PKP Class Pt47

PKP Class Pt47 is a Polish steam locomotive. Related to the successful PKP class Pt31 class, the main difference is the addition of circular tubes in the fire chamber, thereby significantly increased boiler performance. This class also featured a superheater and many have mechanical stokers to feed coal into the firebox. 180 locomotives were built in total.

Although heavy, the Pt47 is powerful and fast. Its main use was to carry heavy fast trains, especially on long distance routes, for example on the difficult route from Cracow to Krynica.

The Pt47 easily reached speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph), with a heavy train, although is not as refined as the PKP class Pm36 - especially on routes with a lower quality track. A maximum speed of 110 km/h (68 mph) could be achieved even with a train of 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons). In the 1950s these machines were could travel 824 km (512 miles) per day.