Class
H 2-Cylinder Banking Tank Locomotive
Designed
by Marek Luršimonš
Built
in 1860 by August Borsig, Berlin, Germany
Most
locomotives running on the RSR at the beginning of the 1860s were quite
adequate by the standards of the day but often found themselves in
trouble
on the more steeply-graded lines in the south. To avoid double-heading
over a whole journey, Luršimonš decided to keep a number of banking
engines
at the foot of the severest inclines, including those at Rovniebera and
Forihv.
An extra locomotive depot was established at Rovniebera
for
stabling and
fuelling. Borsig delivered the first twenty of these feisty little
0-8-0Ts
in 1860 and another twenty followed in 1862. Their adhesive weight of
some
48 tonnes guaranteed sure-footedness and their tractive effort of over
10 tonnes gave a lively leg-up to many a 2-4-0 struggling at the front
of a train. Since their job was virtually redundancy-proof, they
remained
in service until the late 1890s, when they were finally displaced by
relegated
class M 0-8-0s.
Text and graphics © Norman Clubb 2012