Mikado (steam locomotive)
The Mikado was a type 1-4-1 or type 2-8-2 steam locomotive according to Whyte notation. It has a guide shaft, four drive shafts and a rear support shaft. It has been a very popular type of locomotive, especially in North America and Europe.
Features
This arrangement of wheels allows the fireplace to be mounted behind the drive axles, instead of on top of them, making it possible to build a larger fireplace. This allows a greater combustion, and therefore a greater capacity to generate steam, producing greater power and speed. This also makes it possible to use larger diameter drive wheels as they are not limited by the hearth, making the Mikado capable of hauling heavier trains at higher speeds than locomotives of the 1-4-0 (2-8-0, according to notation) type. Whyte), very common at the time.
Other equivalent classifications are:
- UIC Classification: 1D1 (also known as German classification and Italian classification);
- French Classification: 141 (also known as Spanish classification);
- Turkish classification: 46;
- Swiss Classification: 4/6;
The origin of the name Mikado
The 1-4-1 axle arrangement (a leading front axle, 4 driving axles and a final supporting axle) was popularly called Mikado following the sale in 1897 by the United States to the Nippon Railway of an order for locomotives with this axle arrangement. In 1895 a very popular opera in the United States called "Mikado" (emperor in Japanese), so Mikado was a popular term associated with Japanese culture.
Usage
In the world
Mikado were hugely successful all over the world. More than 10,000 were built for the North American railroads, especially to tow freight compositions. She was big, though not excessively, and heavy, with good grip. With its power, it easily pulled freight trains of 3,000 to 5,000 tons. France, after the disaster of World War II, turned to the United States to quickly modernize its material. It acquired 1,340 units of the 141R designed and adapted to French requirements by Baldwin Locomotive Works and built by the three main American companies Lima Locomotive Works Baldwin Locomotive Works and Alco (American Locomotive Company). It was so reliable that it continued to serve until the end of the steam era in 1975. There was also the 141P with a compound design, very efficient (it used 30% less fuel and 40% less water), but it never reached reliability standards. of the previous ones.
Argentina
A great client of these locomotives was the Ferrocarril Central Norte Argentino, with metric gauge (1000 mm).
Spain
They were used by the RENFE between 1953 and 1975, the year in which the use of steam locomotives was abandoned. It was, together with the “Confederation” type —RENFE 242 series— and the “Santa Fe” one of the most typical in the Spanish railway landscape.
297 Mikado locomotives with separate tenders have come to circulate on Iberian gauge. Leaving aside 55 Mikado locomotives acquired by the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España before the creation of RENFE, the rest —242— were acquired from 1953 through one of the largest orders for locomotives that RENFE has ever made. After the civil war and the post-war period, at the beginning of the 1950s, a renovation of the Spanish railway fleet was urgent. The supply of 25 units and material for the manufacture in Spain of 100 more were signed with the British constructor North British Locomotive Company. Another 117 would be built in Spain with already Spanish material. The four Spanish builders contracted were MACOSA, MTM, Euskalduna and Babcock & Wilcox. Those units were delivered in successive years, until the last delivery in 1961.
The last steam locomotive in normal commercial service that officially circulated in RENFE was a Mikado, the 141F-2348 (currently preserved in the Villanueva y Geltrú railway museum), which was turned off on June 23, 1975 in front of the post of command of the Vicálvaro-Classification station by the then Prince of Spain while all the other locomotives that surrounded it blew the whistle in chorus.
Technical characteristics
Mikado were very versatile locomotives that suited all compositions. With a wheel diameter of 1,560 mm and its almost 2,000 horsepower, it could reach 115 km/h. It was a machine well adapted for pulling trains of 3,000 to 5,000 tons. It weighed about 103 tm in running order and its tractive effort reached 14,800 kg.
Part of the Spanish Mikado locomotives ran on coal and another part on fuel. The fuel allowed coal to be used in other tasks where it was irreplaceable. In addition, the use of fuel was more comfortable for the stoker and gave the locomotive greater autonomy, with which over time they "fuelled" most of the Spanish Mikado.
Machines preserved today
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Fortunately, there are still some Mikado in working order today, maintained thanks to the enthusiasm and affection of institutions and individuals. In the case of Spain, the Mikado locomotives currently preserved are just over a dozen.
The 141F-2400 monument is found in the Santo Tomás park in Ciudad Real.
Another of them (141F-2111) is preserved in Monforte de Lemos, in the Galician Railway Museum, and is used for charter trips. The strawberry tourist train has been towed on several occasions by another of these locomotives between Madrid and Aranjuez, although diesel traction has been used in recent years. There is also another in León (141F-2346) that works sporadically, and in Zaragoza one preserved by AZAFT awaiting restoration, which comes from the Andorra-Escatrón railway. Another of these locomotives is found abandoned to its fate in the old station of Horna-Villarcayo and which comes from the Santander-Mediterranean railway.
Being one of the most common models in Spain, many are found on pedestals where they were placed years after their use ended. An example is the Mikado 141F-2240, at the entrance to the old railway district of Las Matas, in Las Rozas in Madrid.
Another of these railway tractor machines is exhibited on Avenida de la Universidad de Elche. Type 141F-2351 locomotive built in 1957. It belongs to the funds of the Spanish Railways Foundation, being ceded to the Elche City Council for its public exhibition. Although it is true that it is not used today, it is reminiscent of the passage of the railway through the city on the surface. That is why it is presented on part of the old rails and sleepers that existed in its day. It was recently repainted, exhibiting an excellent state of conservation.
In Argentina, there is currently an economic gauge train in service that in the past transported mixed trains, known as La Trochita. It runs between the towns of Ingeniero Jacobacci and Esquel, in Argentine Patagonia, with a trail of 0.75 m and 402 km in length. Currently it works as a tourist train, with steam locomotives Class 75B No. 20 (Baldwin) and 75H No. 130 (Henschel, Mikado 2-8-2 composition).
The company Turistren, in Colombia, has 3 Mikado locomotives in operation.