The refusal of the RSR management to authorise construction of the class DD1 Garratt in 1911 led eventually to the design and construction of the highly successful DD2 in 1913. The first reaction of Belčamin's team however was to occupy themselves with the Kitson-Meyer shown here. The general arrangement was inspired by a metre-gauge 2-6-0+0-6-4T supplied by Kitson's to the Leopoldina Railway in Brazil in 1908. Each bogie had two-cylinder compound drive after the fashion of the DD1. The boiler was designed with two superheaters of different sizes, the larger one supplying steam at a higher temperature to compensate for heat losses in the 16-metre-long steam pipe to the rear engine unit. The locomotive was admittedly attributed to Belčamin but would in all probability have fallen foul of his later insistence on carrying axles at the inner ends of the bogies. The drawing was created in 1912 but not published until 1916, hence the classification as DD3.

Text and graphics (C) Norman Clubb 2015