Henschel-Wegmann Train
Encyclopedia
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
in Germany, which ran non-stop express services between Berlin and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
from June 1936 to August 1939. Both the DRG Class 61
DRG Class 61
The two German DRG Class 61 steam engines were express train locomotives specifically built by Henschel for the Henschel-Wegmann train in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn...
steam locomotive at its head as well as the coaches were streamlined.
Context
At the beginning of the 1930s, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-GesellschaftDeutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Reichsbahn – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual states of the German Empire following the end of World War I....
was increasingly striving to introduce express train
Express train
Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping at every single station...
services. In 1931 it started building express diesel units like the Flying Hamburger and they were introduced with great success from 1933 onwards. As a result a serious competitor had arisen for the steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
industry. Moreover, the Reichsbahn had hardly procured any locomotives since the start of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Comparative calculations indicated that steam engines could be more cost-effective than the new diesel multiple units, so the head of the locomotive firm, Henschel-Werke, in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, and its manager, Karl Imfeld, decided to develop an engine that could compete with the performance of the new diesel railcars.
Planning
In April 1933, representatives from Henschel and the coach firm of Wegmann & Co. handed a Study Into A High-Speed Train (Studie über einen schnellfahrenden Dampfzug) to the general manager of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-GesellschaftDeutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Reichsbahn – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual states of the German Empire following the end of World War I....
, Julius Dorpmüller
Julius Dorpmüller
Julius Heinrich Dorpmueller was general manager of Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft from 1926-45 and the German Reich Transport Minister from 1937-45.- Life :...
. This report envisaged a light, 4-4-2
4-4-2 (locomotive)
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle...
, superheated, tank locomotive
Tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...
with a two-coach unit, whose procurement and maintenance costs were low and which also offered passengers greater comfort. In order to minimise air resistance, the whole train would be streamlined and the double-coach rounded off at both ends. The locomotive, its streamlining extending at the back over the coal tank, would be able to push or pull from either end of the double-coach depending on the direction of travel. The link between engine and coaches would be an automatic coupling with brake and air pipes.
On 10 January 1934, when the Reichsbahn locomotive expert, Friedrich Fuchs, met the representatives of Henschel and Wegmann, he confronted them however with a proposal for a train with four eight-wheeled coaches instead of the two-coach train. To meet this new requirement, Henschel designed a 4-6-4
4-6-4
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles .Other equivalent classifications are:UIC classification:...
tank engine and presented the resulting project study report on 27 March 1934 to the Reichsbahn head office. On 28 August, the Reichsbahn officially contracted Henschel and Wegmann to build the train.
Construction
The engine was handed over on 31 May 1935. She was cleared for a top speed of 175 km/h which, with her 2.3 metre diameter driving wheels, was easily attained. In scheduled services the engine ran with a streamlined train, but only at speeds up to 160 km/h. The tapered water tanks gave both driver and fireman a good all-round view of the line and the streamlined shell, officially called a Blechmantel, covered the driving gear fully.At around 230,000 Reichsmarks the engine was clearly more expensive than initially suggested. But that included all the design changes. By comparison a production version of the DRG Class 03
DRG Class 03
The Class 03 steam engines were standard express train locomotives in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn.- History :...
cost about 200,000 Reichsmarks. On top of that was the cost of the four coaches, 446,800 Reichsmarks. Three years later, a three-coach express unit of the "Köln" type, in series production, cost 600,000 Reichsmarks, the one-off SVT 135 155 as much as a million Reichsmarks.
