First Superheated Loco's.

On a visit to Bassenden Rail Museum in Perth Western Australia on 06/10/2019. 3 ft 6in gauge ES class 4-6-2 308 was on display .The museum stock list /brochure states built Vulcan UK 1902 and was one of the first superheated loco's in the world. I attach a photo 'of the loco .The loco' is vastly more 20th century looking and with superheating appears to be many years ahead of what the U K railways were turning out I was quite impressed.

 

Wikipedia is your friend. This states

"The Es class was the name given to a reconstruction of all but four of the (E) class carried out between 1924 and 1925."
"In 1924/25, all except 306, 336, 338 and 353 were rebuilt with superheated boilers and reclassified as the Es class." So I suggest that 308 was not superheated until that time.

Also look up the Prussian S 4 class which were the first superheated locomotives with serial production starting in 1902.

Best regards

Julian

 

Is it just a trick of the light but the middle drivers look flangeless from here?

 

Yes you are right ,I think the caption in the stock book should have read one of the first Pacific type locos.

 

Blown the picture right up ,and that looks correct.

 

Looking only at the build and super heating dates of English Pacifics, only in that I have little knowledge of what the Americans, Germans and French were doing, we have:



I have every expectation that the Americans, Germans and French were building super heated Pacifics and super heated locomotives of other wheel arrangements in significant numbers long before 1924/25. In the UK Churchward was a very early adopter of super heating once he had devised a super heater that minimised carbonisation of oils, heat loss up the chimney, ease of servicing, and avoiding patent royalty payments. It was applied to his modern classes in significant numbers across the GWR before the First World War and thereafter.

For further details on the invention and development of super heating, I suggest you start by looking up Willhelm Schmidt, or as he was known (translated into English) "Hot Steam Willy".

Best regards

Julian

 

Sorry I should have made it clearer ,I think the museum stock book meant the E class was one of the first class of 4-6-2s in the world. Look forward to reading your two recommended publications.

 

The 4-6-2 type originated in the USA, with New Zealand in 1901 becoming the first user in the British Empire. First European Pacifics were the Paris-Orleans Rly 4500 class of 1907 - 4-cylinder compounds, initially non-superheated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-6-2

Regarding what were the first superheated locos, answer depends on whether the early low-temperature "steam-dryer" devices are included within the definition. Aspinall designed a steam-dryer based on a steam drum placed at the front-end of the boiler barrel. It was applied in 1899 to a single Lancashire & Yorkshire 4-4-2. The Clench steam-dryer, working on the same principle, was used on some Central European lines.

After Wilhelm Schmidt developed the fire-tube superheater, it spread from Prussia to the rest of the world in only a few years, with GWR and L&Y being the first users in Britain. Before 1914, it had achieved general acceptance for locomotives that undertook sustained haulage duties on main-lines.