Rest in Pieces!

[@dominicbarden4436]

I think these locos were the German equivalent of the British War Department's 'Austerity' 0-6-0STs, 2-8-0s and 2-10-0s or the USATC's S160 2-8-0s in that they were designed specifically for the war effort. I like the BR50s (they were my favourite German locomotive to take for a spin on Trainz Railway Simulator 2010), interesting that they were the inspriation for the BR 52s, and wow, that bit about the boilers was really surprising! And the use as donor locos makes perfect sense too. It's like the Austerity 2-8-0 (the 2-10-0 was simply a larger version as I understand it) which was inspired by the LMS Stanier 8Fs, of which quite a few were built specifically for overseas service during the war as the class had been chosen by the WD as the standard design, much as the Great Central Railway's 8K Class had been adopted by the Railway Operating Divison (ROD) for the same purpose during WW1. The WD 8Fs were sent all over the place, many being used in the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa and after the war, some were repatriated home while most were sold to the railway companies in their respective countries to live out their working lives. By 1943 however, a cheaper alternative was needed, and Robert Riddles (who would go on to design the BR Standard Classes) was tasked with coming up with a design. Essentially, he designed a cheaper 8F. In total, including pre-war 8Fs, 852 Stanier 8Fs were built, while there were 935 Austerity 2-8-0s built and another 150 2-10-0s! That's a lot of similar-type heavy freight engines! After the war, as I said, some of the Stanier 8Fs that had been built for war service were brought back home, bought by all of the 'Big Four' railway companies and later taken into BR stock. BR also took in 733 of the Austerity 2-8-0s and 25 2-10-0s. A couple were retained by the War Department, running on the Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire. While they retained the Austerity engines, the Stanier engines were later sold to BR. A couple of Turkish 8Fs survive, and have been brought back to the UK. All in all, in preservation today there are 12 Stanier 8Fs (none of the ones built pre-war were preserved), 1 WD 2-8-0 (repatriated from Sweden) and 4 WD 2-10-0s (none of whom worked with BR, two have been reaptriated from Greece, one is based in the Netherlands, and the 4th, well, more details on her later...). One of the preserved 8Fs is particularly well-travelled, and she's a loco I'm familiar with as she's based on the Severn Valley Railway, my local heritage line. LMS no. 8233 was built in 1940 as one of the WD 8Fs, and was intended to see service in France, however the evacuation of Dunkirk and the fall of France to the Axis put paid to that, so she was taken in by the LMS. She did eventually see service abroad, being sent to Persia (modern-day Iran) where in 1944 she was converted to burn oil and apparently once derailed after hitting a camel! After the war she ended up at Suez and was almost scrapped in 1948, but she returned to Britain in 1952. Under the ownership of the War Deaprtment, she ran on the Longmoor Military Railway as no.500, before being sold to BR in 1957 and renumbered 48773. A funny story is that she was initially mistaken for a WD 2-8-0 and numbered 90733 (a number which is now carried by the only surviving member of that class, which had never worked for BR in the first place!), but the mistake was soon rectified. She initially worked in Scotland, before being reallocated to the North-West in 1962. She lasted pretty much right up until the end of BR steam in 1968, working her last train on 4th August (steam loco usage on BR officially ended on the 11th). She was bought by preservationists and arrived on the Severn Valley Railway later that year. She hasn't steamed since 2008, and has been kept at the railway's museum, the Engine House, which opened that year, though I think her owners have been recently starting to raise money for her overhaul. The SVR also has a WD 2-10-0. Another ex-Longmoor Military Railway loco, no.600 'Gordon' (named after General Charles Gordon of the Royal Engineers, though yes, she's blue and the connection has been made to Gordon the Blue Engine), never worked abroad and spent her post-war career at Longmoor, right up until the railway closed in 1969. The SVR offered to house the loco for the Army and she arrived there in 1972, steaming for the first time a few years later. She's been out of service since 1999, and like our 8F, has been stationed in the Engine House since it first opened in 2008. The Army also formally transferred ownership of her to the railway that year. Looking forward to the rest of this series!

