Netherlands State 4-8-4 Locomotives in Netherlands

Class 6300 (Locobase 4497)

Data from Wikipedia's "NS-Baureihe 6300" at [], last accessed 22 October 2017. See also "NS 6300, de Beul', a 24 December 2015 entry in the MSC Emmen model-railroading club blog at [], last accessed 22 October 2017. Henschel & Sohn works numbers were 21782-21791 in 1930 and Berliner Maschinenbau (BMAG - formerly Schwarzkopff) works numbers were 10050v10061 in 1931.

These worked short-haul coal drags on lines such as the Zuid-Limburg to West-Nederland, going into production when the 6200 Mikado tanks (Locobase 20302) proved too small and light to pull ever-heavier trains. Track improvements had added two tonnes to the permitted axle loading and the new design by WAC put the larger bunker load on a bogie.

Its max rated speed in either direction was 90 km/h (56 mph) and its rated load was 1,800 tons at 60 kph (37 mph). Wikipedia comments that the boiler--essentially identical to that of the NS 3900 class 4-6-0s (Locobase 4496)--demanded a lot of coal in its Belpaire firebox so its output depended on the quality of stoker and the quality of the coal. And the NS never adopted automatic stokers for its steam locomotives.

After the Third Reich invaded the Netherlands in 1940, they commandeered eleven of the class. Remarkably, only 6313 failed to return at the end of the war; the others had suffered varying degrees of damage but were repaired. Nine of the eleven left behind were recoverable as well (6306 and 6321 were effectively totalled), so the postwar class came to 19 engines.

These served until 1955-1957.

6317 (refitted with the 3927 boiler) wound up at the Nederland Spoorwegenmuseum in 1959 and has remained on display since then. noted that in 2014 the Almelose Preston Palace Hotel put a full-scale replica of the 6313 on display.