NSB / Norsk Stats-Jernbane 4-6-0 Locomotives in Norway

Class Class 14a (Locobase 6156)

Data from Svein Sando's Railway Site [] (9 June 2004)--(Later link: The Semaphore, accessed for link update 10 July 2022.)--and the Jernbane (Iron Road) site http://jernbane.net (June 2004). See also DeGolyer, Volume 9, p. 54; and , Illustrated catalogue of locomotives / Burnham, Parry, Williams ... (Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1881), p. 86. Works numbers were 4517-4518, 4520-4521 in January 1879.

These Ten-wheelers seem to have been the first of that arrangement to be procured for a Norwegian railway. On arrival, they bore the names of America, Washington, Leiv, and Baldwin.

The design was quite small for a 4-6-0, but almost exactly the same size and weight as the Class 6 Moguls delivered in the same year. They burned high-BTU (14,800) Scotch coal. Baldwin's prediction of the design's empty weight came close, but the engine's operating weight estimate fell 5 1/2 tons short.

A 1 August 1879 reply to a request for comment from its builders came from the railway's Gerhard Gade. He wrote about a run of the royal train on the new railway connecting Norway and Sweden through Frederikshald. The consist pulled by the Washington included 34 passenger cars and 22.3 tons of luggage for the 300 passengers and totalled 290.9 tons. Average speed over the line was 20 mph and included some sections of 1 in 100 (1%) grade.

The last of the class was retired in February 1934.

Class Class 18a/b (Locobase 1728)

Data from:

Svein Sando's Railway Site [] (9 June 2004)--(Later link: The Semaphore, accessed for link update 10 July 2022.)--and the Jernbane (Iron Road) site http://jernbane.net (June 2004).

Built by Thune in Hamar and Hartmann in Chemnitz.

Although first used on the Gjovik line, later engines, which had a slighly larger heating surface area of 1,408 sq ft, came to the Bergen, Dovre, and Randsfjord lines. Many of these later were converted to 18c.

See also data from the table presented on pages 382, 384 of the Groupe VI. - GTnie civil. - Moyens de transport. DeuxiFme partie. Classes 32 (Tome I), part of the series of Rapports du Jury Internationale of the Exposition Unverselle Internationale de 1900 Paris Exposition, hosted on the website of Le Conservatoire numTrique des Arts & MTtiers ([], Accessed 21 August 2005).

The Jury report gives more details on the type of service these locomotives were intended to render on the Christiana-Gjovik run. 70% of the total distance of 125 km (78 miles) consisted of curves and 8% of the total had grades of 1.7-2%.

Class Class 18c (Locobase 1729)

Eighteen conversions of 18a/18b engines to simple-expansion engines. One effect of the simpling was raising the maximum forward speed to a dazzling 65 kph (40 mph).

Data from [] (confirmed 28 Dec 2002),

Svein Sando's Railway Site [] (9 June 2004)--(Later link: The Semaphore, accessed for link update 10 July 2022.)-- and the Jernbane (Iron Road) site [] (June 2004).

Class Class 27a/b (Locobase 4077)

Known by the Norwegian railwaymen as the "Sydbane Racers", these engines were based on the Class 18 Tenwheelers. Comparisons with the 18s show a lighter engine with smaller boiler but taller drivers. The nickname was earned by these engines being able reach 75 kph (47 mph), the top speed of the NSB. One engine, 369 supplied by NMI, featured a feedwater heater. This made a slight difference in the adhesion weight, raising it to 27,600 kg (60,848 lb).

See Norwegian Railway Club (Norsk Jerbaneklubb) website [] . Data from:

Svein Sando's Railway Site [] (9 June 2004)--(Later link: The Semaphore, accessed for link update 10 July 2022.)--and the Jernbane (Iron Road) site [] (June 2004). Other road numbers were 254, 269070, 296-7, and 302-305.

Class Class 30a (Locobase 1739)

Data from "NSB type 30" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 6 October 2022' and Norwegian Railway Club (originally Norsk Jerbaneklubb) website [] shows these speed merchants, one of which hit the Norwegian steam speed record of 120 kph (75 mph). The mountainous portion of the Dovre line, which had a top speed rating of 55 mph (90 kph), demanded every bit of power these engines could generate.

Acquisition followed a familiar NSB pattern in which the initial batch in a class were four-cylinder simples, but later engines were delivered as four-cylinder compounds. For the compounds in this class, see Class 30b and Class 30c.

Class Class 30b (Locobase 1740)

Data from "NSB type 30" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 6 October 2022' and Norwegian Railway Club (originally Norsk Jerbaneklubb) website [], more recently [], last accessed 6 October 2022.

Norwegian Railway Club (Norsk Jerbaneklubb) website [] notes that NMI followed the simple-expansion 30a with these compounds. After 1931, the pressure was substantially increased to 227.6 psi.

Class Class 30c (Locobase 4080)

Data from Norwegian Railway Club (Norsk Jerbaneklubb) website []; more recently [], last accessed 6 October 2022. See also The Semaphore, a railway website by Svein Sando at [], last accessed 4 June 2015.

This quartet capped the Class 30 ten-wheelers with a modified design that featured thermic syphons in the firebox. Also, tender coal capacity increased by 50%.