Statens Jarnvagar 0-8-0 Locomotives in Sweden

Class E (Locobase 4840)

Data and details from Dirty Nico's Steamdepot [] and from Litt E, one of a series of SJ locomotive diagrams archived by Anders Lundbing on [], last accessed 10 June 2017 (Snabcon AB advertised its tools for mounting RJ45 connectors on bundled cables.) and Olavia Hokas's Swedish Steam website at [], first accessed 21 January 2006 (most recently 29 April 2018). Motala produced the quintet in 1917.

These inside-cylinder eight-coupleds went into service in the 'teens. They were delivered over several years by Nyqvist & Holm (Nohab) in Trolhattan (44), Motala Verstad (40), VoM (Vagn och Maskinfabriken) in Falun (36), and Atlas Copco AB in Stockholm (10).

Long-time light passenger and freight engines with a useful top speed of 40 mph (65 kph) and good amount of tractive effort. The boiler/cylinder ratio and demand factor show this to have been a short-haul design, but with the good superheat and firebox ratios the quality of the steam supplied was quite high.

The first of these entered service in 1908, the last retired in 1972 -- at that it entered a "strategic reserve" (a common practice at the end of steam in Scandinavia -- coal they had, oil was a little more problematical in a crisis). At least two were later acquired by the Dutch South Limburg museum railway.

In the 20s, the SJ enclosed the cabs of all engines then in service and changed the lighting from gas to electric. Unusually, the desire for more speed in the mixed-traffic service these engines performed led to the installation of a leading truck in the late 1930s.. See separate entry E2.

Like the B-class 4-6-0s, many of this class received welded fireboxes in the 1950s.

Class G2, G5 (Locobase 20385)

Data from Litt G2, one of a series of SJ locomotive diagrams archived by Anders Lundbing on [], last accessed 10 June 2017 (Snabcon AB advertised its tools for mounting RJ45 connectors on bundled cables.) and Tommy Nilsson's Svenska-lok.se website at Svenska-lok.se, last accessed 21 June 2018.

Near the end of World War One, the state railway faced high prices from local locomotive builders as they sought to improve their drag-freight hauling capability. So they accepted Breslau, Germany's builder Linke-Hoffman's bid to built 21 0-8-0 engines based on the Prussian G8 design (see Locobases 1278-1279). One key difference was the squared-up bore and stroke, which provided somewhat less cylinder volume. 200 mm (7.87") piston valves supplied steam to the cylinders. As in many German locomotives, the G class's piston heads were supported by tail rods that extended through the front cylinder cap through packing.

By 1929, the SJ decided to standardize its motive power, which meant installing the BGb boiler and firebox on 16 locomotives. A few received a front pony truck in the 1940s, becoming 2-8-0s and earning new G-class designations. By the late 1940s, the SJ diagram showed nine locomotives still in service as 0-8-0s:1408-1409, 1411, 1414, 1417, 1420-1421, 1425-1426.

(The evaporative heating surface area includes tube heating surface area as calculated using the tubes' exterior diameters (water side)--as in British and North American practice. Calculated using the tubes' and flues' interior (or fire side) diameters of 44.5 mm/122 mm, evaporative heating surface area was 145.70 sq m/1,568 sq ft). The design had a deep firebox, outside piston valves and cylinders, and the tightly enclosed cab of all Swedish locomotives.