Czech State Rwy 2-10-0 Locomotives in Czechoslovakia

Class 534.001 (Locobase 1676)

Data from [], last accessed 11 October 2013; and "Lokomotivy rady 534.03 prezdívané ,Kremák'" on the Lokomotivni depo Trutnov website at at [], last accessed 30 September 2023.

This was the first variant of a series of designs that the Lokomotivni depo Trutnov website describes as "inconsistent", but nevertheless had "traction characteristics ...fully suitable for operations on CSD lines." For later locomotives in this series see Locobase 15470 (534.068 in 1926), Locobase 1677 (534.094 in 1938), Locobase 5858 (534.129 in 1942), and Locobase 1678 (534.0 in 1945).

Class 534.0301 (Locobase 1678)

Data from [], last accessed 11 October 2013; last accessed 15 October 2020 as []. See also Google translation of " ", Lokomotivnf depo Trutnov at [], last accessed 15 October 2020.

Following the near-total eradication of pre-war and wartime production 534s by Anglo-American boming raids, the postwar Czech railway system found itself very short of power. Realizing that a new design could take years to develop and that the 534s had proven more than adequate, the new state railways ordered a postwar revival of the 534 design, but using a new boiler.

Compared to the earlier batches, the new boiler sat higher, its centerline reaching 3.1 m (10 ft 2 in) above the rail. It traded 35 small tubes for six more flues, each of the latter holding elements measuring 32 mm/1 1/4" (outside)/25 mm/1" inside. Piston diameter shrank by 50 mm (1.97"), Trofimov piston valves each measured 280 mm (11.02").

301 through 458 had roller bearings, the others friction bearings. Later fitted with Giesl multi-nozzle ejector stacks and steel fireboxes in place of the original copper furnaces.

The design served the CSD first as the main-line freight engines and later on the secondary lines as their relaively low axle loading suited the lighter rail. "Essentially the last type of our [sic] pre-war locomotive school", the class proved economical "mainly because they had manual loading." (That is, the firebox took coal from the fireman's shovel rather than from a mechanical stoker.) 534.0s displayed better power on grades and their shorter wheelbase compared to the 555s permitted their use on tighter curves.

Class 534.068 (Locobase 15470)

Data from [], last accessed 11 October 2013.

These were the only engines in the 534 class to have the small-diameter flues for the superheater (malotrubhaty) in a completely reorganized boiler. They also had cast-iron stacks, a two-stage compressor for the brake system, and Friedmann injectors.

Class 534.094 (Locobase 1677)

Data from A[nthony] E[dward] Durrant, The Steam Locomotives of Eastern Europe (Newton Abbot:David & Charles, 1966) and [] (25 January 2004). Works numbers for Prague CKD (class ID 094-108) were 1736-1750 in 1937. Pilsen CKD followed (ID 109-123) with works numbers 941-955 in 1938.

A later Google translation gave Locobase more details about this batch of decapods. In addition to an increase in the boiler's centreline height to 2.9 m (9.5 ft), its tube and flue counts changed significantly as the builders adopted a more conventional large-flue superheater design. Shorter domes probably reflected a need to stay within the existing loading gauge. The locomotives normally burned a mixture of Upper Silesian Ostrava, and brown coal.

After the annexation of Third Reich's annexation of Czechoslovakia, the CSD was redesignated CMD by the Protectorate Ministry of Transport. When the CMD requested more 534 locomotives in 1940, they were urged to adopt German BR 50 locomotives. The CMD counteried the proposal by pointing out differences betweeen the two rail systems and hence the designs.

Comparative tests on 22, 24-25 May 1940 with each locomotive trailing an 800-tonne load and limited to a 60 kph (40 mph) top speed. Results were mixed with the 534.0122 steaming better, but the BR 50 showing better road manners. Apparently the CMD's persistence swung the decision to procuring Czech-built engines; ee Locobase 5858.

Class 534.129 (Locobase 5858)

[] (25 January 2004). Prague CKD (ID 129-138) works numbers were 1294-1303 in 1942. Pilsen CKD (ID 124-134) works numbers were 1362-1372, also in 1942

As described in Locobase 1677, trials in May 1940 pitting the 534 series design against the Third Reich's BR 50 decapod design. Results were mixed, but the CMD (the Reich Protectorate's successor to the CSD) was allowed to build ten locomotives and the Slovak state (SZ) eleven.

Class 556.0 (Locobase 1679)

Data from [], last accessed 21 October 2011.

Using the same boiler design as the 498 express passenger class, this large stud of freight haulers worked throughout the Czech railway system. Fire-side heating surface area was 2,014 sq ft (187.1 sq m). The design was fitted with a double-Kylchap blastpipe.

[] (visited 2 January 2003) says that while the boiler was the same as the 498s, the construction copied that of the 475s.

This numerous class was produced as follows:

001 to 158 1952 (some of them with large smoke deflectors)

159 to 260 1953

261 to 368 1955

369 to 404 1956

405 to 510 1957.