[@muir8009]

There were 6 official Kriegslok classes: the BR52 (as here) the heavier BR42, the E44 and E94 electric locos, and the V36 and Köf diesels. Now being an official Kriegslok (war locomotive) didn't necessitate being designed in the war, or specifically for the war effort. In fact, it was only the steam locomotives that were specifically designed as such. The added complexities of both the E-loks and diesels meant that for these types, it was a case of continuing production of a proven known and useful design, and the designation of Kriegslok didn't even ascribe as new builds either. The Kriegslok programme was inclusive of the maintenance and repair/ rebuild of priority classes. By these, spares, replacement parts, fitting etc were prioritised to the aforementioned kriegslok. Say an E44 came in for repair, and an E16, all repair energies would be towards the E44, including any spare parts manufactured. One of the things with the E94 and E44 is they shared a lot of technical parts, thus allowing, say, AEG to manufacturer just one part. Regarding the redesign of the steamers, with the simpler designs and multiple production facilities they were always seen as being the high production locos, hence the desire to redesign to save on materials, production efforts, simplicity etc. You may think well why did they bother with the complicated electrics and diesels? Basically for the same reason as in the fifties: they could do considerably more amounts of work in a given time, with considerably less downtime for servicing and maintenance. Ooh, and just to add I believe the WD 2-10-0 was the same as the 2-8-0: the extra axle was solely there to give a lighter axle loading and greater route availability. Sounds a bit bizarre but to give an idea, the 15 ton axle loading of the 8f would've been too heavy for the New Zealand Railways, the larger than the 8f native 4-8-4's having a 14 ton axle load. Even funnier is those same native 4-8-4's had a top speed of around 75mph, with smaller driving wheels than the 8f

[@dominicbarden4436]

@@muir8009 Thanks for the extra details! Very interesting read. Though I think the New Zealand comparison is largely irrelevant given that the track gauge used there is different to that in the UK and Europe, so the 8F wouldn't have even run there anyway. Though I will be honest, our loading gauge is so small compared to virtually everyone else that sometimes I feel like the dimensions of the 3ft 6in gauge locos and rolling stock used in Australia and New Zealand are similar to our standard gauge ones! I don't know if that's actually the case though. But even our biggest locos are tiny compared to the American behemoths!

[@SouRwy4501Productions]

My local railroad museum, the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, actually owns the very last s160 steam locomotive ever built, locomotive 610. 610 was built in 1952, roughly 10 years apart from the first s160’s completion. It originally worked at the Fort Eustis military railroad training facility in Virginia, where they used it to train military railway personnel how to operate steam locomotives during the Korean War. 610 was retired in 1972, and in 1978 it was sold to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. They restored it to operational status in 1990, where it would run weekend excursions on their track between Jersey Pike and East Chattanooga. It would occasionally run longer excursions down to Chickamauga and Summerville, Georgia. Sadly, rising costs of operation and rising problems with its boiler forced 610 to quit operating in December of 2010. She hasn’t ran ever since. It’s unlikely that she will be restored, but they still keep her around in good condition just in case.

[@ez-bakeoven6797]

German trains are beautiful, and your models only accentuate their majesty. I would love to see the DRG Class 75.4 (Baden VI c) in the future, its one of my favorites.

[@AdyAero]

Very nice video! Both types of locomotives run on Romania's railways starting with the '40. Class 50 was produced in Romania as series 150.000 and class 52 was imported and registered as series 150.1000. Last locomotives lasted until the '70 in freight transport.

[@lukasilskens2051]

Great Modells, Love to see the DR 52 next ^^, Love or hate it, the Reko 52, or all Reko Engines from the DR are just nice.

[@steelbridgemodels]

And due to their preserved number, certainly the backbone of Germany's heritage scene!

[@wilque6324]

PKP class Ty2 and Ty42 are basically class 52 but with polish headlights

[@hedgehog3180]

The 52 ended up becoming the Litra U in Danish service and was in use right up to the end of steam in Denmark, a couple of P8s has also been left in Denmark after the war and became the Litra P. The main legacy of this is that Marklin occasionally releases varients of these in Danish colors and I guess thinks that's enough because you never see any Danish built models.

[@peterkordziel7047]

As an American fan of German railroad history,I sometimes need good, basic facts to start. Like your episode on the tenders with cabs, you answered my questions that I have had for years. Another subject that I cannot find anything about is what Märklin calls "Freight train baggage cars" in their English language catalogs. I would love a good long episode on those things!😅

[@uncipaws7643]

Early DB had quite limited resources and a huge shortage of rolling stock. Some already saw the end of steam coming but electrification of all mainlines would take decades and diesel fuel had to be imported. So they had to work a lot with the inherited locomotives from old Prussian models via the unified classes of the 1920s/30s to the war locomotives. A program of post-war steam locomotives was also launched, but some of them never went past the prototype stage: Once they had been developed and tested, electric and diesel locomotives were ready as well and these made the steam alternative look very old and cumbersome in terms of maintenance requirements. Thanks for the description, I didn't know the class 38 had different types of cab/tender combinations ... Class 50 originally had a cab open to the rear end but a wall with windows attached to the tender to protect the crew from the weather when going backwards. Now it's the east Germans who really turned class 52 into a modern useful steam locomotive (52.80) and that's of course worth at least one additional video. It's quite a widespread topic, every country had its own idea of what to do with them, Austria rebuilt some tub tenders with a cab for the accompanying staff.

