Ferrovie dello Stato 0-10-0 Locomotives in Italy

Class Gruppo 470 (Locobase 8944)

Data from Albert H Bone, "Some Recent Designs of Locomotives for Service on Continental Railways", Cassier's Magazine, 1910, pp. 561-609, supplemented by "A Balanced Compound Locomotive for the Italian State Railways", Railroad Gazette, Volume 43, No. 5 (2 August 1907), pp. 128-132; and "Italian Four-Cylinder Compound Double-Ended Locomotive," The Railway Age, Volume 45, No 3 (17 January 1908), pp. 73-76. (Thanks to Alexander Blessing for his 28 April 2019 email correcting the original description of the Plancher system's valve gear setup.)

Maffei produced 64 of the class in 1907-1908, Officine Meccaniche delivered another 52 in 1908-1911, OM e Navali di Napoli turned out 17 in 1909-1912, and Breda accounted for 10 in 1909.

Ponderous, powerful mountain locomotives used on the Brennero line, the Railway Age reporting that early members of the class were at work on the Mt Cenis, Ronco (i.e., Genoa to Ronco), and Pistoja-Porretta lines.

Their cylinder arrangement was quite unusual in a four-cylinder compound. The LP cylinders were grouped in a single saddle and located on the right side while the two HP cylinders were on the left. Blessing notes that each set was served by a single valve. The piston valve for the HP cylinders measured 288 mm (11.34") in diameter and had crossed ports. Exhausted steam then went to a receiver that directed the steam to a valve with two slightly separated pistons in tandem. For each set, the intent was to admit steam to opposite ends of the two cylinders at the same time, The cranks turned by the rods were set 180 deg apart. Thus the goal was to balance the forces in both same-side cylinders as well as the left and right sides of the smokebox. The latter would be achieved, theoretically, by achieving a good compounding ratio in the original design.

"The balancing of the engine forces," said an RG report," has been found to show a marked superiority by the equilibrium of steam pressure thus maintained." So endowed, such engines could start heavy trains more easily, smooth, stable running at high speeds, and reductions in track maintenance costs.

Locobase includes a list of the "special equipment" manufacturers that supplied sub-assemblies or components to a locomotive. For the 470s, the RA lists the principal fittings and accessories:

Zara triphase balanced throttle

Coale valves (two) behind the dome and a spring-balance safety valve

anti-vacuum valves on steam pipe and receiver, the latter combined with a Coale relief valve

relief valves on all the cylinder covers

Northern of France type of variable exhaust nozzle, or lifting cone with helicoidal wings

Friedmann restarting injectors (two No. 10)

Leach compressed air sander, combined with a hand valve, and taking sand from a pair of large boxes placed on the edge of the plate frames

Hasler automatic speed indicating and recording tachograph

Friedmann oil pump, driven from a connection on the low-pressure expansion link

Haag train steam heating apparatus

Westinghouse quick-action brake, combined with the Henry (Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean Railway) moderator attachment, so much used on mountain engines.

Another oddity was the positioning of the coal bunker on the boiler ahead of the cab. Locobase suspects this was adopted to increase adhesion on grades that ascended at up 2.6%. An undesirable side effect of this cover and the closed-in rear of the cab was such high temperatures on the footplate that the crews nicknamed the class "forni crematori" or "crematorium ovens".

Maximum level speed for these brutes was 30 mph (48 km/h), but RA reported that they reached 44 mph (71 km/h). In the mountains, train loads varied from 200 to 600 tons.

The first batch of 72 was ordered from Maffei without trials. OM Reggio completed the rest. After electrification, some went into switching work in Milan others landed in Sicily on the central line.

Later superheated; see Locobase 3671.

Class Gruppo 471 (Locobase 3671)

Data from Ugo Poddine as contributor to Bryan Attewell ([] Steam locomotive simulator (April 2000).

According to Guglielmo Valletti's website on Italian Steam Locomotives (visted 10 June 2005), this class was originally delivered in 1907; see Locobase 8944. The version presented by Poddine is the superheated upgrade that was applied to all but 14 locomotives in the class. A big change was the relocation of water and coal supplies in separate tenders made available by the retirement of the Gruppo 230 class. Locobase suspects this went some way toward cooling the long-suffering crews of the "forni crematori" class..

Some later received a larger LP cylinder in 1925.