Tr5
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tr5-65 + 17C1-65 (Orenstein & Koppel 8961/1921), photographed at the Wolsztyn shed on
On
…arising much interest…
…opening the parade, as the oldest engine
participating, …
…and posing by the signal box.
Side drawing of the 562-8 © Lokomotiv-Revue (from TB vol.1).
Another picture of the Tr5-65 at the Wolsztyn depot...
... and steaming past a group of railway
fans; both these pictures were taken during the Steam Locomotive Parade on A few pictures taken during the 2007 Parade
can be seen here. On
Wolsztyn again: Tr5-65 at the 15th Steam Locomotive Show,
Tr5-65 as a guest star at ‘Parowozjada 2009’: Chabówka
station, September 5, 2009.
The same engine, but in much poorer
condition, photographed at the Łazy depot on May
21, 1990, a few months before the transfer to Jaworzyna
Śląska. Photo from my collection.
DR 56 443 (BMAG
5936/1916) began its life as KPEV
Halle 4962, then became 55 4104. Rebuilt in 1936, it remained in use until
July 1969. Location and date unknown (postcard from my collection).
DB 56 606 was rebuilt in 1938 from 55 5597 (ex KPEV Altona 5175, Orenstein
& Koppel 8915/1921); withdrawn in August 1966. Location and date unknown.
Photo from my collection. |
Prussian
state railways KPEV (Königlich Preußische Eisenbahnverwaltung) before and during WWI ordered
large numbers of freight locomotives with the 0-4-0 axle arrangement. 1205 G71s,
1646 G72s and 200 G9s, built between 1893 and 1917, ran on
saturated steam. They were quickly supplemented by 1054 G8s, first Prussian
freighters with steam superheating. Further development of the latter,
classed G81, was one of the most successful and certainly the most
numerous Prussian engines: between 1912 and 1921 KPEV received 4994 examples. In
early 1930s DRG still had over 3000
G81s, classed 5525-56,58. Running qualities of these
comparatively new locomotives, with quite modern and efficient boilers, had
already become unsatisfactory: due to axle arrangement their maximum speed
was only 55 km/h. Following the appearance of more powerful types (mainly
1-5-0s) they were relegated to branch lines, but for such duties axle load of
17.5 tonnes was too high. Launching a
reconstruction program was certainly justified and in 1934 Borsig proposed
fitting lead Bissel truck. In order to achieve proper weight distribution,
side sills had to be lengthened and strengthened, and boiler shifted forward
by 720 mm and raised by 80 mm. Maximum speed could be increased to 70 km/h;
however, due to lower weight on drivers, this was accompanied by tractive
effort decrease from 14.4 to 13 tonnes. This
project was accepted and ten engines were soon rebuilt by Borsig; as far as I know, the
first one was 55 5373 (ex-KPEV
Stettin 5281, Vulcan 3585/1920).
Further rebuilds were performed by six railway stock repair works (RAW) at Schneidemühl (today Piła), Gleiwitz (today
Gliwice), Kaiserslautern, Darmstadt, Lingen and
Schwerte. Until 1941 this program involved 691 locomotives, re-classed 562-8;
some of them received their numbers for the second time, after classes G4/5N
and G4/5H (Königlich Bayerische Staatsbahn), VIIIe (Badische Staatsbahn)
and several more ‘exotic’ classes withdrawn from DRG in late 1920s and
early 1930s. Rebuilt
G81s proved very useful, mainly on local lines with light freight
and mixed traffic. They had sufficient tractive effort at moderate axle load
of 16.2 tonnes; no wonder, thus, that during the
war many were transferred to the East, where weak tracks were commonplace.
After the war, DB were left with
367 machines, which remained in service until 1967; DR had only 59, last of which were written off two years later.
Several examples went to the USSR as war booty, but their number is difficult
to estimate. Soviets classed most (perhaps all) ex-DRG 56s with two-cylinder single expansion engines at class TO,
but this referred not only to 562-8s. Last of them were withdrawn
from the MPS (Ministry of
Transport) service in 1957, some went to industry. After
the war, PKP received 66
locomotives of this class, initially scattered throughout the country; soon,
however, most of them were transferred to Upper and Lower Silesia, where they
remained until the end of their service. Classed Tr5, they were used mainly with
light freight trains, but also saw some passenger service. According to www.beitraege.lokomotive.de,
one more example (DRG 56 433,
ex 55 4295, ex KPEV Königsberg 5197, Schichau 2440/1916)
was taken over but not restored in service; this engine was not given any PKP service number and written off in
February 1946. Tr5-66 (ex DRG
56 775, ex 55 5804, Humboldt
1385/1918) was originally built for Großherzoglich Mecklenburgische Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn
and numbered 484. Following withdrawal from line service, some Tr5s were
relegated to switching. Most survived until late 1960s, last were written off
in October 1972. A few remained in use in the role of stationary boilers
until 1974. By
a strange decree of fate, of this once quite numerous class only one machine
has survived in Europe until today – in Poland. Tr5-65 (Orenstein &
Koppel 8961/1921, KPEV Stettin
5312, then DRG 55 5607, rebuilt at RAW
Schneidemühl in January 1938 and renumbered 56
511), written off in 1972, was first kept at the Jaworzyna
Śląska depot. Overhauled, or rather reconstructed,
in 1994 by ZNTK Piła
(now Interlok), it was restored in service
as a heritage locomotive. After a major overhaul in Gniezno between December
2000 and May 2002 it was transferred to the Wolsztyn
depot and from time to time ran with special trains. It was withdrawn from
service in June 2010, due to boiler ticket expiry. In fact Tr5-65 was the
second machine to bear this DRG
service number: first 56 511 (Hartmann 2920/1906, SäSt 764) was written off in
1926. Main technical data
1)
All rebuilt from G81s – some sources give
688 examples. 2)
Plus one more not restored in service. 3)
Some sources give 51.9 m2 – possibly
differences depending on the manufacturer. List of
vehicles can be found here. References
and acknowledgments
-
Monographic article by Paweł
Terczyński (SK vol. 1/1995); -
www.parowozy.best.net
(website by Michał ‘Doctor’ Pawełczyk); -
TB vol.1, AP; -
www.beitraege.lokomotive.de
(locomotive database by Ingo Hütter). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