Shortly after construction had begun on locomotive 61 001, a variant - number 61 002 - was planned, and built in 1939. Locomotive 61 002 was give a three-axle trailing bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
, a third cylinder and larger coal and water tanks, otherwise the design and the components were the same as her predecessor. It also had smoke deflectors
Smoke deflectors
Smoke deflectors are vertical plates attached to the front of a steam locomotive on each side of the smokebox. They are designed to lift smoke away from the locomotive at speed so that the driver has better visibility unimpaired by drifting smoke....
above on the chimney, as were also fitted to the streamlined locomotives of DRG Classes 01.10
DRG Class 01.10
The locomotives of DRB Class 01.10 were standard locomotives used for express train services by the Deutsche Reichsbahn...
and 03.10
DRG Class 03.10
The German Class 03.10 engines were standard steam locomotives belonging to the Deutsche Reichsbahn and designed for hauling express trains.- History :...
. In May the first factory trial runs were carried out and the locomotive was transferred on 12 June 1939 to the locomotive depot (Bahnbetriebswerk
Bahnbetriebswerk
A Bahnbetriebswerk is the equivalent of a locomotive depot on the German and Austrian railways. It is an installation that carries out the maintenance, minor repairs, refuelling and cleaning of locomotives and other motive power. In addition it organises the deployment of locomotives and crews...
) of Berlin-Grunewald
Grunewald
Grunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...
.
Vehicle designation and equipment
The Henschel-Wegmann train comprised the following:- Steam locomotive 61 001DRG Class 61The two German DRG Class 61 steam engines were express train locomotives specifically built by Henschel for the Henschel-Wegmann train in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn...
; a streamlinedStreamlinerA streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
tank locomotiveTank locomotiveA tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...
with a 4-6-44-6-4Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles .Other equivalent classifications are:UIC classification:...
configuration, inside cylinders and 2.30 metre high driving wheels. Permitted top speed: 175 km/h; - A trailer car (SBC 4ü-35) with 24 seats in 2nd and 32 seats in 3rd class, as well as four rotating seats in the panoramaPanoramaA panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....
section at the end; - Two centre cars (SBC 4ü) with 12 seats in 2nd and 56 seats in 3rd class.
- A trailer car (SWRPwPost 4ü) with a compartment for sorting post and packages during the journey as well as a dining area with 23 seats.
Externally the coaches resembled the express multiple units of those years. In order the achieve the desired speed, they were of light construction and were five to ten tonnes lighter than normal passenger coaches.
The short-coupled coaches could only be separated in the workshop. To couple the locomotive and coaches Scharfenberg couplers were fitted that at the same time served to couple the brake air pipes. The trailer cars had rounded ends and sloping roofs. The bogies were of the Görlitz III type, the wheelsets ran on roller bearings. Instead of the usual brake blocks the coaches were given disc brakes, that acted directly on the wheel discs.
Exhibition of the vehicles
The Henschel-Wegmann train was initially displayed at the Great Exhibition celebrating the centenary of the German Railways from 14 July to 13 October 1935 in Nuremberg and then went to the Kassel shop for further work. On 29 November the vehicles were once again in Nuremberg for the centenary parade, where they hosted a visit to the driver's cab by HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. Not until these propaganda events had taken place could the engineers test its performance.
Trial runs
On the Berlin-Hamburg railwayBerlin-Hamburg Railway
The Berlin–Hamburg Railway is a roughly long railway line for passenger, long-distance and goods trains. It was the first high-speed line upgraded in Germany to be capable of handling train speeds of over...
it reached its record speed of 185 km/h. At this speed serious juddering occurred due to the imbalance caused by the twin-cylinder configuration. The locomotive reached its scheduled cruising speed of 160 km/h within six minutes. By 14 May 1936 the engine had completed almost 21,000 km of trial runs.
Scheduled Service
| Station | D 53 | D 57 |
|---|---|---|
| Dresden Hauptbahnhof | 09.31 | 17.26 |
| Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof | 11.12 | 19.06 |
| Station | D 54 | D 58 |
|---|---|---|
| Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof | 15.10 | 22.10 |
| Dresden Hauptbahnhof | 16.54 | 23.52 |
As the summer timetable of 1936 came into force, the Henschel-Wegmann train worked the Berlin-Dresden line with two pairs of trains per day. The fastest service took one hour and 40 minutes to cover the distance and broke the previous record by 28 minutes; a record which stands to the present day (2008). In the official calculations the Reichsbahn only measured its speed between Berlin and Dresden Neustadt
Dresden-Neustadt railway station
Dresden-Neustadt station is the second largest railway station in Dresden, as well as one of the largest stations in Saxony.-Construction:...
