2-8-2 Steam Locomotives in Nigeria

Class 751 (Locobase 962)

Data from "Export Locomotives: Steam-Electric-Diesel" Section 17, Locomotive Cyclopedia 1947 (Simmons-Boardman, 1947), p. 1078). Works numbers were 74423-74427, 75149-75157 in April 1947; and 77260-77269 in March 1949.

Most sources describe "701" class as a 4-8-2 (aka Mountain) type with 19" cylinders.. The 1947 LC's table and photograph clearly shows a small 2-8-2. Although the photograph shows "701" as the engine's road number. Locobase suspects the error lay in the road number, as the data describe the 751s, which were based on Newfoundland Railway 2-8-2s.

Class River (Locobase 8582)

Data from [], a reprint of the Vulcan magazine last accessed 14 July 2007.v. Works numbers were 6198-6227 in 1954.

These were only the latest in a large series of Mikados built to a common design; Vulcan had supplied 20 (works numbers 5608-5627) in 1947 ([]). These had two more fire tubes and a total heating surface of 1,895 sq ft (176.05 sq m). A Vulcan Foundry list credited the superheater design to MLS.

Vulcan's 1954 contribution had the typical Belpaire firebox and a 4" (102 mm) bar frame that ran continuously from buffer beam on back. With this batch came roller bearings on all axles, including those of the tender.

Class Sir Hugh Clifford (Locobase 20907)

Data from The Vulcan Foundry Locomotive Works catalogue, archived at [], Plate 42, last accessed 1 July 2021. See also ""Three-Cylinder Locomotive for the Nigerian Railway"", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 31 (15 December 1925), pp. 374-375. (Many thanks to Jorge Cerezo Toledo for his 26 June 2021 email containing links to several sites including the Vulcan Catalogue referred to above.) Works numbers were 3783-3787 in 1925.

The NGR's Chief Mechanical Officer T O B Otway Ruthven established a set of requirements for freight hauling on the Cape Gauge that couldn't be met if the locomotive used the usual two cylinders. So he asked VFL to build him a quintet of these Mikados.

The boiler comprised a wide Belpaire firebox, combustion chamber, and tubes offering a nearly ideal 104:1 length/diameter ratio. Locating the third piston on the centerline under the boiler required a ""special system of cross levers, connected to the outside valve spindles"" to operate the centrally placed piston valve. Thus the two outside motions combined to open and close the buried piston valve. (The third cylinder is hinted at in the unequally long spacing between the first and second driving axles.)

The 801s were among the largest 2-8-2s to be built for the Cape gauge and among the very few to have three cylinders (See Locobase 14560 for Baldwin's octet delivered to the Manila Railway in 1928.) For that matter, very few three-cylinder locomotives operated on the narrow gauge.