Steam Trains and Engines

On the union of the seven German state railways in 1920, and the formation of the Deutsche Reichs-bahn, no fewer than 210 different types of locomotive were taken over. With great thoroughness much scrapping took place and standard designs began to be evolved; the influence of the Prussian State Railway, which was the largest in Europe and which owned over 25,000 locomotives, was dominant in many of the designs and even today many Prussian engines are still in use.

The progress of the German railways during the 1930s was very rapid, and several outstanding locomotives were evolved. Twelve principal types were designed; for express passenger work the handsome Pacifics of Class 'Ol,' with two cylinders, were followed by the 4-cylinder compounds of Class ' O2.' A lighter 2-cylinder Pacific, Class ' O3,' was built in large numbers; later developments included the ' O4 ' series, in which the 4-cylinder compound arrangement was used in conjunction with a high-pressure boiler working at 355 Ib. per sq. in. Most successful of these designs were the ' O3 ' series, of which almost three hundred were built, and shortly before the war a 3-cylinder variant, Class ' O3.10,' was developed to work such trains as the ' Rheingold.'

After the war many of these fine Pacifies were taken over by the East German Reichsbahn, but a number are still in use on the Bundesbahn, such as No. O3.1082 here seen at Cologne with an express for Frankfurt