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DRB Class 52 (condensing tender) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Deutsche Reichsbahn's Class 52 [note 1] is a German steam locomotive built in large numbers during the Second World War. It was the most produced type of the so-called Kriegslokomotiven or Kriegsloks (war locomotives). The Class 52 was a wartime development of the pre-war DRG Class 50, using fewer parts and less expensive materials to speed production. They were designed by Richard Wagner who was Chief Engineer of the Central Design Office at the Locomotive Standards Bureau of the DRG. About a dozen classes of locomotive were referred to as Kriegslokomotiven; however, the three main classes were the Class 52, 50 and 42. They were numbered 52 1-52 7794. A total of 20 are preserved in Germany.
Many locomotives passed into Russian ownership after the Second World War. In the USSR, the class were designated TE (TЭ). Other operators of the type included Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Norway and Turkey, among others.
The Class 52 was a simplified version of the prewar Reichsbahn class 50 locomotive (produced 1938–1942). The simplified design of the class 52 was intended to reduce the man-hours and skills needed to manufacture it and to adapt to wartime shortages of strategic materials. Additional design changes gave the locomotives and their crew better protection against the cold. [1] Between 1942 and the end of the war in May 1945, over 6,300 Class 52 locomotives were built. Additional locomotives were built post-war, giving a class total of probably 6719 units, delivered by seventeen manufacturers. The Class 42 was a larger version of the Class 52, but was produced in smaller numbers.
Wagner had wanted locomotives which were long-lasting and easy to maintain, and unlike British engineers did not consider a high power-to-weight ratio a priority. The resulting Kriegslokomotive had a low axleload of 15 tonnes (14.8 long tons; 16.5 short tons) and could haul 40 percent more freight than the old Prussian locomotives they replaced. The Class 52 could haul 1,200 tonnes (1,180 long tons; 1,320 short tons) at 65 km/h (40 mph) without significant strain. On a 3% grade they could haul 800 tons at 5 km/h.
Over 7,794 locomotives of DRB Class 52 type were built across Europe for use on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. Thus it was one of the most numerous steam locomotives in the world. To achieve such numbers, the German locomotive manufacturers were merged into the 'Community of Greater German Locomotive Manufacturers', Gemeinschaft Grossdeutscher Lokomotivhersteller (GGL), which was a subdivision of the 'Rail Vehicles Main Committee', Hauptausschuss Schienenfahrzeuge (HAS) founded in 1942. Key HAS figures were the Reichsminister for munition and armament, Albert Speer and the Reich transport minister, Julius Dorpmüller.
Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939 Nazi Germany disbanded the Polish State Railways (PKP). Polish rail officials were either executed in mass shootings or imprisoned, and some 8,000 managerial positions were staffed with German officials. [2] Former Polish companies began producing German engines BR44, BR50 and BR86 as early as 1940, some using forced labor. By 1944, the factories in Poznań and Chrzanów were producing the redesigned Kriegslok BR52 locomotives for the Eastern Front. These locomotives were made almost entirely of steel; locomotives in that battlespace were not expected to survive for long, so managers eliminated the use of higher-value non-ferrous metals like bronze, chrome, copper, brass, and nickel. [2]
The GGL included the following locomotive manufacturers (including an approximate number of Class 52s produced):
In the early postwar years, Class 52s were used by many European countries. Western European countries replaced them with more modern locomotives as soon as possible, with the exception of Austria where they were used until 1976. The simplicity and effectiveness, plus the large production total, meant that many eastern European countries were slow to withdraw their Kriegslokomotiven. Poland used them into the 1990s; some in Bosnia continued in use until at least the late 2010s.
Several Class 52s have been preserved in operating condition. One is at the Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough, England. Another one is in service with the Franconian Museum Railway in Bavaria, Germany.
PKP class OKl27 is a class of ordinary passenger (O) tank (K) 2-6-2 (l) steam locomotives designed in 1927 for Polskie Koleje Państwowe. It was the first completely Polish construction. The design was prepared by eng. Bryling.
The DRB Class 50 is a German class of 2-10-0 locomotive, built from 1939 as a standard locomotive (Einheitsdampflokomotive) for hauling goods trains. It had one leading axle and five coupled axles and was one of the most successful designs produced for the Deutsche Reichsbahn.
