Antwerp-Ghent 2-2-0 Locomotives in Belgium

Class De Ridder (Locobase 10306)

Data from "Locomotives of the Antwerp-Ghent Railway," The Locomotive Magazine, Volume VIII ([8] 25 April 1903), pp. 286-287

In railroading's early days, all manner of layouts were tried. But a two-coupled, two-axle saddle tank with its cylinders placed alongside the firebox was odd even for the time. That is, the cylinders drove forward to turn the drivers. Each cylinder had two valves worked "...by a sort of gab motion from eccentrics placed between the driving wheels."

The author goes on to say that steam took an unusual route to the cylinders, a "...novel manner, scarcely to be admired." At the top of the dome-shaped firebox was a smaller dome that had a gridiron regulator. This let the steam down a flattened oval pipe to a T-piece inside the firebox. The T ends led to vertical pipes installed in the water legs between the inside and outside firebox sides. Through these conduits, steam progressed down these pipes into the steam chests of the cylinders.

The saddle tank came down quite low, yet still had a small capacity. A sandbox rode on the saddle tank.

Names for the nonet as they entered service were La Flandre, Pays de Waes, Richaet, P Verteyen, Anvers, Gaud, Saint-Nicolas, Lokeren, and Beveren. As odd as they may have later seemed, some of the class remained in service into the 20th Century.

As for the railway itself, the author has nothing good to say about its level of service - or cleanliness: "...up to the date of its incorporation into the Belgian State Railway system [in 1899!], this line retained its narrow gauge, and an unenviable reputation with respect to the filthy and comfortless character of its passenger rolling stock."