4-6-2 Steam Locomotives in Denmark

Class E (Locobase 2478)

[] . See also "D S B Litra E" on Ole Tingleff's Min Hjemmeside website, at [], last accessed 29 July 2026. Works numbers were 1020 in 1914 and 1061-1070.

Repeats based on the original builder's drawings of the Swedish Class F Pacifics (Locobase 2477), eleven of which had been sold to Denmark in 1936. Ole Tingleff notes the use of a single casting for all four cylinders, all of which drove the middle axle. All three coupled axles turned thinly spoked drivers that resembled those often seen in North American engines.

In Danish service, these engines had a tonnage rating of 650 tons on a 0.7% grade. Ole Tingleff saluted the design with "This is, in my opinion, the most beautiful locomotive that has ever run in Denmark." He also noted it was the fastest Danish steam locomotive.

He added: "The E engine was so powerful and used so much coal that it was often run with 2 stokers." Locobase wonders if this staffing represents a bug or a feature.

All of the Litra Es had been retired by 1970.

Class E (1) (Locobase 4031)

Data from William Bay, Danmarks Damplokomotiver (1977); and "SJ F (steam locomotive)", at []), last accessed on 15 September 2024. See also the extensive account in Danish (Google translation is quite fluid) of "DSB Litra E 964 - 999" on the Wayback's capture of the DSB damplokomotiver website

at [], last accessed 16 September 2024 . Works numbers were 314-319 in 1942-1943, 336-341 in 1944, 346-352 in 1947, and 413-418 in 1950.

Locobase 2477 describes the 11 Swedish F-class four-cylinder compound Pacifics produced by Nydquist & Holm that served as that country's express passenger power from 1914 until the SJ electrified the main lines in the early 1930s.

Although the DSB had already begun its own transition to electric and diesel traction, the railway made an exception in 1937 when the F class became available The DSB knew the F class as a powerful and reliable design, the SJ set an unbeatable price equating to the scrap value, and delivery could begin immediately. All eleven entered service between Autumn 1937 and Spring 1938.

Two years later, the Third Reich occupied Denmark as part of its 1940 offensive surge in the West. German demands for substantial tonnage increases on the DSB led the occupiers to require the railway to order new E-class engines from Frichs. The first thirteen arrived in 1943-1945.

German occupation and Western Allied air attacks on Danish infrastructure delayed the Danes' program of transition from steam to other forms of traction. Instead, they ordered further E class deliveries in 1947 (seven) and 1950 (five) brought the total to 25. Over the next fifteen years, E class engines would haul a variety of trains, in part because the diesel replacement that began in 1954 with the entry of the first MY diesels affected other older classes first.

But by the early 1960s, E-class phaseouts began accelerating while some services still used them as late as 1966 and 1968.

Jernbane noted the few differences between the original F class and the Frichs E class. The latter weighed a bit more, had a welded tender instead of the F-class's riveted verion and added a steam dryer.

Class Pr (II) (Locobase 4033)

Data from William Bay, Danmarks Damplokomotiver (1977). See also Jernbane.dk at [], last accessed 2 June 2015.

Class Pr 904 (Locobase 4032)

Data from William Bay, Danmarks Damplokomotiver (1977). See also Jernbane.dk at [], last accessed 2 June 2015.

During its years under German control in World War Two, the DSB realized that they needed more adhesion in the locomotives pulling their expresses. And they knew they wouldn't be able to order new equipment. So Copenhagen shops retained the frame from the P-class 4-4-2s, used the firebox already installed in the H and R classes, trailing auxiliary axle from the O and S classes and created the Pacific shown here.

Tests of the 904 in 1943 were sufficiently encouraging that the railway went ahead and converted the 930. For the first few years, the conversion looked like a flop because the boilers didn't generate enough steam. Jernbane,dk reports that postwar studies showed simply that inexperienced stokers and poor coal starved the firebox of the calories it needed. As peace liberated Denmark, coal quality improved, and the stokers received better training, the class performed up to their promise.