Federated Malay States Railways 4-6-2 Locomotives in Malaya

Class H1 (Locobase 2772)

Data from "Railway Notes - Federated Malay State Rys", The Locomotive Magazine, Vol XIV (15 October 1908); "New Locomotives for the Federated Malay Railways", Railroad Age Gazette, Volume XLVI [46], No. 14 (2 April 1909), pp. 746-749; and Engineering, 25 July 1907, p. 105. See also the MyMalaya site featuring the H1 class at [], last accessed 26 December 2011.

Early small Pacifics on the Malayan metre gauge. Kitson works numbers were 4569-4579. Nasmyth Wilson's ten locomotives (works numbers were 833-842) were delivered at the same time, six to the Johore Railway. These came to the FMSR in 1912.

In 1911, Kitson supplied 13 more engines (works numbers 4835-4838, 4866-4871, and 4875-4877 as class H2; Robert Stephenson added 4 (works 3502-3505) in 1913. Kitson's next batches in 1913 were designated H3 (works numbers 4954-4963, 5015-5019)

Class O (Locobase 2497)

See [] for details on names and road numbers. Works numbers were O1 - 24419-24429 (1938), O2 - 24508-24513 (1939), O3 - 24570-24580 (1940), O4 - 25756-25795 (1946).

Very similar to the Indonesian engines that entered service at about the same time, but these oil-burning locomotives were three-cylinder simples. Note the very high boiler pressure, possible because of the use of high-tensile-strength steel in the boiler shell. The use of rotary-cam poppet valves might have tempted fate, but Hollingsworth (1982) notes that the Malayan Railway maintained these engines to a very high order.

The design had a high-mounted, coned boiler and large smoke deflectors flanking the smokebox. They ran for many years and were tested at 70 mph (113 kph) for possible fast express service. The first 17 locomotives had 12 1/2" (318 mm) cylinders.

See the excellent elevation sketch at dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/zh62/trains/diagram.gif (August 2002, later moved to [], last accessed 25 May 2017), which accompanies a full account by Fergus Moffat. He notes that the FMSR's Assistant Chief Mechanical Engineer, HM Le Fleming, was the principal designer in collaboration with North British. These "O4" were the culminating class of Pacifics, being delivered in 1946-47. They were delivered with thermic syphons, although 564.36 and 564.40 later had theirs removed. All were converted to oil-burning in 1949-1954.

Moffat summarizes the soundness of the design: "with a well-designed layout of heating surfaces, the Class 56 boiler is a most efficient steam generator and can produce quantities of superheated steam generous enough to enable sustained high speed running."

Class Q. 51 (Locobase 3234)

Data from "Locomotives for Federated Malay States Railways," Railway Age Gazette, Volume 71, No 3 (16 July 1921), pp. 119-120. See also DeGolyer, Vol 63, pp. 165+. Works numbers were 51914-51915, 51954-51957, 51991-51992 in June 1919 and 52018-52021 in July.

Purchased to make up for lost time following four years of World War, these American engines competed successfully for the order by a British Crown Colony when their maker promised speedy delivery. Although fitted with small elephant-ear smoke lifters, relatively uncluttered and brightly painted boiler barrels, and a capped stack, these Pacifics reflected current US practice.

Firebox heating surface included 11 sq ft (0.95 sq m) of arch tubes. Piston valve diameters measured 8" (203 mm) each.

Class S1, S2, S3/551-553 (Locobase 20869)

Data from "Federated Malay States Railway - Pacific (4-6-2) Type Locomotive", Melesco Superheater Company, Ltd Brochure, p. eleven [sic]. North British Locomotive Company works numbers were 23679-23681 in 1928 and 23904 - 23911 in 1929. Beyer, Peacock works numbers 6721-6725 in 1931.

Locobase can't figure out what all the pipes and boxes bolted to the right side of the boiler did for the S class. In particular, the highest of three boxes housed the end of a shaft that extended forward to just behind the smokebox. Given that these engines used Melesco's multiple-valve regulator header, Locobase suspects this setup provided a power-operated version of a throttle.