Prussian S 6
Encyclopedia
The Prussian S 6 was a class of German steam locomotive
with a 4-4-0
wheel arrangement operated by the Prussian state railways
for express train
services.
and S 5 proved less than fully satisfactory, there was a requirement in Prussia
for faster and more powerful express locomotives. To that end the Head of the Locomotive Design and Procurement Department, Robert Garbe
, proposed to the Locomotive Committee in 1904 a design by Linke-Hofmann of Breslau for a 4-4-0 superheated, express train
locomotive. This was an evolutionary development of the Prussian Class S 4 that also had a 4-4-0 configuration.
In putting this forward, Garbe was especially keen to prove the superiority of his design compared with the four-cylinder, wet steam, compound locomotive
s, particularly its predecessor, the Prussian Class S 7 .
In 1905/1906 Garbe pushed through the construction of the S 6. Between 1906 and 1913 a total of 584 units were manufactured by Linke-Hofmann, Henschel-Werke and the Maschinenbauanstalt Humboldt
in Cologne. They were the last four-coupled, express locomotives to be built in Germany and, for a long time, were the most economical locomotives in the Prussian state railways.
for the railway network of 16 tonnes.
This limitation led to the weight savings in many areas. At first, the plate frame was made of 22 mm thick material; this later had to be changed to the usual 25 mm. On the first few engines, a smokebox
superheater was installed, but the design this was changed during the first year in favour of a Schmidt smoke tube superheater
. The long boiler
was located well forward in order to spread the weight to the front carrying wheels
and to keep the axle load within the maximum limits, thus giving the engine the typical appearance of a "Garbe locomotive".
The driving wheels of the S6 had the rather unusual diameter
of 2,100 mm in order to keep the rpm down and to guarantee the smooth running of the driving gear. Originally a diameter of 2,200 mm had been planned, but in the end it was reduced by 100 mm. The heavy balancing masses of the driving gear were badly affected by weight savings. That resulted in serious jerkiness when running. A remedy was achieved by coupling the tender closer to the locomotive and thus raising the compression of the buffer springs.
Not until the lines were upgraded in 1910 to take a 17 tonne axle load, could the necessary reinforcing measures be taken. The S 6 then became the heaviest 4-4-0 locomotive on continental Europe, even outweighing the subsequently built four-cylinder, saturated steam locomotives of Class S 7.
The driver's cab was initially built with a tapered front and conical smokebox doors in order to reduce wind resistance. An unfortunate side effect of the streamlined driver's cab, however, was that the engine crew were dazzled at night by reflexions from the diagonally oriented front window panes. From 1908/1909 the cab was built with a flat front.
The locomotives were equipped with Prussian Class pr 2’2’ T 21.5 tenders.
After the First World War the S 6 was employed in express train duties (on the Leipzig–Dresden, Berlin–Dresden and other lines) as well as in passenger train services. Many of the engines were rehomed at Dresden.
In the 1923 DRG renumbering plan for steam locomotives
, 442 S 6 engines were listed for renumbering into the 13 1001 to 13 1442 series. In the third and final renumbering plan only 286 engines were listed: numbers 13 1001 to 13 1286.
The last engines in Germany were retired between 1926 and 1931.
After World War I
, 81 S 6s were handed over to Poland
, 42 to Belgium
, two to Italy
and one to Lithuania
as reparations
.
The engines in those countries survived considerably longer in service; in Belgium they were not retired until 1956.
During the Second World War a total of 56 S 6 came back into the Reichsbahn fleet from Poland as numbers 13 501-556.
One S 6 has been preserved in Warsaw
(Poland).
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...
with a 4-4-0
4-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels...
wheel arrangement operated by the Prussian state railways
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
for 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.
Development
After the Prussian steam locomotive classes S 4Prussian S 4
The Prussian S 4s were German superheated express steam locomotives with the Prussian state railways, later grouped as DRG Class 13.5 in the Deutsche Reichsbahn. They were an evolutionary development of the Prussian S 3. The first locomotive was built in 1898 as a modified S 3. She was the first...
and S 5 proved less than fully satisfactory, there was a requirement in Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
for faster and more powerful express locomotives. To that end the Head of the Locomotive Design and Procurement Department, Robert Garbe
Robert Garbe
Robert Hermann Garbe was a German railway engineer and chief engineer of the Berlin division in the Prussian state railways from 1895 to 1917...
, proposed to the Locomotive Committee in 1904 a design by Linke-Hofmann of Breslau for a 4-4-0 superheated, 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...
locomotive. This was an evolutionary development of the Prussian Class S 4 that also had a 4-4-0 configuration.
In putting this forward, Garbe was especially keen to prove the superiority of his design compared with the four-cylinder, wet steam, compound locomotive
Compound locomotive
A compound engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages.A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure cylinder, then having given up heat and losing pressure, it exhausts directly into one or more larger...
s, particularly its predecessor, the Prussian Class S 7 .
In 1905/1906 Garbe pushed through the construction of the S 6. Between 1906 and 1913 a total of 584 units were manufactured by Linke-Hofmann, Henschel-Werke and the Maschinenbauanstalt Humboldt
Maschinenbauanstalt Humboldt
The Maschinenbauanstalt Humboldt was a German mechanical engineering firm in Cologne-Kalk and a precursor to the firm of Deutz AG. It was founded in 1871 as Maschinenbau A.G. Humboldt, liquidated due to debts in 1884 and reformed as Maschinenbauanstalt Humboldt A.G..Its predecessor was a company...
in Cologne. They were the last four-coupled, express locomotives to be built in Germany and, for a long time, were the most economical locomotives in the Prussian state railways.
Design features
The design initially caused major difficulties, because it had to keep to the maximum permitted axle loadAxle load
The axle load of a wheeled vehicle is the total weight felt by the roadway for all wheels connected to a given axle. Viewed another way, it is the fraction of total vehicle weight resting on a given axle...
for the railway network of 16 tonnes.
This limitation led to the weight savings in many areas. At first, the plate frame was made of 22 mm thick material; this later had to be changed to the usual 25 mm. On the first few engines, a smokebox
Smokebox
A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a Steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is exhausted to the atmosphere through the chimney .To assist...
superheater was installed, but the design this was changed during the first year in favour of a Schmidt smoke tube superheater
Superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into dry steam used for power generation or processes. There are three types of superheaters namely: radiant, convection, and separately fired...
. The long boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
was located well forward in order to spread the weight to the front carrying wheels
Carrying wheels
The carrying wheels on a steam locomotive are those wheels that are not driven, i.e. they are uncoupled and run freely, unlike coupled or driving wheels. They are also described as running wheels and their axle may be called a carrying axle. Carrying wheels are referred to as leading wheels if they...
and to keep the axle load within the maximum limits, thus giving the engine the typical appearance of a "Garbe locomotive".
The driving wheels of the S6 had the rather unusual diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
of 2,100 mm in order to keep the rpm down and to guarantee the smooth running of the driving gear. Originally a diameter of 2,200 mm had been planned, but in the end it was reduced by 100 mm. The heavy balancing masses of the driving gear were badly affected by weight savings. That resulted in serious jerkiness when running. A remedy was achieved by coupling the tender closer to the locomotive and thus raising the compression of the buffer springs.
Not until the lines were upgraded in 1910 to take a 17 tonne axle load, could the necessary reinforcing measures be taken. The S 6 then became the heaviest 4-4-0 locomotive on continental Europe, even outweighing the subsequently built four-cylinder, saturated steam locomotives of Class S 7.
The driver's cab was initially built with a tapered front and conical smokebox doors in order to reduce wind resistance. An unfortunate side effect of the streamlined driver's cab, however, was that the engine crew were dazzled at night by reflexions from the diagonally oriented front window panes. From 1908/1909 the cab was built with a flat front.
The locomotives were equipped with Prussian Class pr 2’2’ T 21.5 tenders.
Performance
The S 6 achieved its highest indicated power of 1,160 PS (870 kW) at a speed of 100 km/h. On the level it could haul a train of 500 tonnes (the equivalent of 13 eight-wheeled D-Zug coaches) at a continuous speed of 90 km/h. On engines with a feedwater preheater the performance was about 10% higher.Distribution
Apart from the divisions of Berlin and Königsberg (other sources also name Saarbrücken), the S 6 was procured by all the Prussian railway divisions S 6. There were only a few transfers..| Division | Quantity of S6 | | Division | Quantity of S6 | | Division | Quantity of S6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altona | 70 | Elberfeld | 23 | Kattowitz | 21 |
| Breslau | 44 | Erfurt | 17 | Magdeburg | 41 |
| Bromberg | 31 | Essen | 31 | Mainz | 9 |
| Cassel | 10 | Frankfurt | 5 | Münster | 45 |
| Coeln | 27 | Halle | 68 | Posen | 35 |
| Danzig | 21 | Hannover | 42 | Stettin | 44 |
After the First World War the S 6 was employed in express train duties (on the Leipzig–Dresden, Berlin–Dresden and other lines) as well as in passenger train services. Many of the engines were rehomed at Dresden.
Preserved locomotives
From 1912 the S 6 was ousted from heavy express train services by the S 10.In the 1923 DRG renumbering plan for steam locomotives
DRG renumbering plan for steam locomotives
In 1922 the Deutsche Reichsbahn began to develop a renumbering plan to standardize the numbering of steam locomotives that had been taken over from the state railways . Its basis was the corresponding DRG classification system....
, 442 S 6 engines were listed for renumbering into the 13 1001 to 13 1442 series. In the third and final renumbering plan only 286 engines were listed: numbers 13 1001 to 13 1286.
The last engines in Germany were retired between 1926 and 1931.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, 81 S 6s were handed over to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, 42 to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, two to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and one to Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
as reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...
.
The engines in those countries survived considerably longer in service; in Belgium they were not retired until 1956.
During the Second World War a total of 56 S 6 came back into the Reichsbahn fleet from Poland as numbers 13 501-556.
One S 6 has been preserved in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
(Poland).
See also
- Prussian state railwaysPrussian state railwaysThe term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
- List of Prussian locomotives and railcars
- List of preserved steam locomotives in Germany
External links
- Photo of locomotive in original configuration
- Drawing with dimensions
- There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany
