Est 0-8-4 Locomotives in France

Class Type 28 (Locobase 20428)

Data from Schneider Catalogue, last accessed 27 August 2018 at [], pp. 10-11. See also Albert Jacquet, "'Engerth'" Locomotives on French and Belgian Railways", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXVIII [28] (15 March 1922), pp. 74-77. Works numbers were 243-266 in 1856-1857..

Engerth goods tanks named for characters in the satires of Francois Rabelais (see Jacquet for full list.) Alas for Rabelais and other connected with this design, the class "presented grave defects". Perhaps most significant was a connection between the tender and the engine so rigid that it caused several derailings. One at Nancy evaded re-railing until workers dug out the roadbed under the tender. Moreover, the promised increase in adhesive weight proved "quite insignificant."

Between 1860 and 1868, the Est's Epernay shops reconfigured the class as 0-8-0s with separate tenders. Without the tender, the firebox's weight behind the last driving axle required inserting a 3,700 kg counter-weight between the frames and just behind the buffer beam. Water capacity in the tender remained the same, but coal capacity increased to 6 metric tons (6.6 short tons).

See Locobase 11274 for the long-running 0-8-0 design inspired by these Engerth tender engines.