Class
423F 2-Cylinder General Purpose Tank Locomotive
Designed
by Mikhail Rodnivacek
Built
in 1954 by Friedrich Krupp, Essen, Germany
The
423E was in every way the tank version of the 423E, the drawings of
which
were extended to include the rear bunker and trailing bogie (which is
identical
to the leading one), plus the side tanks. With their good acceleration
and turn of speed, these husky engines were the absolute masters of the
Bevice and Kropčahne suburban services, which at peak hours maintain a
headway of as little as seven minutes. A further contingent of 423Fs
was
allocated to branch lines in the south, where their 1560mm wheels stood
them in good stead on the sometimes stiff gradients and being tank
engines
enabled them to run to termini where turntables are too small or
non-existent.
Krupp, of Essen, supplied a total of 110 locomotives over a period of
three
years, making this one of the last large steam orders supplied by a
German
firm to a customer within Europe. The
changeover to poppet valves on the
RSR was proceeding apace when these locomotives were delivered and came
just too late for the order to Krupp to be amended. Starting in 1956,
all engines were converted at the first opportunity (usually in
connection with the first general overhaul), becoming class 423FF.
In
the mid-1980s, the remaining 83
members of the class were rebuilt to class 434F.
Text
and graphics © Norman Clubb 2015