4-4-0 T steamlocomotive Eb 2/4 # 35 of SBB Historic, based in Balsthal and maintained and operated by the Balsthal steam group. The locomotive was built in 1891 by Emil Kessler in Germany for the Jura-Simplon Railway (JS). Later is was designated Eb 2/4 # 5469 of the SBB. The Eb 2/4 # 5469 (or JS # 35) is the only surviving steam locomotive that was in service on the former private railroad Jura-Simplon (JS) and it is the only SBB Historic locomotive with Allan control.
Information on the vehicle family/series: Type 2/4 steam locomotives (“American type” with two driving axles and two running axles) were very common in the second half of the 19th century: Type A 2/4 trailing tender locomotives on the Jura-Simplon Railway (JS), the Swiss Central Railway (SCB) and the Northeastern Railway (NOB) as well as type Eb 2/4 tender locomotives on the SCB, the JS, the Jura-Bern-Lucerne Railway (JBL) and the Gotthard Railway (GB). However, with only two driving axles, these locomotives were no longer able to cope with the constantly increasing train loads in the 20th century. The SBB therefore shunted out all A 2/4 tender locomotives until 1926. The tender locomotives Eb 2/4 suffered the same fate until 1937, whereby the Eb 2/4 5469, the former A2 no. 35 of the JS, was only decommissioned in 1947 but not demolished.
In 1862, the JS was the first railroad company in Switzerland to acquire type 2/4 tender locomotives. In 1891 and 1892, numbers 33-42 were delivered by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, including No. 35, which still exists today. In line with the latest findings, they differed from their predecessors by having larger storage tanks and a fully covered driver's cab, which made reversing much more comfortable for the locomotive crew. The last Eb 2/4 was delivered to the Swiss Central Railway (SCB) in 1896.
The use of the Eb 2/4 5469 was initially concentrated on the tramway trains (= light suburban trains) on the Geneva-Lausanne line with short running times, which were operated with trailer loads of only 50 tons.
