NS 1600 (steam locomotive)

The NS 1600 was a series of steam locomotives of the Dutch national railways, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and of its predecessors the Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij, the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen. The first nine were ordered by the Rhine railway from Sharp, Stewart and Company in Glasgow in 1899 and were the first locomotives in the Netherlands with a bogie in front of the driving wheels, which earned them the nickname Rhijnbogen at the HSM. The HSM was impressed by their service and ordered forty more from the same builder, then five more in 1900, and a final five in 1903 that were built by the North British Locomotive Company, into which Sharp, Stewart had been merged; those last units had a higher steam pressure and tractive force. The engines were renumbered into the NS 1601 to 1659 series in 1921 and withdrawn between 1936 and 1949. Number 1604, restored to its original Rhine railway number 107, is displayed in the Dutch Railway Museum, and two of the series were involved in the 1900 Twello train disaster.