Engerth locomotive

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Since the Engerth locomotives of the Southern State Railroad proved their worth on Semmering, the Eastern State Railways (ÖStB) and one year later the Lombard-Venetian Railways and the Buschtěhrad Railroad procured Engerth machines with the same C2 'wheel arrangement. Locomotive No. 901 "Grünbach" of the ÖStB.

Engerth locomotives were support-tender locomotives that were designed under the direction of Wilhelm von Engerth following the competition for the most favorable type of steam locomotive for operation on the Semmering Railway .

Original form with powered tender

In the original version of locomotive No. 610 of the Southern State Railway from 1853, the second coupling rod for the tender's drive can be clearly seen.
In addition to the Engerth locomotives with the C2 'wheel arrangement, the Southern State Railroad ordered B3' machines with larger drive wheels from 1855 onwards, which were used for passenger trains on the Semmering route and freight trains in the lowlands.

Since none of the four winning locomotives of the Semmering competition were suitable for practical operation on the Semmering Railway , the advantages of the "Bavaria" were further developed into a new design under the direction of Wilhelm von Engerth , which was later given the name Engerth locomotive . The three coupling axles, which were fixed in the frame , were located under the long boiler . The boiler , which overhangs far to the rear , is supported by the two-axle tender , the front axle of which was still in front of the front wall of the standing boiler . Because part of the boiler weight was transferred to the tender, this type of construction is known as a support tender locomotive . The frames of the support tender reached up to the fire box , where they were connected to the locomotive with a ball joint. Appropriate design of the tender frame allowed the fire grate to be of an appropriate width . The coal supply was on the supporting tender , the water supply, like a tank locomotive, in the water boxes on both sides of the long boiler. For later deliveries, the water tank was no longer attached to the boiler, but to the supporting tender.

The kk Südliche Staatsbahn ordered 26 such machines from Grünschacher to Sonnwendstein from Cockerill in Seraing and from the Esslingen machine factory . The dimensions of the mountain locomotives exceeded what was usual at the time. The adhesion weight , the steam pressure and their boiler and cylinder dimensions set new standards. In order to make the adhesive weight of the support tender usable, the tender axles were also driven on three of the first machines delivered. Power was transmitted by gears that were located between the axes of the main frame and the tender. It turned out to be a weak point, because the meshing of the teeth was disturbed by the mutual turning movement and by the swaying , especially when driving through track sections with changing cant . The chain and belt drives tested for power transmission also failed, so the drive for the support tender was dispensed with.

The first machines were completed in time for the opening of the Semmering Railway and were able to meet all expectations. The adhesion drive had finally prevailed over the cable car principle in mountain railways.

Final design

Engerth locomotive Eb 2/4 of the Swiss Central Railway from 1857. The actual locomotive is shown in green and the supporting tender in orange.
The freight train support tender locomotives of the State Railroad Company with the wheel arrangement C2 'like the illustrated no. 463 "Menes" were obtained in 1856 from various manufacturers.
The large-wheeled B3 'machines No. 146–157 from the years 1857/1858 and the No. 170–177 shown in the picture from 1863 were used by the Austro-Hungarian State Railway Company in express train service.

In contrast to the drive of the tender, the principle of the support tender locomotive proved its worth. The rotatable connection of the support tender to the locomotive created a short, fixed wheelbase that made the machine turnable. The large boiler made it possible to build high-performance mountain locomotives, which from 1853 provided excellent service on Semmering and later on other steeply inclined railways in Austria, Switzerland and other countries. Several hundred Engerth machines were built with two- and three-axle tenders as freight and express train locomotives.

In 1857/58, the United Swiss Railways purchased 20 Engerth Eb 2/5 passenger locomotives with a B3 'wheel arrangement from the Esslingen machine factory . Eb 2/5 No. 25 “Spluegen” in Zurich.
C2 'locomotive no. 594 "Ambras" of the Tyrolean State Railways delivered by Maffei in 1856 . In 1858 the machines came to the Südbahngesellschaft . Since the Brennerbahn did not open until 1867, the locomotives never made it to South Tyrol.

