RENFE 4-8-2 Locomotives in Spain

Class 241-2201 (Locobase 5504)

Data from [], the web site of the Spanish National Railway. visited 21 April 2003.

Described on a hobby site -- [] (8 May 2003) -- as "...una de las mas elegantes locomotoras de vapor de Renfe ...popularmente conocidas como las 'Bonitas'." ["...one of the RENFE's most elegant steam locomotives ...popularly known as the "Pretty Ones" [or, perhaps, "the Belles" or "Beauties"....you get the idea])

In Lineas Del Tren (#290, 5 May 2003) [Por que llegaron a Espana las 1-4-1 Mikados francesas? reproduced on [], accessed 7 Dec 2005], Angel Maestro notes a tonnage rating of 670 tonnes over a relatively easy profile between Venta de Banos and Valladolid.

Pere Comas, whose Paleontologia Vaporosa posts on the family tree of Spanish 4-8-0s are referenced in Locobase 3382, describes them as "Montagna Imponensis"and notes that their boilers were of the same design as the 2-10-2s originally put in service by Norte as their 5000 series. The success of the original 22 delivered in 1944 led to further orders of slightly different Mountains over the next several years.

Class 241-4048 (Locobase 3476)

Data from []

Years after the first group of compound Mountains had entered Spanish service (see 241-4001 at Locobase 3397), Babcock & Wilcox modified 241-4048 in 1939. Working from Chapelon's recent success in internal streamlining (i.e., improving the flow of steam through the lines to the cylinders), B&W designers also adopted Chapelon's Kylchap blast pipe, and the Dabeg poppet valve gear. Like so many Spanish locomotives, these Mountains had Belpaire fireboxes. Superheat ratio climbed to one of the highest values ever put in service in a production engine.

The prototype steamed alone for several years, but its greater efficiency led RENFE to order 27 more in 1946-1947. OS Nock (RWC VI, pl 22) notes that these "highly impressive" engines initially served the most mountainous portions of the main line between Avila and Irun, but were supplanted by electrification. They then ranged widely until they left service in the late 1960s. Colin Garratt's comment (Steam Trains of the World, 1987): "The locomotives were superb, heavy-hauling engines built for difficult terrain and very large loads."