Hornby R3356 BR 2-10-0 Crosti Boiler 9F Class Heavily Weathered

Hornby R3356

BR 2-10-0 Crosti Boiler 9F Class (Early BR) Heavily Weathered

00 Gauge

The BR Class 9F was born out of the need for British Railways requirement for a heavy freight locomotive and was part of their standardisation plan. By 1954 the first 20 Class 9F locomotives had been introduced, however with coal economies in mind it was decided as an experiment that the next 10 of the Class to be built should be built using Franco-Crosti boilers.

Named after two Italian engineers who had worked for the Italian State railway in the 1930s, the Franco-Crosti boiler was a modification of the more conventional fire tube boiler, which was used on the majority of steam locomotives. Different from the more common type of boiler, the heat that remained in the exhaust gasses was used to preheat the water supply for the main boiler by using a secondary heat exchange system. The heat exchange system was in effect a secondary boiler. From there the preheated water was fed at full boiler pressure into the main boiler. The feedwater heater as it was known was not designed to produce steam but to raise the temperature of the water allowing the heater to maximise the remaining energy in the exhaust gasses more efficiently.