernesto'' (novel) (1953), an unfinished autobiographical novel by Umberto Saba, published posthumously in 1975 ** Ernesto (film), ''Ernesto'' (film), ...
company. Initially, they would have received the same tender designed for the Class 695, but in the end an enlarged version of the standard FS bogie tender was fitted.


Operation

The Class 691 served on the
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-
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(up to 1938, when the line was electrified) and the Milan-
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mainlines throughout their careers, pulling the heaviest and fastest express trains. Three of them were destroyed or irreparably damaged in the years of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. After the electrification of the Milan-Venice railway in the spring of 1957, some locomotives remained active for some time on the Venice-
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line, but by the early 1960s they were all withdrawn. The 691.011 scored the speed record, between the stations of
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and
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, for the Italian steam locomotives, with .


Modifications

In 1939, the 691.026 was given a streamlined casing, which was unsuccessful; by 1946 the casing had already been removed. In 1943, the 691.004 was fitted with a smoke deflector with bad results.


Preservation

Only one locomotive of the class survived into preservation, the 691.022, which is a static exhibit at the
Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci" Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, dedicated to painter and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, is the largest science and technology museum in Italy. It was opened on 15 February 1953 and inaugurated by prime minister of ...
in Milan.


References

* * {{FS locos
691 __NOTOC__ Year 691 ( DCXCI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 691 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe f ...
4-6-2 locomotives Breda locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1928 Standard-gauge locomotives of Italy 2′C1′ h4 locomotives Passenger locomotives