THE STANDARD DESIGN LOCO STORY (1)

The Reichsbahn's first years (1919-1928)

Before WW I the former German Reich consisted of many smaller kingdoms and principalities. Most of them operated a state railway of their own, the so-called Laenderbahnen. On January 1st 1919 the following state railways existed:

Preussen (=Prussia)-Hessen

Bayern (Bavaria)

Sachsen (Saxony)

Wuerttemberg

Baden

Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Oldenburg

The new Reichsverfassung (constitution of the German Reich) from August 11th 1919 laid down, that they all should be terminated and replaced by a unique state railway company. Only the Bavarian state railways saved a little bit of their independence, for example in ordering vehicles. This company, founded in April 30th 1920 by a treaty between the seven state railway companies, was first called Reichseisenbahnen (sometimes the date is cited as April 1st 1920 as the treaty was dated back).
In 1924 the Reichseisenbahnen, subdirected to the Reichsverkehrsministerium (RVM, Ministry of Traffic), was replaced by the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft (DRG) and became economically independent from the government. Nevertheless the directors of DRG and RVM director were the same person.
The situation of the young DRG was severe: Most locos and coaches were old, more than 8,000 of the more modern locos had to be given to the allies after WW I. The remaining locos spanned more than 200 different classes, for every Laenderbahn had one or several manufacturers where they usually ordered their locos and different principles of constructing locos. For example, in the southern states like Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria the compound locos were popular, as coal was rare in these areas. In Prussia superheated steam locomotives were more suitable, as there were huge amounts of coal in the Rhine-Ruhr area, Silesia and around the Saar.
This variety of different locos was expensive, every class needed different parts and most classes (except the Prussian) were built in small series. So the DRG had to consider how to solve the problem.

There were two possible strategies:

The DRG could build successful classes of the former state railways.
The DRG could develop new standardized classes of locos.

The result of the DRG's consideration was a mixed strategy:
Firstly some of the state railways' recent developments were ordered, such as Prussian P 8 (DRG: class 38.10-40), Prussian P 10 (DRG: class 39), Bavarian S3/6 (DRG: 18.4-5), ... . This fact wasn't really new. The state railways of Prussia, Baden, Wurttemberg and Saxonia had already ordered locos of the Prussian class G12 (DRG: 58) during WW I. So G 12 might be called the first standard design loco and sometimes it is even called the war loco of WW I.

All in all several thousand locos constructed for the former state railways were built until 1930 (!). The last locos were 18 531 - 18 536 and 18 538 - 18 540, delivered by Henschel in June 1930.
Secondly the DRG started to develop a family of so-called standard design locos. The purpose was to get a family of classes, which had lots of identical parts (cylinders, axles, cabs, ...), often not only changeable between locos of the same class, but also between locos of similar classes. For example the classes 64, 86 and 24, all used for service on branch lines, were identical in many parts.
The development of the new locomotive family was done by the "Engerer Lokomotiv Normen Ausschuß" (ELNA) but also by the Vereinheitlichungsbuero (VB, commission for standardisation, better: construction office), which was part of the Deutsche Lokomotivbau Vereinigung (DLV).
Most locos of the first program were proposed to get a weight per axle of 20 tons, although most lines were not able to carry this weight. The first locomotive program from 1925 included the following locos of the 20 tons class:

class	wheel arrangement		purpose	remarks

20 to class:

01	2'C1'	h2	express passenger trains	was built
02	2'C1'	h4v	express passenger trains	was built only for testing
20	2'C	h2	passenger trains	never constructed
22	1'D1'	h2	passenger trains	never constructed
40	1'C	h2	freight trains	never constructed
41	1'D	h2	freight trains	built as 1'D1' h2
43	1'E	h2	freight trains	was built only for testing
44	1'E	h3	freight trains	was built
60	1'C1'	h2	passenger trains	never constructed
62	2'C2'	h2	(express) passenger trains	was built
82	1'D1'	h2	freight trains	never constructed
83	E	h2	freight trains	never constructed
84	1'E1'	h2	freight trains	built with 17.5 tons weight per axle

At least one fact is remarkable:
Most of the planned locomotives have never been constructed. On the other hand lots of locos, which have actually been built later, were not included in the above program. This shows that the circumstances would change in the following years. Of course not every change in the program can be explained here. But is easy to see that the standard design loco programs were not made one time and never changed but something fluctuating.

The first standard design locos which could be delivered to the DRG were 02 001 to 02 008 (1925 by Henschel), 02 009 and 02 010 (1926 by Maffei), 01 001 to 01 008 (1926 by Borsig) and 01 009 and 01 010 (1926 by AEG). Class 01 and 02 both were 2'C1' locos for express passenger trains, but 01 got two cylinders, working with superheated steam, while 02 got a h4v compound engine (the steam from the boiler is used twice before being exhausted. By high pressure (small) cylinders first, then by the lower pressure (larger) cylinders.). The purpose was to examine which type was working better. Of course it was well-known that compound locos work more efficient with high performance. On the other hand they are difficult to service - the inner cylinders cannot be easily reached. In the end the Reichsbahn decided to order the 2-cylinder 01. That was because most members of the committees were from Prussia, where compound locos weren't popular, and even Richard Paul Wagner, the 'Bauartdezernent' (something like chief engineer) of the Reichsbahn, could not be called a friend of compound locos. So compound locos have never been ordered again.
The situation concerning classes 43 and 44 was similar. While 43 was a 2 cylinder loco (superheated steam), 44 got a three cylinder superheated steam engine. First it seemed that 43 would do better, but then it was obvious that the three cylinder engine was more suitable for heavy duties and more flexible. That settled it. After 35 locos of class 43 had been built, it was not ordered any longer and class 44 took its place.

From now on the share of standard design locos was continually increasing (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Increasing share of standard design locos

Data source: Scharf, Hans-Wolfgang; Wenzel, Hansjuergen: Lokomotiven fuer die Reichsbahn, Freiburg 1996

The following classes of standard design locos was produced until 1928:

BR	wheel arrangem.	produced from ... to ...	maximum speed (km/h)	performance (h.p.)	maximum weight per axle (mp)	total number	remarks

Express passenger trains
01	2'C1'h2	1925-1937	130	2240	20,2	231
02	2'C1'h4v	1925	130	2300	20,2	10	1)

Passenger trains
24	1'Ch2	1926-1938	90	920	15,1	95

Freight trains
43	1'Eh2	1927/28	70	1880	19,3	35	2)
44	1'Eh3	1926-1945	80	1910	19,3	about 2000

Passenger trains (tender locos)
62	2'C2'h2	1928/29	100	1680	20,3	15
64	1'C1'h2	1928-1940	90	950	15,3	520

Freight trains (tender locos)
80	Ch2	1927/28	45	575	18,2	39	3)
81	Dh2	1928	45	860	17,0	10	3)
86	1'D1'h2	1928-1943	70	1030	15,6	774
87	Eh2	1927/28	45	940	17,4	16	4)

1) Only for testing against class 01.
2) Replaced by class 44.
3) For shunting.
4) Special edition for service at Hamburg harbour with extremely small radii of curves.
Outer axles driven by Luttermoeller drive.

Back