Unspecified 0-6-0 Locomotives in Switzerland

Class 858 (Locobase 7391)

Data from Titre Exposition universelle internationale de 1878 a Paris. Rapports du jury internationale..Volume Groupe VI - Classe 64. Rapport sur le materiel des chemins de fer. p. 55 (cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?8XAE277-11.1/54/100/312/0/0 (accessed 1 September 2005) table and page 91.Jens Merte's SLM builder's list shows just one six-coupled tank for the 750 mm gauge during that time. Works number was 138.

Relatively heavy industrial tank engine for narrow-gauge operation. As with most of the little locomotives from this Exposition report, no actual destination was reported. Merte's listing includes the note that the design was built for the Exposition and could be delivered for the 750-1,000 mm gauge.

The Brown valve system is described as "Transmission de mouvement et distribution system Brown. Port une grue a vapeur pour le chargement et le deschargement."

Class E 3/3 (Locobase 6397)

Data from [] (1 Dec 2004) and from [], the Zurich Museum Bahn's website accessed 1 January 2007. The La Traction site explains that this tank was based on the 1890 design originally procured for the Simplon. The ZMB site account suggests that it was widely used both on short lines and in the shunting (switching) yards of larger railway systems.

SLM supplied one example to the Huttwil-Wolhusen Bahn (HWB) soon after it completed an order for the Gotthardbahn (Locobase 5129) and its builder number -- 1088 -- was only 10 higher than the last of that batch.

Once the HWB began operating the locomotive, however, it quickly found it insufficient to its needs. Even before the 1930 electricfication rendered most steam power redundant in Switzerland, this engine had moved on to the Choindez mill.

La Traction bought the 12 in 1998, but was unable to operate it as it required major boiler work. Schnaaggi Schaagi, another example of the same design delivered in 1899 (works #1221), went to the Sihltalbahn (SiTB) along with 6 sisters. Three were retained as switchers in the Zurich area when the SiTB was electrified. Two of this trio were retired in favor of diesels in 1962, but Schnaaggi Schaaggi somehow endured until several problems idled the engine. A major rebuild restored the locomotive to museum service in 1997.

Class Tigerli (Locobase 5739)

This class of little tanks was built over a ten-year period for a variety of public, private, and industrial railways. As a result, it would appear, no one set of data is definitive. After weighing the contributions from:

[], [], and

[], Locobase let the first site's data stand for the whole melange. [Tube diameter is estimated, calculated from (total heating surface minus firebox heating surface) divided by (tube number times length).]

The von Moos engine's provenance was the Swiss Central #41 upon completion in 1901 (SLM works # 1359). Upon formation of the SBB in 1902, it was class E3/3 8410. After decades of service, the engine was sold to von Moos AG in Emmenbrucke in 1941.

According to Andreas Bruderer's site, the Tigerli delivered as Thunerseebahn's #77 had slightly larger cylinders (360 mm/14.17"), put a little less weight on the rails (32.8 t/72,312 lb), and had a slightly larger boiler (63.08 sq m/679 sq ft) and grate (1.2 sq m/12.91 sq ft). It went from the Thunerseebahn to Werklok Zellulose AG in Attisholz from 1926-1972.

The site for the Val de Traverse steam railway (http://www.vvt.ch) shows a Tigerli from 1911 (SLM works # 2134) with greater weight on the drivers 34.9 tonnes/76,941 lb) but otherwise similar dimensions to those of the Thunerseebahn. Later locomotives, notes

A fourth site -- [] -- notes that the driving wheelbase was lengthened in later engines from 3.12 to 3.32 m (10' 11") to eliminate the rear boiler overhang.

All of the sites agree that these wwere hardy and highly useful little engines that carried on for decades.