West Flanders 4-2-0 Locomotives in Belgium

Class 1 (Locobase 10665)

Data from "West Flanders Ry Locomotives," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol XIV (15 August 1908), p. 141-143..

The WFR was a 113-mile British-owned railway that remained independent of the Belgian State Railway system until 1 July 1907. The concession was granted in 1845 for a line from Bruges to Roulers and thence to Ypres through to Poperinghe in the west and east to Ingelmunster through to Coutray. Later extensions brought the railway to the French border at Menin, to Hazebrouck in France.

The first locomotives on this line were among the first of Robert Stephenson's "longboilers". The outside cylinders lay between the two leading carrying axles (which were not in a bogie) while the sizable driver was located ahead of the haystack firebox and open footplate. Some excellent diagrams of the original design appear with the LM article.

After Stephenson's quartet came 4 more locomotives built to the design by the Societe St Leonard in Liege in 1847. Later the haystack firebox would be replaced by Belpaire's design and the separate dome would move forward over the driving axle.

They all worked the mainlines until 1853 and, except for #1, at the time of transfer to the BSR, still hauled passenger trains between Coutray, Ingelmunster, and Thielt on the one hand a nd Roulers and Ypres on the other.