Rhaetia Articulated Locomotives in Switzerland

Class G 2/3 + 2/2 (Locobase 8044)

Data from Rhatische Bahn history at [] and from [], last accessed 30 December 2006.

The challenging Rhaetia Bahn needed more power at the turn into the 20th Century, so it signed for a batch of 8 Mallet tanks for delivery in late 1902 and early 1903; SLM's works numbers were 1480-1487 and boiler IDs were 2257-2264. Not only was the locomotive's power welcome, its leading Adams truck proved a useful addition to earlier all-adhesion Mallets.

By the early 1920s, the Rhaetian was almost fully electrified and these pocket-Mallets were redundant. CF du Madagascar provided a home for 5 (25, 29-32) on their 950-mm gauge railway. They were renumbered TA 51, 53, 52, 54 & 55, respectively. It's not clear why 51 would have been out of service by 1930, especially since the other 4 served into the late 1950s.

The other three operated on the Yverdon-Ste-Croix-Bahn elsewhere in Switzerland until the YSteC's electricification in 1946. 27 was then scrapped, but 26 & 28 were sold to a Spanish explosives manufacturer Espaola de Explosivos in Minas de Cala, Sevilla in 1947. In 1952 the two engines went to the Estado Manresa Guardiola as 601-602. 601 was scrapped in 1961 while 602 went on to the Estado Pearroya Puertollano in 1958, where it ran until 1969, when it was the last one out of service and scrapped.

Class G 2/3 + 2/2 (Locobase 12746)

Data from [], last accessed 21 June 2011.

Locobase 12745 describes the pair of Maffei-built tanks in their original all-adhesion configuration. In 1910, the RB replaced the old boiler with a new one of exactly the same dimensions but added a leading truck for better tracking around the RB's sharp curves.

In 1914, RB adopted a plan to electrify all of its lines by 1919, a project it completed successfully and one that threw these two engines out of work.

Brazil's Companhia de Mineratpo Santa Matilde bought the two, but immediately sold them to the Rede Sul Mineira de Viatpo (SMV). The SMV renumbered them 241-242. 242 was rebuilt with a tender in 1937-1938 by the SMV's successor the Rede Sul Mineira de Viatpo (RMV) and renumbered 330. It appeared that the 241 would be treated similarly, but its conversion apparently did not occur.

Both locomotives were retired some time between 1941 and 1944.