[@richardjayroe8922]

There are still some 52s in service in Bosnia

[@MacG467_]

Once again, informative and entertaining. I particularly liked the 50/52 cylinder and valve gear comparisons! Still waiting on that BR45 video! 😉

[@steelbridgemodels]

The BR 45 is on my list! But then again, there is also so much else on that list...

[@MacG467_]

@@steelbridgemodels no worries! I'm just having fun with you. My top three locos are: BR45 BR53 BR24 And I also like the little E69. I think that would be another interesting video.

[@atshinkansen7439]

The Class 52 is definitely my most favorite German steam locomotive. Very informative! I would like to request a video on the Pwg guard’s vans, and how these and similar vans were used on freight trains. I’ve had a hard time finding information on how to correctly use them in a model railway setting.

[@eozcompany9856]

Great video! We mustn’t forget that even the truly amazing Czechoslovak class ČSD 556.0 drew heavily from the Czechoslovak experiences with the class 52 (555.0 under ČSD) and carried on even some of its characteristic features.

[@officialmcdeath]

When I was taken as a child on my first train trip into Germany (from Hoek van Holland) in the early '70s, was overjoyed to pass one of these hauling freight, South of Köln \m/

[@gtnighthawk4414]

Such awesome steam engines I own a model of the Czechoslovakian adopted BR 52 with ČSD class number as 555.0, with Czech’s modifying the body into a 556 Štoker, in Slovakia a BR 52 had been converted into a oil burner engine numbered as 555.3008 that still operates to this day.

[@steinpedersen1390]

They where used in Norway up untill 1970 as NSB Type 63, called "Stortysker" or The Big German. One where restored to working service, number 2770, and ran heritage trains in the late 90's

[@jshawbitter]

Love your videos keep the coming Could you do a class 44 that would be interesting

[@steelbridgemodels]

Thank you! I have something planned for later this year...

[@MartinVladov]

Very nice love to see more

[@ohlingerjagdkommando3557]

My Grandfather was a Train driver in Austria in the 70s an he liked de 52 more then the 50 because it was closed and had some better features. The 52s outlived the BR 50 in Austria and was in service til 1977 and some in reserve for the Military even longer.

[@marktegrotenhuis]

I love the BR 50 and BR 52 machines. Both in real life and in 1:87 scale. Despite having a mainly Dutch collection I own 8 models of these machines, 2 of them being Altbau BR 52's. I'm still looking for a REKO 52.

[@ryeguyisme]

would like to see a video on variants of the 52 in wartime, the condensing version, the different tenders like the steifrahmentender and condenser tender and their purposes and even a class 53 borsig that never made it into production but seems to be a popular what-if model

[@Oswaldo.]

Oh man I didn't know that Bauriehe 50s boilers were made out of a different steel and thinner than 52s, basically worse boilers, the more you know!

[@muddyblokjes9753]

a long time love. got in the 80s the Minitrix model. best day of my then young life

[@schudder1623]

ich liebe ´deine videos so sehr, kannst nicht erwarten bis die anderen teile kommen

[@HZStudios2023]

my absolute favourite german Locomotive! I love it!

[@noelblack8159]

I personally love the 52, also, a great video ^^

[@RailfanDownunder]

Superb work again sir .... Most interesting 🤔

[@steelbridgemodels]

Thank you so much! 😀

[@heermannmorrer]

Underrated

[@peterforden5917]

I'd love to know more about the V36 and her sister locomotives from "birth" to the present day, your episodes are first class :) .

[@krimskrams]

very cool!

[@NathanPurvis-hm8nc]

I recently bought an MTH O scale BR50 without a tender for a very good price, now I am searching for a tender for it. If anyone should see one for sale, please notify me here. Thanks!

[@Jimboliah3985]

Got a video regarding the Baureihe 42 in the works?

[@simonalexandercritchley439]

There were also class 51 and 53 which were similar and less common. What is the history and different aspects and details of these please?

[@marijnstreinenpagina9111]

there is a br52 in the netherlands running on the heritage railway cold the star railway from veendam to stads kanaal i really like the br52

[@zJoriz]

VSM (Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij) has five BR-52s and at least two BR-50s in various variants and colors. A grey one as well. Many of them run, so really worth a look.

[@marc_abby]

Und ich darf noch an einer Altbau 52 (52 4867) arbeiten 😁 schönes Video !

[@True_NOON]

Like with the 112/143 , theres just so many lying around to just use the next one when any part fails

[@TobiasL1000]

Just wait a few more months/years. I read that there already nearly 6000 Vectrons build or ordered. So very soon this loco by Siemens will be the most build German loco.

[@obelic71]

52 3879 is the only fully original Altbau 52 still operational. After WW2 this in Wien-Floridsdorf in 1944 build engine was alocated to the OBB. Later in the 1970's after a major overhaul she was placed in the strategic reserve of the Austrian Army. In the end of the 80's she came to the Netherlands and was used for the 150 years celebration of the Dutch railways in 1989. in 1996 she got a runninggear overhaul at meinigen and shorty after repainted in its original 1944 Wehrmacht colors, the smokedeflectors were also temporarly removed for a big WW2 movie. A big worldwide controversy about this "NAZI" engine happend and she needed to be 24/7 garded. She now has become a moviestar who has portraid in several WW2 movies/TV series from all over the world

[@heermannmorrer]

What about the 52 7596 operated by the Eisenbahnfreunde Zollernbahn? She appears to be also one of the original " Altbau"- 52s.

[@obelic71]

@@heermannmorrer There are several Altbau left who still have the original rivited WW2 boiler. 52 3879 in OBB service never got any of the improvement refits the DB / DR machines got. That (simplicity) was also one of the reasons she was put into strategic reserve for the Austrian military. Only smoke deflectors from a war damaged donor sister engine were installed just after WW2. On the total oposite of a fully original 52 is the former DRG 52 532 / TE-532 / DR 52 8130 who is converted back to look like a special "altbau" In the Aachen region there were mostly 52's who had special shortned wannentenders so they could be used on the too short turntabels for a standard 50/52 around Aachen. Those mostly drove heavy freightrains on short routes and hilly routes too and from the Netherlands and Belgium. Not one of those special Aachen 52's or tenders survived, all were scraped. So a "replica" of those specials for the region is being rebuild from a reko 52 as an Eurregio effort and nearing completion. 52 532 will be the only 52 (sofar) who will have multiple safety systems so she can run on the mainlines in the Netherlands Germany and Belgium (Indusi, ATB-NG and Memor)

[@NathanPurvis-hm8nc]

I've noticed some locomotives feature a high centered headlight and some don't. Is there an explanation for this?

[@steelbridgemodels]

In the late 1950s, the third headlight was added to make it easier for car or truck drivers to differentiate between trains and road vehicles at night. Before than, three headlights were only used in some special cases.

[@KR4FTW3RK]

My first ever steam train ride was behind a class 52, going from Korntal to Weissach on the Feueriger Elias. They since abandoned their class 52 and run only smaller locomotives. I wonder what became of this one.

[@ClovenCake]

Do you remember the number of the 52?

[@KR4FTW3RK]

@@ClovenCake Turns out I completely misremembered it. The locomotive actually is a class 50 - the 50 3636 to be exact.

[@ClovenCake]

@@KR4FTW3RK The 50 3636 is stationated in Dresden at the moment and is getting restored ^^ The Eisenbahnmuseum Dresden-Altstadt is doing a great job!

[@koiyujo1543]

some of these trains are still in full time working service in the coal industry

[@haroldchase4120]

Frankly I love steam engines .

[@oliverhorn9951]

52 7596 fährt als mal bei uns durch sulz.

[@Nordsturm921]

4 Stück arbeiten heute 82 Jahre nach ihrer Geburt noch täglich in Bosnien-Herzegowina im Kohleabbau, so viel zu nach 10 Jahren verschrotten. Vielleicht nicht kompfortabel und raffiniert wie vor- und Nachkriegsloks, so sind sie doch robust.

[@steelbridgemodels]

Und dank der robusten, simplen Konstruktion auch einfach instand zuhalten! Kaum eine andere Staatsbahn-Konstruktion würde es so lange im Bergbau aushalten...

[@milchbubisports]

🚂🚃🚃🚃❤️

[@cptfrecell]

du hast 5Mio. Abonnenten zu wenig