0-10-0 Steam Locomotives in Germany

Class G (Elefant) (Locobase 5824)

Christian Lindecke [] (visited 28 November 2003) for data. See also Reder (1974), pl 243.

See Locobase 635 for a full description of the Klose kinematic drive system. Applied successfully to an 0-6-0 design, its merits were if anything greater on the five-axle G class as Chief Locomotive designer Klose saw it. Note the three-cylinder compound arrangement -- the inside, high-pressure cylinder was fed by a Trick slide valve while the two outside, LP cylinders had inside valves driven by Heusinger gear. All three cylinders drove on the second axle. The class was fitted with a Belpaire firebox.

According to Lindecke, the design met expectations. Tonnage ratings included 680 tons up a 1% grade at 18 km/h (11 mph) and up the steeper (2.2%) Geilinger section with 300 tons at 13 km/h (8 mph). Appropriately for the service they entered, the engines were named after Alpine passes: ARLBERG, BRENNER, GOTTHARD, SEMMERING, SPLUGEN.

However, Reder commented that although "they ran smoothly ...the many components used in their construction turned out to be costly to maintain, so that there were only these five Class G engines, which were replaced from 1904 by the simpler Golsdorf type."

All five had been retired by 1921.

Class H / BR 57.3 (Locobase 5829)

Christian Lindecke [] (visited 28 November 2003) for data, supplemented and amended by Albert Gieseler at [], last accessed 8 May 2011.

These heavy, 45-km/h (28 mph) machines put more power to the rails on the steep grades of the K.W.St.E, but they were delivered as saturated-steam engines. Driving on the 4th coupled axle meant positioning the crosshead in line with the second axle. The railway soon supplemented these 8 with 26 compound-working and superheated loks (Locobase 5828). When the DRG created class 57.3, they superheated the four survivors in 1925. Those are the locomotives -- 57 301-304 -- represented in the data. The last of these were retired in 1935.

Class Hh / BR 57.4 (Locobase 5828)

Christian Lindecke [] (visited 28 November 2003) for data, supplemented and amended by data from Albert Gieseler, [], last accessed 8 May 2011.

When the H class (Locobase 5829) proved the answer to heavy trains on steep grades, the railway went further, superheating the basic design, installing cross-compound arrangement, and enlarging the firebox. Taking a common tradeoff, the new design reduced boiler pressure and heating surface size because of the relatively generous superheating surface. Twenty-six examples were delivered between 1908 and 1920. In 1923, the DRG classified 17 of the engines as BR 57 401-417

Class Tn / BR 94.1 (Locobase 5759)

Data from

Christian Lindecke [] (visited 28 November 2003) and from US Military Railway Service Equipment Data Book -- German Locomotives supplied by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange in March 2004. See also "Baureihe 94.1" on Dampfmaschinen und Lokomotiven at [], last accessed 21 April 2019. The tube/flue distribution is very unusual

Strictly intended for low-speed freight (50 km/h (27 mph) maximum), these engines were delivered over a two-period -- 16 in 1921, 14 in 1922.

When the DRG was formed in 1923, the class was redubbed BR 94.1. The last run for this class (94 113) came on 26 April 1961.