, thus ignoring the last kilometres to Dresden Hauptbahnhof
Dresden Hauptbahnhof
is one of two main inter-city transit hubs in the German city of Dresden. Designed by Ernst Giese and Paul Weidner, it was built between 1892 and 1897 at the southern border of the inner city and was important in the growth and development of the city....
. Thus the average speed of the train could be advertised as 111,2 km/h.
The short turn-around time in Dresden between the D 54 and D 57 services was clearly quite tight. As it turned out, the locomotive not only had to run around the train, but also to replenish its supplies. Fortunately it did not have to be turned. This problem with the turn-around time was corrected by the Reichsbahn in the winter timetable of 1936. When locomotive 61 001 or its coaches were not available an engine of DRG Class 01
DRG Class 01
The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft's BR 01 steam locomotives were the first standardised steam express passenger locomotives built by the unified German railway system. They were of 4-6-2 "Pacific" wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ h2 in the UIC classification. The idea of...
or DRG Class 03
DRG Class 03
The Class 03 steam engines were standard express train locomotives in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn.- History :...
was used. With their top speeds of 130 and 140 km/h, however they were no match for the 61 001.
Passengers only had to pay an express train supplement, not the higher long-distance (FD) supplementary fare, as in the express multiple units.
In the Second World War
Shortly before the invasion of Poland in August 1939, express services between the two state capitals were withdrawn. The coaches ended up in the Wehrmacht, where they were initially used by high-ranking officers and, later, for transporting the wounded, after their interior fittings had been removed.Locomotive 61 001 was then used as a heating engine at the Berlin-Grunewald
Grunewald
Grunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...
locomotive depot (Bahnbetriebswerk
Bahnbetriebswerk
A Bahnbetriebswerk is the equivalent of a locomotive depot on the German and Austrian railways. It is an installation that carries out the maintenance, minor repairs, refuelling and cleaning of locomotives and other motive power. In addition it organises the deployment of locomotives and crews...
) in Berlin. From December 1940 it was once again being used in Dresden-Altstadt on express services and in November 1942 was given standard train and buffer equipment. Its operating parameters only showed a slight reduction in performance however. From 1943 to the war's end the repair shop (Ausbesserungswerk) at Brunswick was responsible for the engine.
Inspection and licensing for 61 002 was probably carried out around the turn of the year 1939/40, and it was then no longer used in scheduled services in charge of the Henschel-Wegmann train. That affected a fifth coach built around 1940, that was based in Hamburg-Langenfelde in 1946 together with the other four coaches.
Blauer Enzian (Blue Gentian)
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
and, in 1954 after conversion by the firm of Wegmann, operated as a train with second class compartments. Later, following the internationally agreed changeover to a two-class system between 1956 and 1959, the coaches were operated as a first class train under the name Blauer Enzian (Blue Gentian), forming the long-distance express service F55/56 between Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. The train offered the highest levels of comfort. Wegmann converted the former 3rd class compartments in pairs to create larger compartments and the interior was enhanced with swivel chairs. The five coaches of the historic train were only sufficient however for running a single train per day in one direction. The train in the other direction was therefore made up of two saloon cars (one of them from the Hermann Göring train
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
), two unconverted F-Zug dining cars and a trailer car similar to those of the Henschel-Wegmann Train. From April 1959, however, only new, modern coaches were used. Despite all claims that one trailer car remains today, all five original coaches were retired and scrapped in 1962. The trailer car with its observation compartment, which has been incorrectly assumed to be the original trailer car, comes from the second Blauer Enzian train, that had been specifically built for that service. Today it is in the collection of the Nuremberg Transport Museum
Nuremberg Transport Museum
The Nuremberg Transport Museum is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications . It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel and Halle...
