Trans-Caucasus Articulated Locomotives in Russia

Class Fairlie (Locobase 3261)

Data from Apercu des Chemins de Fer Russes Depuis l'Origine Jusqu'en, Editor in Chief Andre de Gortschakov (Brussells: Paul Weissenbruch, 1897), p 77. See also Florence Craufurd Grove, The Frosty Caucasus (London:Spottiswoode & Co, 1875), p. 20-21.

Using Robert Fairlie's one-firebox, two-boiler and engine set, these small freight haulers worked in the Trans-Caucasus region on the Souram Pass, scaling the 4.5% grade. Tufnell (1986) says they started out as wood-burners, but converted to oil burning; they were replace in 1903.

Sigl of Austria, and Sharp-Stewart, Avonside, and Yorkshire of England built the first 28; Kolomna Works in Russia supplied the last 17.

One of the Avonsides earned this description from Florence Craufurd Grove after her train scaled the "long and slow climb to reach the high saddle which marks the watershed between the Black Sea and Caspian." She observed that either the line was very lightly built or the grades "exceptionally steep" both up and down for both up and down were "wondrous slow."

The locomotive, which like everything else was English made, was "a marvellous Fairlie engine--a very double-headed nightingale among locomotives, for it consisted apparently of two ordinary engines joined together by their boiler ends."

Class Fairlie (Locobase 9127)

Data from Apercu des Chemins de Fer Russes Depuis l'Origine Jusqu'en 1892, Editor in Chief Andre de Gortschakov (Brussells: Paul Weissenbruch, 1897), p 77.

All of the Fairlies supplied to the Trans-Caucasus were very similar. This quartet was a bit smaller than the other Avonsides described in Locobase 3261.

Class Fairlie (Locobase 9128)

Data from Apercu des Chemins de Fer Russes Depuis l'Origine Jusqu'en 1892, Editor in Chief Andre de Gortschakov (Brussells: Paul Weissenbruch, 1897), p 77.

Of all of the Fairlies supplied to the Trans-Caucasus in the 1880s (45 in all), these four Yorkies were the biggest in all respects.

Class Fairlie (Locobase 9130)

Data from Apercu des Chemins de Fer Russes Depuis l'Origine Jusqu'en 1892, Editor in Chief Andre de Gortschakov (Brussells: Paul Weissenbruch, 1897), p 77.

About half of all the Fairlie-design articulated locomotives delivered to the Trans-Caucasus sported the dimensions shown for this Austrian quintet. The Sigl engines were in fact the model for the 17 that Kolomna delivered and that shown in Locobase 9130.

Class Fairlie (Locobase 9131)

Data from Apercu des Chemins de Fer Russes Depuis l'Origine Jusqu'en 1892, Editor in Chief Andre de Gortschakov (Brussells: Paul Weissenbruch, 1897), p 77.

Locobase 9130 shows the Sigl of Austria template that this Russian builder used to turn out a large order of Fairlie-design articulated engines for the Trans-Caucasus. The only difference was a slight increase in weight in the Russian locomotives.