0-8-0 Steam Locomotives in Germany

Class Brigadelok (Locobase 3853)

The Forest Railway Muskau (WEM) website supplied the data. See also []

Unlike the prewar 99 3312 shown in Locobase 3852, this engine had a much more varied career, starting with the German Army railway in 1914, going to the Eastern Polish railway as PKP 4241 in 1919. Returned to Germany in World War II. After the war, operated in Weisswasser by the Braunkohlewerk before coming to the WEM in 1952. Stored in the 1960s, refitted in 1990s.

The Field and Factory Railway Museum website puts this little engine's career into perspective. It was one of more than 2,500 "Brigadeloks" built by fourteen different companies beginning in 1905. Military and civil operations in German South West Africa (now Namibia) and in the Boxer Rebellion in China had shown the need for a stronger locomotive for light rail operations.

Looking a bit like one of two engines that made up a Zwilling (twin--see Locobase 4820), but stretched to take another axle, this design went into service in the Namib when it was governed by Germany. The outer axles were Klien-Lindners -- hollow outer tubes allowed lots of free play for the wheels while solid inside shafts kept the motion synchronized.

Only a few were completed before World War I began, but the rocketing demand for a reliable light-rail engine to serve the trenches resulted in the astonishing total of well over 2,500 engines built by 1919. All major German locomotive builders delivered Brigadeloks: Borsig, Esslinger, Hanomag, Hartmann, Henschel, Hohenzollern, Humboldt, Jung, Krauss, Linke-Hoffmann, Maffei, Orenstein & Koppel, Schwartzkopff, and Vulkan.

Many of these served industrial and narrow-gauge railways all over Europe.

[] Fred Bateman says that when the Ffestinog in Wales tried out a Brigadelok, the drivers found that the locomotive did indeed snake around curves remarkably well. But its 2' 6" rigid wheelbase caused the engine to bob quite alarmingly at speeds over 12 mph (19 km/h) and caused seasickness in the crew.

Most sources give the heating surface area as shown in the specifications (18 sq m) [] (accessed 29 January 2007), however, credits their 1917 Henschel Brigadelok (works #14913) with 16.25 sq m (175 sq ft). Could the difference represent water-side vs fire-side tube areas?

Class Diana / BR 99.3312 (Locobase 3852)

The Forest Railway Muskau (WEM) website supplied the data for this little locomotive (Borsig works #8472), one of several that it operates on the WEM, a small line between Weisswasser and Muskau in Germany. Additional data from Wikipedia article on the same locomotive at [], last accessed 25 July 2013.

A line drawing shows a cabbage stack , large cylindrical sandbox and steam dome over the gap between the second and third driver sets. According to notes the engine served from 1912 to 1977 in the WEM, first as the DIANA and later as the Deutsche Reichsbahn's 99 3312.

Restored to service in the 1990s, went through a thorough overhaul in 1997-1998.