Soviet State 2-10-2 Locomotives in Russia

Class FD20 (Locobase 727)

Data from "Diagrams [of] Locomotives and 'Passports' [sic]", published in Moskva (Moscow), 1935 p. 32-33, PDF supplied by Teemu Koivmaki in his 5 October 2019. (Many thanks to Teemu for sending what might never have fallen into Locobase's hands. An indispensable addition to Locobase's library.) Earlier sources included [] by Ejii Nozawa and

[] (a Ukrainian website organizing steam tours) for the data. Dzherelo credited the information to Anthony J. Heywood & Jan D.C. Button, Soviet Locomotive Types: The Union Legacy (1995).

FD = Felix Dzherzhinsky. Based on American experience with a bar (as opposed to plate) frame, mechanical stoker, large boiler, steel firebox with combustion chamber. 3,220 were built from 1933-1941, most with a maximum axle load of 20 tons. The last 260 or so FD 21s (indicating a 21-ton axle load); see separate Locobase entry.

Most served in the Ukraine into the late 1960s. 950 were converted to standard gauge and sent to China in 1958.

Class LV (Locobase 729)

Data from [] (a Ukrainian website organizing steam tours) for the data. Dzherelo says the information comes from Anthony J. Heywood & Jan D.C. Button, Soviet Locomotive Types: The Union Legacy (1995). See also H M LeFleming, "Illustrated Survey of Modern Steam Locomotives" in Patrick Ransome-Wallis (ed), Concise Encyclopedia of World Railway Locomotives (London: Hutchison, 1959), p.360, 361.

Based on the L-class 2-10-0s (Locobase 5848), but fitted with a larger boiler and an impressively sized superheater. Among other features were the bar frame, mechanical stoker, rocking grate, and roller bearings. Adhesive weight could be increased from 91 tons to 96 tons by shifting the truck compensating beam fulcrums. Max axle loadings went from 18.3 metric tons (shown in the specs) to 20.1 metric tons (44,313 lb).

Ransome-Wallis (1959) reported that tests showed a thermal efficiency of 9.27% (against a usual 6-7%).

An enlargement of the earlier and more numerous L class Decapods (Locobase 5848), the first prototype rolled off the Voroshilovgrad line in 1952. Ten more prototypes followed in 1953-1954 with production starting in 1955.

The production variant, blessed with still more superheater area, was rated as the Soviet freight locomotive design with the highest thermal efficiency at 9.8%. This was due to the enormous superheater area as well as to a feed water heater, longer combustion chamber, and a wider grate than her forebears. Steam was admitted through 330 mm (13") Trofimov slide valves, which had an automatic bypass feature when the locomotive was drifting. Other modern features included roller bearings on all axles, Boxpok drivers

Their main operational area was the South Urals, East Siberian and Krasnoyarsk railway lines. Soviet sources reported train weights increased by 25-30% even as coal consumption fell 12-14% on average. When trailing the six-axle tenders, these large engines couldn't ride a turntable less than 30 m (98.5 ft) long.

For all the advances in design, the LVs could not withstand the march of the diesel. Although 3,000 LV were planned, a change in railway development strategy ordered at the 1956 20th Communist Party Congress stopped this class at 522 locomotives. The last was delivered at the end of 1956. In the same year, China began producing its long-running 2-10-2 QJ class (Locobase 2159), which is said to be based in part on the LV.

Even twenty years later, in 1976, all but one of the class remained in service. Wikipedia describes their distribution as "Northern Railway (168 locomotives), in Kazakhstan (209 locomotives), in Sverdlovsk (35 locomotives), in the Urals (34 locomotives) and Western Siberia (75 locomotives).", however. The final large-scale withdrawal program began in 1985.

Class T (Locobase 728)

Data from Alfred W Bruce, The Steam Locomotive in America - Its development in the twentieth century (New York: W W Norton, 1952), p. 368. See also DeGolyer, Vol 79, pp. 593+. Works numbers were 61643-61647 in July 1931.

Five of this arrangement (and five 2-10-4s by Alco described in Locobase 730) were built for the Soviet Union. Given that these engines represented state of the art, the Soviet order included detailed drawings and specifications of all the auxiliary equipment as well as the locomotives themselves. An obvious goal was to duplicate American practice insofar as it applied to the Soviet railroading environment. So the firebox had both arch tubes (15 sq ft/1.393 sq m) and syphons (68 sq ft/6.317 sq m) contributing to firebox heating surface area.

That environnment, as far as these five engines were concerned, included maximum 1% grades, curves with radii of 150 metres (492 feet) to be traversed at 65 km/h (40 mph) on 38.4 kg/meter (76.8 lb/yard). Fuel was to consist of 30% hard coal, 30% soft coal, and 40% smoke and coke coal.

Although other historians assert that the FD class was closely patterned on the American locomotives, Bruce says very little is known of how they actually performed and very few elements from either design other than the use of mechanical stokers are detectable in later Soviet locomotives.