FS Class 650

The Class 650 was an Italian steam locomotive, formerly SFAI 1181 to 1200 and Rete Mediterranea Class 300, and the first in continental Europe with the 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler wheel arrangement. Cesare Frescot designed it for the new Giovi relief railway opening in 1889, adding a third driving axle to the usual 4-4-0 so it could pull heavier loads within axle-load limits, and he used a round-top firebox rather than the Belpaire type. The first engine, named Vittorio Emanuele II, came from the Turin works in 1884. Of the other fifty-four built from 1887 to 1896, 36 were built by Ansaldo, thirteen by Maffei and five by Officine Miani and Silvestri. They hauled 130 tonnes up the Giovi line and were withdrawn in the 1920s, and none was preserved.