Wuerttemberg State 0-6-0 Locomotives in Germany

Class F1 / BR 53.8 / BR 53.83 (Locobase 625)

Data from Reder (1974).

The Klose kinematic design allowed engines with greater power to negotiate very tight curves. Originally designed by Adolph Klose with Richard von Helmholz and Julius Kraft for the Bosnian Railroad, the Klose locomotives most visible difference was the four-pointed "star" forging mounted over the middle drive wheel on each side. The upper and lower star arms were linked by short rods to a rocking shaft mounted in the frame below and behind the star. 2 more rods linked the fore and aft star arms to similar mounts on a differential head mounted on the crank arm of the middle drive wheel. Upper and lower bearings on the differential took longer connecting rods that extended to the front and rear driving wheels.

As the engine negotiated a turn, the front and rear axles shifted laterally, shortening the connecting rod path on one side and lengthening it on the other. The differential head, star, and rocking arm linkages equalized the lengths.

Although complicated, the design was successful and 99 engines were delivered to Bosnia and its successor the Bosnia and Herzogovina State Railroad. Some of these engines carried on until the 1960s.

When Klose became Engine Superintendent of the Wurttemburg State Railroad in 1887, he adopted first an outside-cylinder compound, later an inside-cylinder simple design based on the Klose gear. These too were successful engines and 47 were built. 11 members of this class were later taken into the DRG (1923) as class 53.8401-8411, but they operated under that designation for only a short time before retirement.