Hannover State 0-6-0 Locomotives in Germany

Class Linden (Locobase 13220)

Data from W H Maw and William Dredge, "Locomotives", Reports on the Vienna Universal Exhibition, Part II (London: George Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1874), pp. 421-423.

This inside-framed, outside-cylinder heavy goods locomotive had a Belpaire firebox. Maw and Dredge took issue with the method of compensating the driving and trailing axles using a single spring whose ends were connected to the axles with beams. Such equalizing beams were commonly used in North America, but very few freight locomotives operated without a truck. Also, compared to British and continental goods engines, which usually had an all-adhesion arrangement, US freight engines had longer wheelbases.

So their comment on the design appears to have merit. Compensation-beam use, they suggest, "...undoubtedly has its conveniences, although when a long engine is mounted on a short wheel base, as is generally the case when this arrangement is used, we should prefer dispensing with the compensating beams altogether, as they practically still further reduce the wheelbase as far as the power of checking the pitching motion is concerned."

In discussing the Henschel exhibit (Locobase 5954), the authors expand on the shortcoming of this setup as they see it. The compensation mechanism will "materially diminish the control of the springs over the longitudinal oscillations or pitching motion which in engines having so great an overhang, must at times necessarily be set up."

They also wondered at the thinness of the coupling [US: side] rod, and the shortness of the crank pin bearings.