In 1931, the DRG ordered ten locomotives from the firm of Henschel that were taken into the fleet as numbers 85001 to 85010. The Class 85 was intended for hauling passenger and goods trains. They were however also employed as pusher locomotives on the Höllentalbahn in the Black Forest. Thanks to this engine, the Höllental Railway could do away with rack railway operations from 1933. The running gear and the superheated system were taken from the Class 44. The boiler, with a few minor alterations, was the same as that of the Class 62. All the locomotives were stabled at the Freiburg shed. Apart from number 85004, which was lost in the Second World War, all the engines were in operation in the Black Forest until 1961, the year the route was converted from experimental electrical operations with 20 kV/50Hz lines to the usual Deutsche Bundesbahn standard of 15kV 16.7Hz AC. One engine, number 85 007, was still in service in Wuppertal until the end of the year, but they were all retired by the beginning of the next year.
Preserved locomotives
Number 85 007 belongs to the town of Freiburg im Breisgau. It is not operational, but is maintained by the Bahn-Sozialwerk-Gruppe. The engine is housed in the former locomotive shed.
References
Hütter, Ingo (2021). Die Dampflokomotiven der Baureihen 60 bis 91 der DRG, DRB, DB, und DR (in German). Werl: DGEG Medien. pp.265–267. ISBN978-3-946594-21-5.
Scharf, Hans; Wollny, Burkhard (1987). Die Höllentalbahn (in German). Freiburg: EK Verlag. ISBN3-88255-780-X.
Weisbrod, Manfred; Müller, Hans; Petznik, Wolfgang (1978). Dampflokomotiven deutscher Eisenbahnen, Baureihe 60–96 (EFA 1.3) (in German) (4thed.). Düsseldorf: Alba. pp.114–116, 242. ISBN3-87094-083-2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.