FS Class 835

The Class 835 was the standard steam shunting locomotive of the Italian State Railways, an 0-6-0 tank engine with a saturated boiler that entered service in 1906 and was built until 1922. It grew out of the Rete Mediterranea classes 829 and 830, taking the boiler of the latter together with enlarged cylinders. Breda built the first 97, which had only a steam brake for the locomotive itself, while later engines also carried an air brake for the train. In all 370 were built by Breda, Ansaldo, Reggiane and Officine Meccaniche, which made the class one of the most numerous in Italy. Crews called them Cirilla, and they worked in stations and yards across the country. In the 1950s and 1960s the frames, axles and coupling rods of many were reused to make electric and diesel shunters. The last steam engines worked until 1984, and 54 survive in preservation, none of them in working order.