Since the Hejaz railway from Damascus to Medina also had steep gradients and tight curves, a powerful locomotive was needed for freight trains. Since the tracks were also light with a gauge of just 1,050 mm, six axles were needed to achieve the necessary power. Since there was a lack of water along the route, the tender had to be big enough. The order went to Henschel in Kassel, where four Mallets were built to meet these requirements.

sectional drawing

flickr/Historical Railway Images

The six axles were distributed over two chassis groups, the first of which had only two coupled axles and one leading axle. The first coupled axle could also be moved laterally to improve running characteristics in curves. The two chassis groups were coupled to each other, which is not usual with Mallets. The locomotives apparently met the requirements and easily hauled 250-tonne trains over the entire route.

In 1889, Sharp, Stewart & Co. supplied the Ottoman Railway Company with six locomotives, numbered 40 to 45, as their first goods tender locomotives. The following year, two more followed with the numbers 46 and 47 and two more examples were ultimately not accepted and delivered to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. Except for the cow catcher, these locomotives were mainly of British design and could therefore be used directly by the LT&SR without any problems.

In 1935, the Ottoman Railway Company, originally under British administration, passed to the Turkish state. There the eight engines were given the numbers 33 011 to 018. The last engine was probably scrapped in 1956.

The locomotives with the numbers 56301 to 56388 were the first locomotives that the Turkish State Railways ordered in the USA. Since they still owned a few USATC Class S 160 and S 200 locomotives after World War II and the European factories were busy at the time, these locomotives were built for heavy freight service at the Vulcan Iron Works in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

A member of the class in 1989 in front of a passenger train

Mal Austin

According to their origin, the fireboxes were the largest of all Turkish locomotives and were mechanically fed with a stoker. The boilers were also the largest and most powerful in Turkey. In accordance with US practice, the frames and cylinders were cast in one piece. In a total of five series, 88 pieces were delivered, which were known as “Skyliner” in Turkey. Until the mid-1980s they were mainly used in northern Turkey to pull heavy coal and ore trains and were then used as shunting locomotives for a number of years. Three are still preserved today, one of which is operational.

After the opening of the first section of the Hedjaz Railway, there was the need for powerful freight locomotives. Like most Hedjaz locomotives, they were built by German manufacturers. In this case, Krauss of Munich built 14 2-8-0 between 1903 and 1905. The completion of new sections meant that Krauss delivered 19 more in the following years.

They had the typical look of many German locomotives, but due to their gauge of only 1,050 mm, there was a partial frame outside of the driving wheels. The cylinders were placed in front of the leading axle. The tender was relatively large for a narrow gauge locomotive and held 12.000 liters of water.

When the complete line between Damascus and Medina had been opened and different secondary lines were being planned, twelve additional locomotives were ordered from Jung. These differed somewhat from the Krauss machines, for example in the exact placement of the axles. Nevertheless, many parts were interchangeable, as stated in the requirements.