Turkish State 2-10-0 Locomotives in Turkey

Class 56.001 (Locobase 1633)

Data from

[] -- a Turkish steam locomotive magazine site (in English) consulted on 1 January 2003

This large class of Decapods had many suppliers. German companies started deliveries just before World War II. Vulcan and Skoda added 87 locomotives in 1948-1949

Although the original visit to the Trains of Turkey website said that 37 British locomotives delivered by Vulcan in 1948 were identical, it was clear that the boiler's evaporative heating surface is clearly higher at 2,574 sq ft and superheat surface is lower at 908 sq ft. In fact, by 25 December 2003, when Locobase visited the Demiryolu site again ([]), the editor had established a separate column of data. See Locobase 5834.

The 50 Skoda engines earned their own Locobase number (5835) on the strength of a larger grate and larger tender.

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Class 56.080 (Locobase 5834)

Data from [] (visited 25 Dec 2003), the website of Demiryolu, the Turkish train magazine. See also the full description in Vulcan Magazine, Autumn 1948, pp 14-17 (reproduced on [], last accessed 15 July 2007)

This is one of three sub-classes of Decapods built to approximately the same specifications. The first set is described in Locobase 1633. Delivered after World War II, these British locomotives had the same power dimensions, but more evaporative, less superheat surface (possibly due to different diameters of tubes and flues). They also weighed a bit more.

According to [] (13 Jan 2004), Vulcan Foundry delivered the first 22 (works # 5683-5704) in 1948. Beyer, Peacock's 15 (works # 6946-6960) followed in 1949.

Like all the locomotives in this large group, these engines had a rigid wheelbase of only 3.8 m (12.47 ft). The pony truck forward was linked to the first coupled axle in a Krauss Helmholz bogie with 125 mm of play and the rear coupled axle was similarly linked to the trailing truck. Piston valves measured 300 mm (11.8") in diameter.

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Class 56.117 (Locobase 5835)

Data from "56117 to 56166" on the Trains of Turkey at [] (visited 25 Dec 2003), the website of Demiryolu, the Turkish train magazine. See also "56201 to 56202" on the Trains of Turkey website at [], last accessed at [] . According to [] (13 Jan 2004), CKD delivered its 25 (works # 2500-2524) in 1949. Skoda supplied the other 25 (works # 1991-2015) followed in the same year.

This is one of three sub-classes of Decapods built to approximately the same specifications. The first set is described in Locobase 1633, the 1948 Britons in Locobase 5834.

Like all the locomotives in this large group, these engines had a rigid wheelbase of only 3.8 m (12.47 ft). The pony truck forward was linked to the first coupled axle in a Krauss Helmholz bogie and the rear coupled axle was similarly linked to the trailing truck.

The last two engines in the class arrived in 1961. They were the first locomotives built in Turkey, offers Trains of Turkey, "...the last two steam engines to be delivered to TCDD and perhaps the last two manufactured in Europe."

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Class 56.301 (Locobase 966)

Data from [] -- a detailed Turkish website (in English) , originally accessed 12 January 2007. See also "Turkey Accepts the First of 88 Locomotives on Order", Railway Age, Volume 123, No 17 (25 October 1947), p. 709.

Entered service in Turkey after World War II and operated successfully for decades until the end of steam. says that this was the only class on the TCDD that had mechanical stokers. LIke most other large Turkish locomotives, the fixed wheelbase (5.106 m / 16 ft 9") was smaller than the total driving wheelbase. This is attributable to the provision of a Krauss-Helmholz truck that included the leading guide truck and the first coupled axle.

Known as "Skyliners" for the profile included a casing faired over the steam and sand domes as well as rounded front edges on the tender. At the speed these engines typically ran, such "streamlining" was for aesthetic purposes only.

See also A[nthony] E[dward] Durrant, The steam loc, who comments that the TCDD was in the possibly unique position of possessing locomotives by Vulkan of Stettin, Germany/Poland; Vulcan Foundry, Great Britain, and Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA.

VIW's contract with Turkey was worth more than $10 million, which RA noted was "an amount greater than the total volume of American exports to Turkey in 1939". Works numbers were 4790-4877 delivered as follows:

1947 4790-4796 56.301-307

1948 4797-4810 56.308-321

1948 4811-4830 56.363-382

1948 4831-4834 56.322.325

1948 4835-4840 56.383-388

1948 4841-4858 56.326-343

1949 4859-4877 56.344-362

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Class 56.901 (Locobase 1635)

Data from [] (visited 25 December 2003, link later changed to [], last accessed 25 December 2021), the website of Demiryolu, the Turkish train magazine. See also A[nthony] E[dward] Durrant, The Steam Locomotives of Eastern Europe (Newton Abbot:David & Charles, 1966).

The first Turkish Decapods, 15 were built in Germany of which 10 went to the TCDD as 56.001-010, later 56.901-910. Henschel builder's numbers were 14515-14520 (101-104, 106) and 15937-15941 (105, 107-110).

According to Demiryolu, these decapods were based on the G12 1 0-10-0s of the KPEV, but the design was modified in so many important respects that it constituted a new locomotive. Raising the boiler by 88 cm (34.6") allowed for a wider grate that was more easily fired. In addition, "The square Crampton firebox was of the same width than the boiler resulting in an improved efficiency in terms of fire temperature and heat transfer. The firebox sides, being shorter than before, were cheaper to build."

The higher-pitched boiler was more flexible and the frame less prone to cracking. Moreover, the locomotive rode more smoothly on rough track.

An interesting result of the three-cylinder layout combined with the high boiler was the room it provided for raising the inside cylinder above the other two and driving the third axle instead the second.

In the event, only 10 of the 15 engines ordered by The Ottoman War Ministry were delivered by war's end. The Allies took over the remaining five in Germany in 1918.

The last of this long-lived class went to the scrapyard in 1953.

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Class 56.911 (Locobase 1636)

Data from [] (visited 25 December 2003), the website of Demiryolu, the Turkish train magazine; and A[nthony] E[dward] Durrant, The Steam Locomotives of Eastern Europe (Newton Abbot:David & Charles, 1966). Works numbers wre 1705-1712.

Durrant wrote that these engines, built for the SCP, while small for a Decapod "...were thoroughly modern; with good cylinder design, etc. [sic], while their light axle load enabled them to provide useful power capacity over lightly laid lines." (A later ToT edit added: "a modern engine, yet simple and reliable. It had all the desirable equipment for the time: feed water heater, slide valves, large cylinder, Crampton firebox and superheating.")

Taken up by TCDD as 56.011-018, renumbered in 1940 as 56.911-918.

Trains of Turkey remarked that this order stands as one of the few ventures into broad-gauge construction for a firm that usually focused on the narrow gauge.