Oesterreichische Bundesbahnen 2-10-0 Locomotives in Austria

Class 81 / 58.70 (Locobase 4668)

Data from [], accessed 24 June 2007. Tube and flue heating surface was measured on the fire side; water-side areas (as calculated in US and British locomotives, e.g.) calculated to be approximately 10% more.

Series 81 on the BBO, later reclassed as Series 58 on the Austrian State. These decapods were a response to the increasingly heavy coal trains serving the Mahrisch-Schlesichen coal region. Originally conceived of as a compound engine, the 81 was delayed by World War I and only appeared in 1920. By that time, the design had been recast with simple-expansion cylinders and the original service for which it had been intended no longer fell under Austrian rule. They were small engines, even when compared to other contemporary 2-10-0s in service outside of North America.

Even so, the BBO built several dozen. Floridsdorf contributed the greatest number (40) with StEG adding 16, Wiener-Neustadt 14, and Krauss Linz 3.

Although they were rated at 55 km/h (35 mph) because of their small drivers, the BBO did use some in express freight service. 10 of the Wiener-Neustadt engines went to Yugoslavia State Railways in 1927 as their class 29.

18 of the 73 (those numbered in the 400 seriese) had Lentz poppet valve gear and Dabeg feedwater heater; four of these had a novel superheater that consisted of 132 small tubes (rather than the usual, substantially larger flues) and measured 92.4 sq m in heating surface.

Of the 73 that went into German service after the 1938 Anschluss, 53 remained for use by the postwar +BB. The last of these was retired in 1961.