LG series P4 (narrow gauge)
| LG series P4 | |
|---|---|
| Numbering: | LG 41-45 |
| Number: | 5 |
| Manufacturer: | Škoda , Plzeň |
| Year of construction (s): | 1939 |
| Retirement: | ? |
| Axis formula : | 1 'D 1'h2 |
| Gauge : | 750 mm |
| Friction mass: | 40 t |
| Top speed: | 60 km / h |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 1,150 mm |
| Control type : | Heusinger |
| Number of cylinders: | 2 |
| Cylinder diameter: | 450 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 550 mm |
| Boiler overpressure: | 14 bar |
| Grate area: | 2.1 m² |
| Superheater area : | 38.7 m² |
| Evaporation heating surface: | 101.3 m² |
| Service weight of the tender: | 14 t |
| Water supply: | 14 m³ |
| Fuel supply: | 5 t |
| Brake: | Westinghouse air brake handbrake |
| Particularities: | Friedmann exhaust steam injector |
The LG P4 series was a narrow-gauge steam locomotive with a tender for the Lithuanian State Railways Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (LG) with a 1'D1 'wheel arrangement and a track width of 750 millimeters. The locomotives were developed and built by Škoda in Pilsen in 1939 . They were among the most powerful steam locomotives in this gauge.
history
The P4 series is one of the few new locomotives acquired by LG in the period between the beginning of Lithuanian independence in 1918 and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940.
In addition to its route network in European standard gauge of 1,435 millimeters, the LG also operated an extensive narrow-gauge network with 750 mm gauge in northeast Lithuania, which was 125 kilometers long in 1929. In the 1930s, plans were developed for an extensive network in this gauge with a total of 860 kilometers network length, partly as a new construction, partly as a conversion from existing narrow-gauge railways with 600 mm gauge. The first line to be re-tracked was the route from Biržai to Šiauliai in 1935 . The track from Žeimeliai to Joniškis was changed . In 1938 a new line followed from Joniškėlis to Panevėžys , where there was a connection to the 750 mm line to Švenčionėliai , which was built between 1892 and 1894 . In 1939, the last full year of independence, the LG owned a total of 284 km of lines with 750 mm gauge. The LG procured new locomotives for these routes as the previous vehicles were no longer sufficient. After the five-coupler series P5 delivered in 1934, powerful Mikado locomotives were ordered from Škoda . During the time of Lithuania's first independence, the Czech company was the “house supplier” to the LG and, with a few exceptions, supplied all steam locomotives acquired during this period.
The five P4 locomotives with road numbers 41 to 45 and the Škoda factory numbers 991-995 were approved for a top speed of 60 km / h due to their large drive wheels for narrow-gauge locomotives, which is quite a high value for 750 mm railways. They were mainly used on the newly built or re-tracked routes around Panevėžys. Characteristic of the wood-fired superheated steam locomotives was a very large tender, an outer frame and counterweights outside the frame . In 1940 the LG ordered another four locomotives of this series from Škoda, for which the road numbers 46 to 49 and the Škoda factory numbers 1116 to 1119 were intended. Due to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, this order was no longer implemented.
It is unclear to what extent the Škoda locomotives were still used on the Lithuanian routes after the Second World War . None of the locomotives survived.
literature
- Herman Gijsbert Hesselink, Norbert Tempel: Railways in the Baltic States. Lok-Report publishing house, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-921980-51-8 .