Class 433G 4-8-4 with poppet valves

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 The 4-8-4s handled the traffic well enough to stay in service for a good twenty years, the last simples being withdrawn from Kropčahne in the mid-1980s.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