The Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railways, FS) Class 737 (Italian: Gruppo 737) consisted of 15 ex-British War Department locomotives of the Stanier Class 8F type purchased in 1946.
Contents
History
The first eight engines, (eventually FS Numbers 737.001 – 737.008) were built to WD orders between 1940 and 1942. The remaining seven (eventually FS Numbers 737.009 – 737.015) had been requisitioned by the War Department in 1941 from the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) - these had been built in 1936 by the Vulcan Foundry. All were then shipped to the Middle East, with several more classmates, where they served in Persia and were numbered in the Persian series. In 1944, 50 of the Persian engines were transferred to Kingdom of Egypt/Mandate Palestine, where they were again renumbered into the Middle East Forces (MEF) 93xx series. Later WD numbers were original numbers plus +70000, and in 1946 FS bought fifteen of these.
As they were non-standard compared to Italian locomotive practice, their career was relatively short, working on the line between Bologna and Ancona until 1947, then being kept at Bari; they were all withdrawn from service by 1953.
Numbering
Numbers were as follows: