The German DRG Class E 77 was a
Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft electric locomotive class, which was ordered in 1923 and entered service in 1924. The 56 units of this class were specifically intended for the
Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...
-
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
line and for routes in southern
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Pre-war period
The E 77 had been designated a light multi-purpose locomotive within DRG's first classification programme. Later it was mainly used on
freight trains.
The engines were delivered by
BMAG BMAG may refer to:
* British Mensa Annual Gathering
*Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
*Berliner Maschinenbau
Berliner Maschinenbau AG was a German manufacturer of locomotives.
The factory was founded by Louis Victor Robert Schwartzkopff on 3 ...
,
Krauss and
LHW and had originally still held the State Railways' Class EG 3 title with numbers 22 001 through 031 (
Bavarian) or EG 701 to 725 (
Prussian). BMS delivered the electrical parts.
In service, the E 77 distinguished itself with a rather limited result. One was never really satisfied with its running abilities. Moreover, there were often problems due to the many flexible electric cables. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
all engines ended at the ''
Reichsbahndirektion
In Germany and Austria, the running of railway services for a railway administration or the regional network of a large railway company was devolved to railway divisions, variously known as ''Eisenbahndirektionen (ED), Bundesbahndirektionen (BD)'' ...
en'' Halle und
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
in exchange for
Class E 75.
Post-war period
At the end of the war, 53 locomotives were left. 42 thereof, as well as parts of engines E 77 02, 09, 19, 28, 56, 67, 71 and 73, which had been taken out of service due to damages, were ceded to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
as reparations. E 77 06 and 51 were so heavily damaged that their scrapping in Leipzig was authorized in 1947/48. Nothing is known of E 77 64's post-war fate. In 1952/53, 38 of the reparations locomotives (not E 77 05, 58 and 75) were returned into
DR's stock. Of them, only 10 units with numbers E 77 03, 10, 14, 15, 18, 24, 25, 30, 52 and 53 were repaired past 1955. The others were scrapped only in the 1960s. When sufficient numbers of new electric locomotives were available, Class E 77 was retired and save for E 77 10, all units were scrapped as well until late in 1966. For a few years, E 77 10 still served as a switch heating engine at Halle central station and was then converted to a
heritage locomotive at the Dresden railway works, whereby it was almost restored to its prior state.
Technical data
Save for the first series of Prussian locomotives (EG 701 - 713, later E 77 51 to 77 63), all engines had originally had cowl doors. At the reinstatement by
DR though, those were dropped. The trailer axles of the threepartite linked locomotives were at first embedded steeply and later flexibly, so that the
wheel arrangement was changed from (1B)(B1) to (1'B)(B1'). But even after this conversion they were not yet satisfied with the engines' smoothness.
The work schedule featured the following transportation services:
* Freight trains with 1,800 tonnes at a 3
permille
Per mille (from New Latin, Latin , "in each thousand") is an expression that means parts per thousand. Other recognised spellings include per mil, per mill, permil, permill, or permille.
The associated sign is written , which looks like a ...
slope with 30 km/h
* Passenger trains with 500 t at 3 permille with 60 km/h
* Passenger trains with 500 t at 10 permille with 50 km/h and
* Freight trains with 850 t at 10 permille with 25 km/h.
The locomotives had 15 permanent running steps.
Preserved locomotives
Of the 56 exemplaries built in total, one unit has been preserved. E 77 10 is nowadays based at the
Dresden Transport Museum
The Dresden Transport Museum (German: Verkehrsmuseum Dresden) displays
vehicles of all modes of transport, such as railway, shipping, road and air traffic, under one roof.
The museum is housed in the Johanneum at the Neumarkt in Dresden. The Jo ...
.
See also
*
List of DB locomotives and railbuses
This list provides an overview of the motive power operated by Deutsche Bahn. It only includes those vehicles that have been in service with the Deutsche Bahn AG since its formation on 1 January 1994.
The classes are numbered according to the lo ...
*
List of DRG locomotives and railbuses
*
List of Bavarian locomotives and railbuses
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
Literature
*
*
{{German electric locomotives
E 77
Electric locomotives of Germany
15 kV AC locomotives
1B-B1 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1924
Berliner locomotives
Krauss locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of Germany
(1′B)(B1′) locomotives