Steam Train Galore | Russia locomotive class Ye 1947 | Classic | Visit Baku | Boulevardl MandysTren

The Russian locomotive class Ye, and subclasses Yea, Yek, Yel, Yef, Yem, Yemv and Yes (Russian: Паровоз Е; Еа, Ек, Ел, Еф, Ем, Емв and Ес) were a series of 2-10-0 locomotives built by American builders for the Russian railways in World War I and again in World War II. They were lightweight engines with relatively low axle loadings. Due to the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, 200 locomotives were stranded in the United States; these were fitted with wider tires (locomotive driving wheels had steel tires which were heated to expand them, then driven over the wheels so that they shrank into place. By fitting wider tires with a deeper tread width, the effective wheel gauge could be decreased from the Russian standard of 5 ft (1,524 mm) to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm), (the US standard) to fit the American gauge and were sent to various railroads. The locomotives were nicknamed "Russian Decapods." A number of locomotives were acquired by the Finnish railways (class Tr2)[1] and by the China Railway (class DK2) World War I Background When Russia entered the war in 1914, it was dependent mainly on 0-8-0 and 2-8-0 locomotives. What was needed were locomotives with high adhesive weight (and thus tractive effort), which could only be provided by a locomotive with 10 drive wheels, but the only one being built, the class E (Russian: Паровоз Э) 0-10-0, was in short supply, with only 100 produced thus far. Another problem was that the 0-10-0&were being produced only at one factory. At this...