Prussian State 2-10-0 Locomotives in Germany

Class G12.1/BR 58 0 (Locobase 6361)

See Christian Lindecke, in [] (21 Nov 2004) This is the prototype of the much more widely distributed 2-10-0 described in Locobase 2515. It was originally developed in response to a Turkish order.

According to Ali Koreche, writing to [] from Surabaya, Java on 12 May 2002, the G12s were noteworthy for being the first German locomotives with three cylinders.

Class G12/BR 58.10-58.21 (Locobase 2515)

Data from diagram Loko: 158, Elsassische Maschinenbau Gesellschaft from locomotive book supplied by Dany Machi up at [] as

Diagrammes des machines SACM construites a GRAFENSTADEN (October 2007). See also "Baureihe 58.1" in Albert Gieseler's Lokomotiven website at [], last accessed 29 October 2017; and "Valve Gear for Three-Cylinder Freight Locomotives, Alsace-Lorraine Railways", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXVI [26] (15 January 1920), pp. 18-20.

High-boilered engine with low drivers, this design grew out of the 1915 prototype shown in Locobase 6361. Obviously, adopting the design as a kriegslok, a war locomotive of the First World War, and turning out over 1,500 of them, suggests that it satisfied a fundamental requirement.

As Reder (1974) notes, this was an engine on the South German model with a bar frame of milled heavy steel plates. Notice the generous amount of superheat provided as well as, unusually, a Belpaire firebox. Unlike many large European freight locomotives influenced by German designers, this design did not use a Krauss-Helmholtz truck, but settled instead for the simple Bissel pony truck.

A sign of the precision with which the three-cylinder valve gear came together was the deliberate divergence from the usual 120 deg spacing. To compensate for the fact that the center cylinder's centreline lay 100 mm (3.9") above those of the two outside cylinders, engineers set each at a different spacing. The central crank was set at 132 deg 45 min with the right-hand crank and 107 deg 15 min with the left-hand crank. In addition to acuating the inside valve at the correct moments, the crank settings permitted horizontal laying of the outside cylinders.

When the German National Railroad was formed, this class became BR 58. Most of the engines of this class, however, were built after the Armistice in November 1918, the last one being delivered in 1924. In addition to Prussia's large procurement of 1,168, Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace Lorraine) took 118, Saxony bought 20 locomotives as class 13 H (DRG 58.1) in 1917 and 62 more in 1919, Baden secured 88 (DRG 58.2-3) in 1918, and Wurttemburg procured 63 in 1919 (DRG 58.5).

Tufnell (1986) says these engines could take a 0.5% grade at 25 mph while pulling a 1,130-ton train, which equates to 2,080 indicated horsepower. Like most German freight engines, these were tall brutes with plenty of daylight showing through over the small drivers.

NB: Heating surface data used in Locobase's specs include tube heating surface areas as measured using the outer (water side) diameters. The inner (fire side) diameters were smaller (41 mm small tubes, 125 mm flues) and the commensurate evaporative heating surface area came to 180.77 sq m (1926 sq ft). Adding direct heating surface area increased it to 194.26 sq m (2,078 sq ft).