Class A2 2-4-0 (1859)

Marek Luršimonš's first 4-coupled design for the RSR was this high-wheeled long-boiler 2-4-0, of which 26 were built by Ansaldo of Genoa. Unfortunately, their racy appearance was belied by at best indifferent performance. The problem was not so much bad running (the usual bugbear of long-boilers), since the wheelbase was quite long, but rather their poor steaming and attendant high coal consumption. On a good day, however, they could pull quite hard and were entrusted with the heavier trains on the steeper lines to the south. Nevertheless, all had gone to the scrapyard by 1866, finally displaced by the "Allegrettos".

Text and graphics © Norman Clubb 2012