NS series 3700
| NS series 3700 | |
|---|---|
 Locomotive 3737 in the Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht
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| Numbering: | 3701–3820 685–799 SS (until 1921, with gaps) |
| Number: | 120 |
| Manufacturer: | Beyer-Peacock , Werkspoor , Henschel & Sohn , Hanomag , Schwartzkopff |
| Year of construction (s): | 1910-1928 |
| Retirement: | until 1958 |
| Axis formula : | 2'C h4 |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Length over buffers: | 19,450 mm (3701–3720) 18,480 mm (3721–3784, 3791–3815) 18,580 mm (3785–3790) 19,700 mm (3816–3820) |
| Height: | 4520 mm |
| Service mass: | 72 t |
| Service mass with tender: | 115 to 134 t |
| Top speed: | 110 km / h |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 1850 mm |
| Impeller diameter front: | 915 mm |
| Control type : | Walschaerts control , internal |
| Number of cylinders: | 4th |
| Cylinder diameter: | 400 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 660 mm |
| Boiler overpressure: | 12 bar |
| Grate area: | 2.84 m² |
| Radiant heating surface: | 15.44 m² |
| Tubular heating surface: | 144.89 m² |
| Superheater area : | 41 m² |
| Water supply: | 18.0 to 28.0 m³ |
| Fuel supply: | 6 to 9.1 tons of coal |
| Train brake: | Westinghouse |
The NS series 3700 was an express train - steam locomotive series of the Dutch Railways (NS). The 120 copies of the series were built between 1910 and 1928 by various manufacturers from Great Britain , the Netherlands and Germany . In 1958, the last examples were taken out of service, and the 3737 locomotive, which has survived to this day, ran the NS's last official steam-hauled train on January 7, 1958.
history
As with almost all European railways, after the turn of the 20th century, one of the two predecessor companies of the NS founded in 1917, the Staatsspoorwegen (SS), increased the train weight of the express trains considerably due to the increasing demand and the use of heavy bogie wagons, especially in the international traffic to the German border station Emmerich . The previously used locomotives with the 2'B wheel arrangement were no longer sufficient; more powerful locomotives were required. An attempt with an Atlantic failed due to design flaws, only five locomotives of the later NS series 2000 were built as SS 995–999 and taken out of service by 1930. In Beyer-Peacock in Manchester , the SS therefore announced the delivery of a stronger express locomotive with the wheel arrangement 2 'C and Vierling Drive in order. Beyer-Peacock delivered the first six units in 1910, and another 30 locomotives from Manchester followed by 1914. From 1911 the local manufacturer Werkspoor also delivered locomotives of this series, up to 1921 a total of 48 units. After the end of the First World War , German manufacturers offered favorable conditions, in 1920 and 1921 Henschel and Hanomag supplied another 10 and 15 machines respectively. The last delivery of five items came from Schwartzkopff in 1928. Originally the locomotives were designated as series 700 by the SS, but the numbering began with 685 and had gaps without any connection with the year of construction. From 1921 onwards, all locomotives received the new NS number series 3700 and were given new serial numbers based on their procurement years.
Soon after its delivery, the 3700 series took over the most important express train services of the SS after it had proven in test drives that it could transport a 400-ton express train at a constant 90 km / h over longer distances. It thus fully met the requirements placed on it. The 3700 was soon nicknamed "Jumbo" by the locomotive drivers, as it could carry trains that were more than twice as heavy as their predecessors and were the most powerful express locomotives in the Netherlands at the time of their acquisition. They only had to provide some services to the somewhat more powerful locomotives of the NS 3900 series from their delivery year 1929. In 1939 the locomotives were to be found almost in the entire NS network, most of them in the railway depots in Amsterdam (18 pieces), Zwolle (13 pieces) and Roosendaal (10 pieces). They covered almost all important national and international express and express train services, including trains such as the Pullman Express "Edelweiss" . Despite the relatively large drive wheel set diameter of 1850 mm, they were also used in freight transport.
The NS was one of the European railway administrations that relied on the new forms of traction relatively early on and, in the inter-war period , promoted the use of electric and diesel multiple units in particular. The diesel multiple units ( Materieel '34 ), which were put into service in 1934 for fast city connections in the regular timetable, initially had considerable technical problems, the 3700 series had to provide replacement services in the travel times originally intended for the multiple units, mockingly referred to as "Stoomdiesel" (steam diesel).
After the occupation of the Netherlands in the western campaign by the German Wehrmacht , the NS had to hand over a large number of locomotives to the Deutsche Reichsbahn . From 1942, for example, five locomotives of the 3700 series were formally leased to the DR and were used near their home by the railway depots in Gronau and Rheine . Further locomotives were finally also driven into the Reich, so that the NS had only 28 operational locomotives of the 3700 series at the end of the war. 68 pieces were missing, 14 were in repair shops with major damage . The locomotives found in the western occupation zones were returned to the NS, only 13 locomotives found further east were not returned to the inventory. Another seven locomotives were decommissioned due to excessive war damage, so that the NS finally had 100 units in 1950. Most of the 13 locomotives remaining in the Soviet occupation zone were parked on the island of Rügen . The Red Army seized ten of them and drove them to the Soviet Union . The majority were used as stationary steam generators in industrial companies, four units still hauled trains on the route between Radviliškis in northern Lithuania and Grīva near Daugavpils until 1951, the year in which the reverse gauging in the Baltic to the Russian broad gauge was completed .