Engerth locomotives have also proven themselves on Swiss railways ( SCB Eb 2/4 , Ec 2/5 and Ed 3/5, VSB Ec 2/5 and Eb 2/5 ). At the Jura industriel in the Neuchâtel Jura, the entire fleet consisted of Engerth machines. The French Northern Railway and the French Eastern Railway also procured Engerth locomotives, but they had four axles stored under the long boiler. These machines were soon converted into normal quadruple-coupled locomotives with tenders. The Engerth design was also used for the French Chemins de fer du Midi . In Germany, the Bavarian State Railways experimented with the support tender design. This is how the Bayerische C II and the doubly coupled BV PHOENIX Engerth locomotives were created.

Due to the decreasing adhesive weight due to the water consumption, the tractive force decreased during the journey, although part of the water supply was on the non-driven first supporting tender axle. With the increase in traffic, the limited space on the support tender for the coal reserves and the limited capacity of the water tank next to the boiler became noticeable. The support tender, which was firmly connected to the locomotive, made boiler maintenance difficult and led to high maintenance costs. The locomotive constructions that arose with the further technical development were on a par with the supporting tender machines in terms of their performance and so many Engerth locomotives were converted over time. The Austrian Southern Railway, for example, which was owned by the Southern State Railway after it was privatized, added a fourth laterally movable coupling axle to most of its large-wheeled Engerth locomotives and replaced the support tender with a tender . Some of these former Engerth locomotives were in use in Austria until the 1930s.

After support-tender locomotives had lost their importance on standard- gauge railways , Engerth-support-tender locomotives of the types Klose and Krauss were further developed , especially for use on narrow-gauge lines with tight curve radii .

Preserved Engerth locomotives

Varia

A postage stamp from the Czechoslovak Post Office at the time was dedicated to the Engerth locomotive “Karlštejn” of the StEG I 178–270 series . Engerth locomotives of the Semmering Railway are depicted on two Austrian postage stamps and a commemorative coin . The locomotive “Kapellen” is shown on a 55-cent stamp issued on June 19, 2004 . A commemorative stamp for the 200th anniversary of the Semmering Railway with a value of 62 cents was issued on April 7, 2014 and shows Wilhelm von Engerth with the same locomotive.

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b Hilscher: The locomotives of the former Austrian state railways in the 40s and 50s of the last century. I . In: The Locomotive . Illustrated monthly magazine for railway technicians. Year 1922, issue 8, page 104. ( ANNO Historical Austrian newspapers and magazines)
  2. ↑ According to Hilscher, other sources speak of one or four machines.
  3. ↑ Engerth, Wilhelm Freiherr von. In: Lexicon of the Central European Science Adventure. European Commission's “Culture” program, accessed on May 1, 2016 .
  4. ↑ On the development of the steam locomotive in Switzerland In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . Volume 86 (1925), Issue 13 (E-Periodica, PDF 8.3 MB).
  5. ^ G. Scheingraber: Locomotives and wagons of the Royal Bavarian State Railways . In: Deutsche Eisenbahnen - Type sketches and sections . tape 3 . Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1968, p. 2 .
  6. ↑ Hilscher: The locomotives of the former Austrian state railways in the 40s and 50s of the last century. II.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Continued from page 104. In: The locomotive . Illustrated monthly magazine for railway technicians. Year 1922, issue 8, page 112. ( ANNO Historical Austrian newspapers and magazines)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / anno.onb.ac.at  
  7. ↑ Horst Brix: kk priv. Austrian State Railway Company Numbers 178 - 270. Retrieved on May 1, 2016.
  8. ↑ Collector and gift ideas. Article 10/35. On the website of Monika Leutgeb, accessed on March 29, 2018
  9. ^ Wilhelm Engerth. On: Post. Collective exchange, accessed on March 29, 2018