Class
433G 3-Cylinder Express Passenger Locomotive
Designed
by Mikhail Rodnivacek
Built in
1961 by RSR Works, Bevice-Akohniçe, Ruhnia
The
class 433G and 434C 4-8-4s, which were Rodnivacek's last locomotives
for
the RSR, may in many ways be regarded both as cousins and as the last
fighters
in a battle which was never to be won or lost. The only important way
in
which they differed was in their cylinder arrangement. Seemingly there
was still not a proper concensus at Akohniçe as to which was the
better
layout:
3-cylinder simple or 3-cylinder compound. In the event, the
simple
engines won out, but only for a short time, because Rodnivacek's
successor,
Ketterik, decided on compound expansion for virtually all his
future work. In practice, the compounds proved more expensive to
maintain
for only a marginal superiority in power, whereas the simples were
heavier
on fuel. The
4-8-4s handled the traffic well enough to stay in service
for a good twenty years, the last simples being withdrawn from
Kropčahne
in the mid-1980s.
Graphics
and text © Norman Clubb 2015