The electrification of the Dutch railway network, which was interrupted by the war, was accelerated by the NS after the war and by the early 1950s, the important connections from the Randstad to Roosendaal and on to Belgium as well as to Maastricht and Enschede were electrically accessible. Only on the routes to Leeuwarden and Groningen , the express train service of the 3700 series was maintained for a few years, together with the 3900 series and, for a short time, the new NS series 4000 delivered after the war . The locomotives, which were no longer necessary for express train traffic, were used in front of passenger trains between Amsterdam and Enkhuizen or between Nijmegen and Dordrecht , but often also in freight traffic or for special services.
The last place of use in passenger traffic was Nijmegen, where the 3700 series ran trains to the German border station at Kranenburg until June 1957 . In freight traffic, the last locomotives in Rotterdam and Roosendaal still had some services until the Roosendaal depot took the last locomotives out of scheduled service in December 1957. The 3737 locomotive finally led the officially last steam-hauled NS train from Geldermalsen to Utrecht on January 7, 1958 . It was preserved as the only locomotive of this series and was transferred to the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht.
Locomotive 3737 was operational again since the 1970s, interrupted by sometimes longer breaks. It has largely been restored to its pre- WWII state. Especially at the 150th anniversary of the Dutch railroad in 1989, it played an important role as one of the few remaining operable steam locomotives of the NS. In 1996 she received a new boiler and a new fire box . It has been standing as a stationary exhibit in Utrecht for a number of years, after a renewed operational refurbishment was refrained from in 2008 due to high costs.
technology
Beyer-Peacock designed the series as a four-of-a-kind, so all four cylinders - unlike four-cylinder composite steam locomotives such as the Bavarian S 3/6 - were supplied with live steam. All cylinders drove the first coupled axle. Internal Walschaerts controls were used as controls , with the external cylinders also being controlled by the internal controls via intermediate shafts. This engine produced very good and quiet running characteristics, but ensured a relatively high consumption of coal. The Prussian S 10 , for example, had a similar engine , but not with internal controls.
The boiler has a Belpaire - firebox and only a simple steam dome , which has a copper cladding. The safety valve is clad in brass. These eye-catching glossy panels were retained until World War II and then painted over. The pre-war condition was restored to the museum locomotive 3737.
Most of the locomotives were equipped with three-axle tenders , with the oldest 20 locomotives receiving larger, four-axle tenders in 1923, which the last Schwartzkopff series received ex works. This last series also had somewhat larger cylinders with a diameter of 420 mm, but these did not prove themselves and were replaced by cylinders of the normal size after a few years. During this conversion, an inner and an outer cylinder were combined in common castings. Originally, the two inner cylinders were cast in one piece and the outer cylinders were each separate. Most of the other machines also received the new cylinders, with which the steam flow could also be improved. By 1951, 91 machines had been converted accordingly.
Two of the locomotives manufactured by Werkspoor in 1920 were designed for pulverized coal firing ex works , but this did not prove itself. Only one of the two locomotives was used for extensive test drives, the other probably never used as a coal dust locomotive due to the bad experience.
In the 1930s the NS followed the trend of many railways in Europe and America to streamline . Six locomotives, the numbers 3800 to 3805, were converted from 1936 to 1938 with cladding as streamlined locomotives . Due to space problems, this required the replacement of the previous preheater system with feed pump with exhaust steam injectors . The streamlined cladding did not prove itself, however, due to the unchanged top speed of 110 km / h, no significant savings in coal were possible, even if the NS acquired its first streamlined express train coaches from 1935 with the Bolkoprijtuigen . The staff also complained about the heat in the driver's cab in the summer.
During the Second World War, the locomotives lost their bare copper and brass panels, which were either used for the collection of non-ferrous metals or painted over for camouflage reasons. The streamlining of the six converted locomotives also disappeared during the war. Only the exhaust steam injectors proved their worth and were retrofitted on other 3700 series locomotives. Instead, some locomotives received pumps from former British war locomotives (type "Austerity"), which had been handed over to the NS after the war. Their tenders were also used in many 3700s. These various conversions meant that the 3700 series sometimes looked very different from the outside in its last years of use.
literature
- Hans v. Poll: Steam locomotives of the Dutch Railways (NS), Part 1: The 3700 series. In: Lok-Magazin 83, March / April 1977, pp. 91–99
- Martin van Oostrom: Operational again after 16 years: NS steam locomotive 3737 . In: Wolfgang Messerschmidt (Ed.): Locomotive magazine . No. 68 . Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, W. Keller & Co. , 1974, ISSN 0458-1822 , p. 397-399 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Herman Gjisbert Hesselink, Norbert temple railways in the Baltic States , publishing Lok report, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-921980-51-8 , p 127
- ↑ De Nederlandse Museummaterieel Database: Loc NS 3737 van het Stichting Het Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum (SpM) , accessed on December 25, 2014
