SEK (''Sidirodromoi Ellinikou Kratous'',

Hellenic State Railways Hellenic State Railways or SEK ( el, Σιδηρόδρομοι Ελληνικού Κράτους, ''Sidirodromi Ellinikou Kratous''; Σ.Ε.Κ.) was a Greek public sector entity (legal person of public law, el, Ν.Π.Δ.Δ.) which was established in ...

) Class Λβ (or Class Lb;

Lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ris ...

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labi ...

) is a class of 16

2-10-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-10-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, ten powered and coupled driving wheels on five axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement was of ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s, ex-

WD Austerity 2-10-0 The War Department (WD) "Austerity" 2-10-0 is a type of heavy freight steam locomotive that was introduced during the Second World War in 1943. Background The Austerity 2-10-0 was based on the Austerity 2-8-0, and was designed to have interc ...

s purchased after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. All of them were previously stabled in Egypt and were transported to Greece, as part of the UNRRA mission in Greece (arrived at Thessaloniki port on 16 January 1946). They were given the class letters "Λβ" and numbers 951–966. They were mainly allocated to the

Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

division, but hauled both freight and passenger trains (including Athens to Istanbul Expresses) all across Greece, until they were slowly replaced by

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whe ...

s until the mid-1970s, being one of the last classes of steam locomotives of SEK to be withdrawn from regular service.

Preservation

A total of eight Greek Austerity 2-10-0s survived the 1984-1985 steam locomotive scrappings,http://harakevetmagazine.com/downloads/HRKIssue52.pdf two of which were repatriated to Great Britain. Two continued to work tourist specials out of Drama until the mid-00s whilst the remaining four were left in open storage. Two are thought to have been scrapped in recent times, leaving just four survivors in Greece and the two repatriated examples. * Name or number applied after preservation

References

WD Austerity 2-10-0 Λβ 2-10-0 locomotives Steam locomotives of Greece Railway locomotives introduced in 1952 Standard gauge locomotives of Greece {{steam-loco-stub