FS Class 746

The Class 746 was an Italian express steam locomotive of the 2-8-2 Mikado type, built for the Italian State Railways in the 1920s. The railway wanted an engine that could match the speed of its Class 690 Pacifics but spread its weight over a fourth driving axle, so that it could run on the hilly routes around Rome and Florence where the permitted axle load was low. Breda supplied the first forty with Walschaerts valve gear, and Ansaldo of Sampierdarena built a further batch fitted with Caprotti valve gear, first listed as Class 747 and later renumbered into the 746.100 series. The engines used a four-cylinder compound layout of the von Borries type, which was unusual in Italy by then. They hauled express trains on the main line from Milan towards Naples, were later moved to Sicily, and were retired by 1967. Locomotive 746.031 is preserved in Milan and 746.038 at Pistoia.