The

Swedish State Railways The Swedish State Railways ( sv, Statens Järnvägar) or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board ( sv, Kungl. Järnvägsstyrelsen), was the former government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. It was created ...

class E10 was a type 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 ...

which was used for

freight traffic Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

. Ten locomotives were built in 1947 as a slightly modified version of the older E9 class. They were used mainly on the

Inland Line The Inland Line ( sv, Inlandsbanan) is a railway line between Kristinehamn and Gällivare in Sweden. It runs through the central parts of northern Sweden, and was built between 1908 and 1937. History There were several reasons for constructing ...

, before being placed in the strategic reserve, where some remained until 1990; five of them have been preserved.

History

In the 1940s the Swedish State Railways (SJ) saw a need for modern steam locomotives for freight traffic on the Inland Line and in southern

Norrland Norrland (, "Northland", originally ''Norrlanden'' or "the Northlands") is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administ ...

. When the private railway company '' Halmstad–Nässjö Järnväg'' (HNJ) was nationalized in 1945, their G12 class three-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infi ...

4-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading truck or bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trail ...

locomotives became the E9 class of SJ. Impressed by these smooth-running locomotives with high

traction Traction may refer to: Engineering *Forces: ** Traction (engineering), adhesive friction or force ** Traction vector, in mechanics, the force per unit area on a surface, including normal and shear components * Traction motor, an electric motor ...

and a low axle load, SJ ordered ten E10 locomotives from

NOHAB NOHAB (Nydqvist & Holm AB) was a manufacturing company based in the city of Trollhättan, Sweden. History The company was founded by Antenor Nydqvist, Johan Magnus Lidström and Carl Olof Holm in 1847 as ''Trollhättans Mekaniska Verkstad'' as ...

, based on the E9. The E10 locomotives, delivered in 1947, were the last large steam locomotives built for the Swedish railways. The class differed from the E9 by having

roller bearings In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls or rollers) between two concentric, grooved rings called races. The relative m ...

, fully enclosed cabs, and slightly different fireboxes. They were given tenders of the G5 type, a six-wheeled semi-Vanderbilt tender originally designed for the Gb class locomotives in 1920, and large

smoke deflectors Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smokebox at the front of a ste ...

of the German ''Wagner'' type. The type was mainly used on the Mora–

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön ...

section of the Inland Line and other railways in the

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norway i ...

region. They were converted to oil firing in the 1950s, but this was not very successful, and some locomotives were damaged in fires related to it. As the use of steam locomotives declined in Sweden, a large number of surplus locomotives were preserved in the strategic reserve (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used b ...

: ''Beredskapslok'') to replace diesel-powered vehicles in case the import of oil was interrupted. The E10 class was allocated to the strategic reserve in the 1960s. It was one of only four types of steam locomotives to remain in the reserve past the 1970s, but four of the machines were withdrawn in 1973 and scrapped thereafter. The other six were part of the strategic reserve until 1990, and were later transferred to the

Swedish Railway Museum The Swedish Railway Museum, ( sv, Sveriges Järnvägsmuseum), in Gävle, Gästrikland, Sweden is the national museum for Sweden's railway history. The Swedish Railway Museum is tasked with acquiring, preserving and supplying knowledge about Swedi ...

and various preservation societies, although no. 1744 was used for spare parts and eventually scrapped in 2012.

References

{{Swedish railway stock Railway locomotives introduced in 1947 Steam locomotives of Sweden E10 4-8-0 locomotives Freight locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of Sweden