FS Class 910 were 2-6-2

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 ...

s designed by Guglielmo Cappa for Rete Sicula where they were registered as RS Class 400. They were absorbed by

Italian State Railways 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) in 1905 and became FS Class 910.

History

With the conventions of 1885, Rete Sicula took over the lines of Società per le Strade Ferrate Calabro-Sicule and had to face the problems of constructing new lines and introducing modern locomotives. The engineer Guglielmo Cappa designed the Class 400 steam locomotives which were re-registered as FS Class 910 on nationalization in 1905. The locomotive was designed to tackle steeply-graded lines, such as Messina - Palermo with its pass of the

Peloritani The Peloritani ( Sicilian: , it, Monti Peloritani) are a mountain range of north-eastern Sicily, in southern Italy, extending for some from Capo Peloro to the Nebrodi Mountains. On the north and east they are bordered by the Tyrrhenian ...

Mountains and its long tunnel. It also had to be suitable for minor local or commuter services and to have the characteristic of bidirectionality, to gain time at terminal stations by avoiding the need for turntables. The choice was a 2-6-2T which allowed the same speed in both directions of travel. The locomotives were built by Ansaldo of

Sampierdarena Sampierdarena (also San Pier d'Arena; Ligurian: San Pè d'ænn-a) is a major port and industrial area of Genoa, in northwest Italy. With San Teodoro it forms the West Central (Centro Ovest) ''municipio''. Geography Sampierdarena lies on t ...

and deliveries took place during the passage of the Sicula Network to the FS. In 1906 a specimen was exhibited at the Milan Exposition. The first delivery was of 6 locomotives registered by the Sicula network as RS 401-406. Later deliveries were numbered in the FS 91xx series from the start. The entire group became concentrated in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

for suburban services and those in Sicily were transferred to Milan. Over the years, they underwent small changes and continued to perform good service in the locomotive depots of Milano Centrale and Pavia for the service on the lines from Milan to Bergamo,

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label= Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

and

Voghera The Castle of Voghera in a 19th-century etching. Voghera ( Vogherese dialect of Emilian: ''Vughera''; Latin: ''Forum Iulii Iriensium'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy. The population was 39,374 ...

Diesel conversion

In 1929 the 910.042 was experimentally converted to a Diesel-Zarlatti locomotive. This had a

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

and compressed-air transmission, using the original steam cylinders. It was not a great success and had no practical follow-up.http://www.trenidicarta.it/pdf/13/13637.pdf

World War II

During

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 ...

, some locomotives were used for operations in Yugoslavia and seven of them remained there permanently at the end of the war, incorporated by the Yugoslavian Railways (JZ).

Technical features

The locomotives used

saturated steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

and compound expansion. The high-pressure cylinder was on the left, with piston valves, and the low-pressure cylinder was on the right, with a slide valve. Outside

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 Belgian railway engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes named without the final "s", since it ...

was used. The locomotive frame was carried on three coupled axles and two one-axle trucks, of the Adams type, at the two ends. This made the locomotive stable, even at high speeds, both in forward and reverse. The boiler had 222 fire tubes, increased to 226 in the second ordering series. Despite being a tank engine, the locomotive carried of coal and of water. A modification carried out from the second series onwards was the increase in the diameter of the carrying wheels from and the replacement of the Nathan lubrication system with a Friedmann lubrication pump. The locomotive was equipped with a compressed air brake and a proportional brake. It was also equipped for steam heating of the train.

Depot allocations

* Messina * Milano * Padova * Milano Greco * Venezia Mestre * Livorno * Voghera * Brescia * Lecco

Preservation

Number 910.001 was restored and is at the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa.