Class
E 2-Cylinder Passenger Tank Locomotive
Designed
by Giorg Maznicek
Built
in 1853 by Robert Stephenson & Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
At
the beginning of the 1850s there was a strong upsurge in local
passenger
traffic in both urban and rural areas and various types of early
engines
had to be pressed into service to keep the trains moving. In response
to
this increased demand, Maznicek designed this powerful 0-4-2 tank
engine,
of which over 100 were built by Stephenson. Although a great advance
over
their predecessors in terms of power, their running qualities left
quite
a lot to be desired, particularly bunker-first, due to a lack of side
control
on the radial rear axle. A number of experiments was carried out to
better
this situation and the one that succeeded was to mount the rear axle
rigidly
in the frame and allow the leading coupled axle spring-controlled
sideplay.
Many of these fine little machines were still doing good work at the
turn
of the century, the last few only disappearing just before the start of
the First World War.
Text and graphics © Norman Clubb 2012