Suomen valtionrautatiet / VR 4-6-0 Locomotives in Finland

Class H1/Hk1 - Isopyorainen Kaanari (Locobase 5632)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003) . See the H2 entry (Locobase 3884) for more details. Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 21, p. 101.Adhesion weight from specification, where it is characterized as "about 66,000 lb."

The animator's railroad website -- [] (2 April 2003) -- gives us Baldwin's works #15751-15760 and shows us a photo with a typical American Mogul owning one visible oddity -- a smokebox with a smaller diameter than the boiler. . The firebox is dropped between the rear two axles, there are slide valves, and a derby-shaped steam dome with safety valve on top and the imposing vase-like spark-arresting stack.

Tuuliki Heidik's translation informs Locobase the nickname means "Bigwheel Kaanari". She lets us know that the locomotives were later rebuilt with piston valves, new firebox, and enlarged tender. The verdict on the American engines was that they were fast (50-52 mph) and strong, but that they used more fuel than the local Hk2/Hk3 Ten-wheelers.

When the revolution hit Russia in 1918, it trapped 6 of this class. These were returned to Finland in 1926. After the 1939-1940 Winter War ended in Finnish defeat, 8 were ceded to the Soviets.

Except for 3 that were scrapped in 1936-39, Hk1s lasted until 1954-1959.

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Class H11/Hr3 - Hurrikaani (Locobase 5638)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003).

Swedish-built Tenwheelers of considerable heft; see 5637 for more complete discussion.

1907, 1909, 1911, 1915-1916 were delivered in 1906

1908, 1912-14, 1917, and 1919 in 1907

1910, 1918 came in 1908.

Atlas of Stockholm is credited with 1913.

Motala Mekaniska Verkstad AB in Motala produced 1907, 1909, 1911, and 1916

Nydqvist & Holm in Trollhattan delivered 1908 and 1914

And Vagn & Maskinfabriks AB of Falun built 1910, 1912, and 1917.

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Class H2/Hk1 - Kaanari (Locobase 3884)

Data from "Richmond Locomotives for Finland," The Railway Age, Volume XXXI [31], No 22 (31 May 1901), pp. 581-583. See also "Richmond 10-Wheel Locomotives--Finland State Railroads", Railroad Gazette Volume XXXII [32], No. 27 (6 July 1900), pp 462-463. Works numbers were 2989-2998 in 1900 and 3146-3157 in 1901.

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003) shows that Richmond delivered two batches of these little Ten-Wheelers 1900-1901. Nine of the first batch went straight to Helsingfors, the tenth to the 1900 Paris Exposition for display.

Railway Age noted these engines betrayed their American origins in many respects. One difference the journal considered worth copying for cold-weather service were the sliding doors that closed in the rear of the cab. "These doors are carried by small wheels on an overhead rail," the report noted, "and are readily moved aside for the purpose of stoking. Yet they can be quickly closed after the work is done." The journal returned a positive verdict on the "innovation" as a "great improvement over the coal-begrimed curtains with which an attempt is made to exclude the cold from the cabs of American locomotives during the severities of a northern winter."

See Locobase 5632 for a fuller account of the Hk1s.

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Class H3/Hk2 (Locobase 5633)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003) .

This Finnish Tenwheeler design was close in size to that of the Baldwin-Richmond 4-6-0s that had come to Finland a few years earlier. The boiler is a little smaller, the grate a little bigger.Tampella delivered 1 in 1903, 9 in 1904, 5 in 1905, and 2 in 1906.

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Class H3/Hk2 - superheated (Locobase 20982)

Data from Eljas Polho- Pekka Honkanen, Hoyryveturit Valtionrautateilla (The Steam Locomotives of the Finnish State Railways), Suomen Rautatiehistoriallinen Seura Ry (Finnish Railway History Society) 1967-2017, p. 215. Publishing information supplied by Teemu Koivumaki in a 24 January 2022 email as part of an indispensable series of emails concerning Finnish locomotives.