.
Locomotive 61 001
At the end of the war, locomotive 61 001 found itself in the British Zone and was allocated to the Hanover locomotive depot. Between July 1945 and March 1946 it clocked up 40,000 kilometres in front of passenger trains. In 1947 a general inspection was completed, and on 23 October 1948 the engine was stationed in BebraBebra
Bebra is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Bebra lies some 45 km south of Kassel on the Fulda. The town is easy to find on most maps thanks to its prominent location on the Fuldaknie...
, where it was in regular service until May 1949. After a pause, it resumed work from November 1950 covering 3,000 to 10,000 kilometres per month. On 2 November 1951 the engine was badly damaged in an accident at Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
; as a result it was retired on 14 November 1952 and scrapped in 1957.
Locomotive 61 002
Locomotive 61 002 remained in Dresden and was employed on passenger train duties. As a one-off it created problems for traffic operating staff. However for the Test and Development Centre for Engineering (VES-MVES-M Halle
The Versuchs- und Entwicklungsstelle Maschinenwirtschaft in Halle, Germany, was a railway research and development department working for the engineering head office of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany after the Second World War...
under Max Baumberg) it was of interest as a trial engine for speeds over 160 km/h. It was converted in 1961 by the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany at the workshop in Meiningen into a high-speed trials locomotive with a tender and the running number 18 201
DR 18 201
The German express locomotive, number 18 201 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany, appeared in 1960-61 at Meiningen repair shop as a conversion of the Henschel-Wegmann train locomotive 61 002, the tender from 44 468 and parts of H 45 024 and Class 41...
. With a new-design boiler, outer cylinders from the trials locomotive, H 45 024, and a new welded inner cylinder (the original cylinders were designed for a steam pressure of 20 bar and had too small a bore for the new, 16 bar boiler) and the carrying axle from the high-pressure locomotive , H 45 024, she attained speeds of up to 180 km/h.
In 2002, number 18 201 was completely overhauled in the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works
Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works
The Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works is a railway repair shop in Meiningen, Germany. It is owned by Deutsche Bahn and has specialised in the maintenance of museum steam locomotives since 1990, having extensive experience in maintaining steam engines. Today, customers of the factory include...
and has since been in the possession of Dampf-Plus owned by Christian Goldschagg and Axel Zwingenberger
Axel Zwingenberger
Axel Zwingenberger is a blues and boogie-woogie pianist, and songwriter. He is considered one of the finest boogie-woogie music masters in the world.-Biography:...
.
Stamps
On 5 October 2006 the German post office, Deutsche PostDeutsche Post
Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL, is the world's largest logistics group. With its headquarters in Bonn, the corporation has 467,088 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide and generated revenue of € 51.48 billion in 2010...
, issued a charity stamp series of four stamps
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
, which included a stamp of the Henschel-Wegmann train for 145+55 Eurocents depicting locomotive 61 001.
See also
There was another example of a streamlined train rake using the DRG Class 60 and the double-decker, streamlined, push-pull train on the Lübeck-Büchen railway.Literature
- Leonhard Bergsteiner: 175 km/h mit Dampf. 70 Jahre Henschel-Wegmann-Zug. In: LOK MAGAZIN. Nr. 283/Jahrgang 44/2005, S. 68-72. GeraNova Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH, München, ISSN 0458-1822
- Alfred Gottwald: Die Baureihe 61 und der Henschel-Wegmann Zug. Franckh`sche Verlagshandlung, 1979
- Magistrat der Stadt Potsdam [Hrsg.]: Katalog. Europäische Salonwagenausstellung vom 22. – 23. Mai 1993 auf dem Gelände des Raw Potsdam. Potsdam 1993.
External links
- Photographs
- There is an English-language discussion forum at Railways of Germany