Pfalzbahn 4-4-2 Locomotives in Germany

Class P 3.1 / BR 14.1 (Locobase 1488)

An 1898 article -- "New Ten-wheeled Express Engine for the Palatinate Ry, Germany," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol III (August 1898), p. 126 -- gives similar data. See also J C Whitridge, Modern Locomotives (New York: Railroad Gazette, 1900), p. 371. Maurice Demoulin, Locomotive Actuelle ... (Paris: Librairie Polytechnique Ch.Beranger, 1906), p 239-241 and Lindecke's [] supplied a smaller total evaporative heating surface. Locobase wonders if these data may reflect the incorporation of a Pielock "superheater" (see Locobase 13565 for a detailed description of this unit), which would have reduced the evaporative heating surface.

Works numbers were 3755-3760 in 1898, 4076 [named Lindelbrunn, #94] in 1899; 4238-4239, 4355-4356 in 1900, 4400 [Dr V Clemm, 263]in 1902, and 5201[V Neuffer, 119] in 1904. Three

Wide firebox (described as a cross between the Wootten and the "ordinary American deep firebox" by JC Whitridge) and Krauss Helmholtz truck. Performance target was 100 kph (62 mph) with 220 tons. The design displayed a thimble-shaped steam dome between the tapered stack and small sand dome, deep splashers with cut-outs for the side-rod cranks and a low valence, inside motion.

Class P 4 / BR 14.1 (Locobase 4924)

Data from Maurice Demoulin, Locomotive Actuelle ... (Paris: Librairie Polytechnique Ch.Beranger, 1906), p 239-241-242; and" 2/5 gekuppelte Heizdampfverbund-lokomotive von J A Maffei fur die Pfalzischeneisenbahn bestimmt", Glasers Annalen furgwerbe und Bauwesen, (1 November 1906), pp. 175-176; and "Balanced Compound Locomotive with Superheater for the Pfaelz [sic] Railway", Railway Age, Volume 45, No 9 (28 February 1908), pp. 278-283. (Thanks to Alexander Blessing for his 11 July 2023 email correcting some values and pointing Locobase to the RA report.) Works numbers were 2462-2467 in 1905, 2515-2518 , 2532 in 1906

Joost Wilbrink ([]) identifies the railroad as the Pfalzischen Eisenbahnen and notes that these engines were developed after the P3s proved less than successful. The six-locomotive batch from 1905 had the Pielock smokebox superheater ( (see Locobase 13565 for a detailed description of this unit). According to Wilbrink (whose account also appears in Manfred Kopka's site -- word for word. Can't tell in which direction the borrowing flows), the superheater was unsuccessful. Five more saturated steam engines were produced in 1906.

Blessing's pointer to the RA article led to a detailed description of the Staby firebox fan. To cut down on exhaust smoke created by the dusty bituminous Bavarian coal, Maffei used a Staby system of three fans that RA reported that it "prevents the smoke ...and noticeably increases the thermal efficiency of the boiler." RA also noted the all four cylinders were arranged in line abreast with the inside HP cylinders, piston valves, and half smokebox saddle cast in one piece. Outside LP cy linders also used piston valves.

The engines proved twice as strong as the P3s, pulling 400 tons at 62 mph (100 kph). Although 11 were taken up by the DRG in 1923, they'd all been retired (ausgemustert) by 1925.