Locobase 5633 describes the original saturated-boiler engines supplied by Tampella

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Class H4/Hk3 - Tulistaja (Locobase 5634)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003). In this quintet, the boiler grew into the slightly larger grate of the H3s. These were still small locomotives for the arrangement, but they fit in with Finnish steam locomotive design philosophy. The first four were delivered in 1907 with 475 coming a year later (most likely immediately after ...)

All H4s were superheated in the 1920s to bring them in line with the H5s (see 5635)

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Class H5/Hk3 - Tulistaja (Locobase 5635)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003). The H4 could be counted a successful design, but Tampella took heed of what the rest of the continent was beginning to notice: that superheating could offer substantial benefits. And so a relatively modest amount of superheating appeared on this design. Tampella delivered the first two in 1908 and the rest in 1909.

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Class H6/Hk5 - Pikku-Tulistaja (Locobase 5636)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003). Pikku Tulistaja might mean anything, as far as the Finnish-deprived Locobase can tell. But one likely meaning is "Pocket Tulistaja", because this is a scaled-down version of the H5 Tenwheeler. Like the H5, it's superheated, but the boiler and cylinder volume are smaller, as are the drivers, and the axle loading is lighter as well.

According to Karvonen's table, the first to be delivered were actually 497-510 in 1908. 493-496 followed in 1909, and the last four arrived two years later.

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Class H7/Hv4/Pikku-Heikki (Locobase 4230)

Data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003). (Adhesion weight data from [] ...).

This class of ten-wheelers was smaller than the earlier Hv series. The two Tampere builders -- Tampere Pellava-ja Rautateollisuus OY (Tampella) and Lokomo OY -- built these over a couple of decades. Tampere supplied the first 10 in 1912 (516-523) and 1913 (524-529). Thirteen years later the same builder produced 742-747 to the same design. Lokomo delivered the next 4 in the same year and, after another 6-year gap, finished off production with the last 4.

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Class H8/Hv1/Heikki (Locobase 4229)

Data from Markku Karvonen's Finnish Locomotives website [] (link no longer active).

Tampella produced the first two batches 545-561 in 1915 and 562-574 in 1916. Lokomo picked up the contracts for the rest starting with 575-578 and 648-651 in 1920, and 652-655 in 1921.

The first of a series of TenWheeler classes with more cylinder volume and higher degree of superheat than earlier classes. When they were first introduced, their maximum speed rating was 85 kph (53 mph). In 1934, the VR raised the limit to 95 kph (59 mph).

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Class H9/Hv2 & Hv3 (Locobase 2592)

Additional data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003).

A serviceable Ten-Wheeler passenger engine that first entered service when Berliner Maschinenbau supplied 15 (579-593) in 1919. The first Hv3, also by Berliner, came as a batch of 10 (638-647) in 1921.

The Hv2s (Heikki) and Hv3s (Hinderburg) were built locally, by Tampella (Tampere Pellava-ja Rautateollisuus OY) and Lokomo of Tampere beginning in 1922 and continuing through 1941. The Hv2s were delivered in 4-year span from 1922-1926 (671-684, 777-780, the latter by Lokomo). The first Tampella Hv3s were produced in 1932 (781, 782) with production running until 1941. (783-785 in 1933, 991 in 1940, 992-995 in 1041, 996 & 7 in 1938, 998, 999 in 1939.)

The principal difference between the two classes was the type of tender: Hv2s used six-wheel, Hv3s used bogie -- Hv3s were a bit heavier and had a higher axle loading (about 220 lb or 100 kg more) as well. All were fitted with some form of spark-arresting stack because for many, the fuel was birch logs. Hollingsworth (1982) picks out another curious accessory: bypass valves on each cylinder to keep the cylinder from pumping back when the engine coasted. These engines carried on until the end of steam in the early 70s.

Additional data from Markku Karvonen's personal.inet.fi/koti/markku.karvonen/prk/vanha3.htm (visited 29 March 2003).