FRC 0-6-0 Locomotives in Italy

Class Owen (Locobase 6207)

Data from [] (10 July 2004).

The specifications include the internal surface area of the boiler's tubes; the internal diameter was 41 mm (1.61").

If Locobase understands the account in Italian of these two locomotives, they were manufactured by Essinglen and assembled by ME's Italian agent Officine Meccaniche di Saronno. Saronno was set up with ME capital in 1887. The design is apparently based on the ubiquitous Prussian T3 and more specifically Wurttemberg's T3W variant.

The two locomotives were ME works numbers 3470-71. The first was Owen, named after an early English patron of foreign-financed Italian railways; it entered service on 18 August 1909. Canossa was #2, but went into service earlier in May 1909.

Both operated out of Reggio Emilia with Owen serving Reggio-Ciano and later to Montecchio. In one service or another, the two remained operational for decades. In 1938, Owen was renamed "Gemini" because of the growing enmity between Mussolini's Fascist government and the United Kingdom.

In 1955 both were sold for scrap.