Kriegslokomotive.html



DRG Class 52, the best-known Kriegslokomotive

Kriegslokomotiven were German 'war locomotives', produced in large numbers during the Second World War, whose construction was tailored to the economic circumstances of wartime Germany, such as shortages of materials, goods transportation (in support of military logistics), ease of maintenance under difficult conditions, resistance to extreme weather, limited life and rapid, cheap, mass production. In order to meet these requirements, economic drawbacks such as relatively high fuel consumption had to be reckoned with.

Construction

The Kriegslokomotiven were kept as technically simple as possible and the use of imported materials (particularly copper) was generally avoided. For example, German electric locomotives were given aluminium windings in the traction motors and transformers, and the steam engines had steel fireboxes, hence the name Heimstofflok or 'home-grown loco'.

The manufacture of electric locos as Kriegslokomotiven has to be seen as a special case, because they could only be used in the core network where there was the working infrastructure able to supply the current: power stations, overhead transmission lines, electricity substations and catenary. As a rule, locomotives were preferred that were dependent on additional infrastructure as little as possible.

Classes

The following classes of Kriegslokomotive were procured by the Deutsche Reichsbahn and other customers (industrial and military railways) during the Second World War:

• DRB Class 52 (wartime steam locomotive [KDL 1])
• DRB Class 53 (wartime steam locomotive [KDL 2]) not completed.
• DRG Class 42 (wartime steam locomotive [KDL 3])
• HF 160 D (wartime steam locomotive 11 [KDL 11])
• HF 70 C (wartime steam locomotive 12 [KDL 12])
• Henschel "Riesa" type construction locomotive, austere version, (wartime steam locomotive 13 [KDL 13])
• WR 360 C 14 (wartime motor locomotive 1 [KML 1])
• Köf II (wartime diesel locomotive 2 [KML 2])
• HF 130 C (wartime diesel locomotive 3 [KML 3])
• HF 50 B (wartime diesel locomotive 4 [KML 4])
• O&K MD 2 (wartime diesel locomotive 5 [KML 5])
• Twin-axled pit locomotives (wartime diesel locomotives 6 and 7 [KML 6, KML 7])
• DRG Class E 44 (wartime electric locomotive 1 [KEL 1])
• DRG Class E 94 (wartime electric locomotive 2 [KEL 2])

Literature

• Alfred B. Gottwaldt: Deutsche Kriegslokomotiven 1939 - 1945, Transpress, ISBN 3-344-71032-X
• Alfred B. Gottwaldt: Deutsche Eisenbahnen im Zweiten Weltkrieg / Rüstung, Krieg und Eisenbahn (1939 - 1945), Kosmos, ISBN 3-440-05161-7

See also

• Übergangskriegslokomotive - transitional war locomotives

External links

• Eine Zusammenstellung über das Projekt Baureihe 53

This article is, entirely or partially, a translation from German Wikipedia.