Belgian State 0-8-0 Locomotives in Belgium

Class Type 20 - original (Locobase 6437)

Data from G. Brabt, "Standard Freight Engines of the Belgium State Railways", American Engineer and Railroad Journal, Volume 67, No 8 (August 1893), pp. 385. 388; See also J Vandenberghen,"Type 20", IV. Peirode Belpaire-1864-1883, ;"Belgian State Railways Type 20" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 27 March 2024. Prototype produced by Malines in 1870. John Cockerill produced 34 from 1871-1875 and one more in 1880. Tubize manufactured fourteen in 1873-1874, and Couillet delivered five in 1874

These appear to have been derived from the Type 25 (Locobase 6436) and represent a stretch to put more adhesive weight without increasing axle loading. Intended to haul trains up the 3% grades near Liege, the class had small drivers driven outside on the third axle. Brabt describes the Belpaire valve-gear operation as "a valve on one side being controlled by the piston on the other side." The illustration suggests a cross-connecting linkage. The drawings also show the rudimentary footplate shelter: narrow windscreens topped by sketch hoods on either side of the firebox.

Van den Berghen, of the BSR's Department Materiel, described this design as "particularly robust and reliable" . They offered large grates in a sloping firebox, a high-mounted boiler

See Locobase 6438 for a significant modification to this design.

Class Type 23 (Locobase 9182)

Data from Maurice Demoulin, Locomotive Actuelle ... (Paris: Librairie Polytechnique Ch.Beranger, 1906), p 206-207. See also Data from "Recent Locomotives of the Belgian State Rys," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol XII (15 December 1906), p.202, and "Eight Coupled Tank Locomotive, Belgian State Railways", The Locomotive, Volume XVII, No 224 (15 April 1911), p. 86-87.

Demoulin notes that these were used to increase the average speed of freight trains and were based, as were so many other Belgian engines of the day, on a similar locomotive operating on the Caledonian Railway in the British Isles.

The 1906 LM report commented that they were overmatched at times by the requirements of their duty: "Despite their ample dimensions, they are none too powerful for the special work of hauling express trains up the inclined plane at Liege, where it is necessary to employ three locomotives - one at the head of the train and two of Type 23 acting as 'pushers'." They also served regular goods trains and even deputized for passenger engines.