China Railways KF

The China Railways KF, first known as the Confederation class, is a class of 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotives designed by Colonel Kenneth Cantlie and built by Vulcan Foundry for Chinese railways. Twenty-four were ordered in 1935 for the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway, whose steep grades of about two percent, tight curves and light bridges called for strong tractive effort with a low axle load of 16.5 tons. They carried the numbers 600 to 623. Although built in England, they followed American practice, with an automatic stoker and a 4-8-4 layout never used in Britain. Seventeen survived the Second Sino-Japanese War and were renumbered 1 to 17 after 1949, working until early 1977. Locomotive 607, called KF7, was presented by China to the National Railway Museum in York, and another is kept at the China Railway Museum in Beijing.