4-6-4 Steam Locomotives in Germany

Class T16 (Locobase 7908)

Data from Christian Lindecke's Lokodex -- [], last accessed 25 October 2006 -- and the anonymous Wikipedia entry for this class at [].

Henschel produced this compound tank in response to a KPEV requirement to move 200 tons up a 1% grade at 75 km/h (47 mph) and reach 90 km/h (55 mph) on the flat. Its service area would be Thuringia. Although the locomotive itself was apparently successful, serving more than 20 years before being returned to Henschel for scrapping, it occupied a single-engine class. The KPEV instead chose to go with a simple-expansion design that appeared as the prolific T18. (See Locobase 1219).

Class T18 / BR 78 351 (Locobase 8039)

Data from [] -- the Hennings Eisenbahn site --accessed 28 December 2006; and "Prussian T 18" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 18 January 2026. See Locobase 1291 for the main record on this successful Baltic tank. Works number 19692-19710, 19782-19801, 19991-19993 in 1923; 20150-20182, 20417-20419 in 1924, 20550-20557 in 1925.

Henschel's 1923 T18 specifications showed a slightly smaller boiler than those of the earlier T18s described in Locobase 1291.

Class T18 / BR 78.0-78.5 (Locobase 1291)

Most data from the US Military Railway Service Equipment Data Book for German Locomotives supplied by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange in March 2004; and "Baureihe 78" in Albert Gieseler's Dampfmaschinen und Lokomotiven website at [], last accessed 26 September 2022. [] (a website that shows different preserved locomotives -- visited 2 March 2004, no longer active) presented different values for the heating surfaces; Locobase created a second entry under BR 78 468 (Locobase 8039) to record the differences, which may be due to a different builder than the one from which the MRS data are taken. See also K Miska's extensive writeup at [], last accessed 25 October 2006.

Entered service between 1912 and 1927. They were big and long and the low running board made the front truck wheels appear to be almost the same size as the drivers. The engine's wheelbase was perfectly symmetrical with even spacing ahead and behind the coupled axles, which themselves were equally spaced.

[] (a German steam locomotive parts supplier) says these were rated as capable of hauling a 560-short ton passenger train up a 2% grade at 90 kph. On the level, reported [], the T18 was popular with its crews and capable of both fast goods and fast passenger work.

NB: Most German locomotives showed tube heating surface area as calculated using the internal (fire side) diameter, which for this design came to 122.26 sq m (1,316 sq ft) and evaporative heating surface area as 135.2 sq m (1,455 sq ft). Locobase uses the external diameter to allow more direct comparison with locomotives of Anglo-North American origin.

In addition to the Prussian State's order for 462, the Wurttemburg State Railway took 20 and the Elsass Lothringen Railway in Alsace-Lorraine procured 27. Vulkan produced all of the first 333 ordered through 1921 with later batches coming from Franco-Belge, Hanomag, and Henschel. After the Prussian State came under the DRG's purview in 1925, that nationalized system procured 127 more.

They came to France's SNCF as the TC and were highly valued on that railway as well. Miska says that Henschel delivered "several" T18s to Iraq's Baghdad Railway.

After World War II, the 508 surviving T18s served the Deutsche Bundesbahn (424), the Deutchese Reichsbahn of the DDR (53), and the Czech and Polish Railways (31 between them). In 1951, the Bundesbahn commissioned updates for two of the class (Locobase 21291). One of the original 10 operated until 1969 and the last of the class was withdrawn in 1974.

Class T18 umbau-BR 38.2890 (Locobase 21293)

Data from Albert Gieseler, "Baureihe 78.10", Dampfmaschinend und Lokomotiven, [], last accessed 18 January 2025.

Locobase 1291 describes the widely produced Hudson tank that served the Prussian State and national railways for decades after they entered service in the 1910s and 1920s. After World War II, many remained in service and the Bundesbahn explored the possibility of updating the design using two existing engines.

Increasing the driver diameters by 100 mm (3.97") and cylinder diameters by 15 mm (0.59") yielded the same calculated traffic effort while raising maximum speeds. All of the heating surface areas--evaporative, superheat, firebox, and grate--grew. Moreover, weight changes didn't much affect the already desirable factor of adhesion.

Locobase supposes the effort proved not worth repeating, but the pair remained in service until 1961.