Imperial Ottoman Hedjaz 2-4-6-0 Locomotives in Turkey

Class unknown (Locobase 10653)

Data from "'Articulated' Mallet Compound Locomotive, Imperial Ottoman Hedjaz Ry" The Locomotive Magazine, Volume XIV [14] (15 May 1908), p. 81; and " ", Revue gTnTrale des chemins de fer et des tramways. ... volume 32, No 1 (1909), pp. 63-64. Works numbers were 7791-7794 in 1907.

The Hedjaz Railway connected Damascus with the Holy City of Medina, "...a distance of about 800 miles through a country of religious fanatics and with serious natural obstacles in addition.", according to the LM reporter. Milestones of completion along the way from Damascus were the town of Ma'an (250 miles, May 1905), Tebuk (395 miles) El ' Ala (580 miles), Medain Saleh (600 miles).

"Water is scarce throughout the route," noted LM. "South of Ma'an, the railway has to descend from a tableland about 3,700 ft above sea level down a steep escarpment into a valley 500 ft below, by means of a long looped curve with a minimum radius of 336 ft and with gradients ranging from 1 in 55 1/2 to 1 in 62 1/2, followed by a series of less severer curves and gradients."

It was profiles like that described above for which the Mallet was intended, even if the uneven number of drivers for the two engine sets was quite unusual. The author notes that the only way to provide a big enough boiler to produce the steam required to pull 250-ton trains over such terrain, around such curves, and on such light rail was to put six axles under it, five of which were powered.

Noting the only Europeans allowed south of Ma'an were railway officials, the LM reporter sniffed: "Moslem engine-drivers and mechanics are almost exclusively employed, mostly drawn from the Turkish Navy, and of indifferent acquirements."

NB: Tube heating surface in the French specs was given from the interior tuber diameter of 45 mm (1.77")--fire side--as 140 sq m (1,615 sq ft). Locobase uses the external--water or wetted side--tube diameter.