Kriegslokomotiven or Kriegsloks were locomotives produced in large numbers during the Second World War under Nazi Germany. Their construction was tailored to the economic circumstances of wartime Germany along with conquered and occupied territories across Europe, taking account of the shortage of materials, the transportation of goods in support of military logistics, ease of maintenance under difficult conditions, resistance to extreme weather, limited life and the need for rapid, cheap mass production. In order to meet these requirements, economic drawbacks such as relatively high fuel consumption had to be accepted. Forced labour was used in the construction of some of the locomotives; German locomotive building firms employed prisoners from concentration camps and foreign, mostly Polish, workers.
The Prussian Class P 8 of the Prussian state railways was a 4-6-0 steam locomotive built from 1906 to 1923 by the Berliner Maschinenbau and twelve other German factories. The design was created by Robert Garbe. It was intended as a successor to the Prussian P 6, which was regarded as unsatisfactory.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn had a standard passenger train tank engine with a wheel arrangement of 1′C1′ or 2-6-2 and a low axle load, which was designated in their classification system as the DRG Class 64. The Class 64 was developed from 1926 onwards and it was built between 1928 and 1940. Many German manufacturers contributed to the series.
The DRG Class 86 was a standard goods train tank locomotive with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. It was intended for duties on branch lines and was delivered by almost all the locomotive building firms working for the Reichsbahn. From 1942 it was built in a simplified version as a 'transitional war locomotive'. The most obvious changes were the omission of the second side windows in the cab and the solid disc carrying wheels.
The Bavarian Class R 3/3 of the Royal Bavarian State Railways was an 0-6-0T intended for goods trains. Of the engines delivered before World War I, one went to the Polish PKP, the other 17 were included by the Deutsche Reichsbahn as Class 89.7 in their numbering plan. The 90 units of the second series that were supplied from 1921 onwards all went into the Reichsbahn, and were designated as Class 89.8. 86 examples went into the Deutsche Bundesbahn after the Second World War and the last one was not taken out of service until 1960.
The DRB Class 42 was a type of steam locomotive produced for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. It is one of the three main classes of the so-called war locomotives (Kriegslokomotiven), the other two being class 50 and 52.
The German Class 41 steam locomotives were standard goods train engines (Einheitslokomotiven) operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRB) and built from 1937 to 1941.
The DRG Class 89.0 was a goods train tank engine of standard design built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG).
The Prussian Class T 11 were passenger tank locomotives produced between 1903 and 1910 in the service of the Prussian state railways for duties on the Berlin Stadtbahn.
The kkStB 229 was a class of passenger 2-6-2 tank engines with the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways, kkStB.
The Prussian S 4's were German superheated express steam locomotives with the Prussian state railways, later grouped as DRG Class 13.5 in the Deutsche Reichsbahn. They were an evolutionary development of the Prussian S 3. The first locomotive was built in 1898 by Vulcan, Stettin as a modified S 3. She was the first superheated locomotive in the world. She was initially designated as Hannover 74 and towards the end as the S 4 Cassel 401. Two further trials locomotives appeared in 1899 and 1900 as Hannover 86 and Berlin 74 also classed as S 3's. They were later reclassified as S 4's Hannover 401 and Posen 401.
The Austrian Society for Railway History is an Austrian society that was formed from a group of railway fans, who got together around 1971 in order to look after working steam locomotives at the ÖBB depot of Linz.
The Prussian Class T 12 were early German passenger tank locomotives built for the Prussian state railways in large numbers. These locomotives were superheated variants of the T 11.
PKP classes Ty2 and Ty42 is a class of freight (T) 2-10-0 (y) steam locomotive used by Polskie Koleje Państwowe from 1942 (42) onwards. They are Deutsche Reichsbahn class 52 Kriegslokomotiven, either acquired new (Ty42), or secondhand (Ty2), having been built during World War II in factories in many European countries in 1942–1945.
The kkStB 73 were a class of 0-8-0 steam locomotives of operated by the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways, for freight duties.
The kkStB 270 was a class of 2-8-0 locomotives with the Imperial Austrian State Railways, kkStB.
The Prussian T 7 was a group of goods tank locomotives of the Prussian State Railways with an 0-6-0T wheel arrangement. It was not a class in the modern sense of identical locomotives.
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