GrSngesberg-Oxelosund 0-8-0 Locomotives in Sweden

Class M3b (Locobase 4838)

Data and details from Dirty Nico's Steamdepot [] . See also a post by Hans Broman on 3 November 1908 in the "M3t versus M3b - fair comparison?" thread archived in the [] blog, last accessed 30 October 2017.

These freight engines were built for private railroad use and served the TGOJ until their retirement. The design also was used by the Nederlandse Speerwegen for a 35-locomotive class that went into service after World War II.

Apparently the locomotive put more steam into its three cylinders than its exhaust system could easily expel. Hans Broman cited a March 1944 letter from Nils Ahlberg to Nohab's senior engineer Bengt Sjolin. A survey of experienced drivers in 1932, he wrote, contained a series of quotes that, although phrased differently, pointed to the same problem:

'They are like a big bunch of long and tight skirts, the forces are enough, but they can not use them.'

'They have asthma.'

'The power is as if there were two cylinders and the steam passage as if it were four.'

'Posting does not make any difference, it only a little worse in the chimney, and then you have a little more coal and water of course.'

'It's as if machine was working against itself.'

After more than 20 years service, M3b engine 61 was retired to the TGOJ museum. In August 2017, 61 was moved into the covered shops to begin its long-sought restoration.