Notable Bavarian Locomotives
The one example of the Bavarian S 2/6 engine was designed and built by Anton Hammel, an engineer at the Maffei Locomotive Works, within 5 months and was displayed to the public at the 1906 Nuremberg State Exhibition. After its return from the exhibition it was taken over by the Royal Bavarian State Railways on 21 November 1906. A few months later, in July 1907, it set the world speed record for steam locomotives, recording a top speed of 154.5 km/h on the Munich to Augsburg line. Since being taken out of service in 1925 it has been preserved in the Nuremberg Transport Museum.
After the success of this record-holding locomotive, Hammel designed a Pacific engine for Bavaria, based on the Class IVf engines built by Maffei for the Baden State Railways. This new express locomotive, the Bavarian S 3/6 (later the DRG Class 18.4-5), illustrated right, was a major success and continued to be built by the DRG. For many enthusiasts this is the most beautiful German steam locomotive and its popularity is testified by the numerous models produced in recent years by manufacturers such as Roco, Märklin and Trix.
In 1914 the first units of the most powerful Bavarian steam locomotive, the Class Gt 2x4/4 Mallet tank engine (later DRG Class 96.0) entered service. This was used in pusher service to support trains on the steeper Bavarian inclines.
Perhaps the most iconic branch line engine was the Bavarian PtL 2/2 nicknamed the Glaskasten or "glass box". The first ones were built at the Maffei and Krauss locomotive works in Munich in 1906. Their design was radically new, the most striking features being the large driver’s cab which surrounded the entire boiler and the semi-automatic firing which enabled one-man operation. Gangways at the front and rear allowed train staff to cross over to the engine even on the move. Twenty-nine locomotives of this class were produced up to 1909 and another three were delivered by Krauss in 1910 for the Prussian state railways. Seven survived the Second World War and the last one retired in 1963.
Read more about this topic: Royal Bavarian State Railways
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or locomotives:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prairie flowers lie low:—”
—Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931)