The

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

' Class P 10 were 2-8-2 "Mikado" type passenger-hauling steam locomotives built for hauling heavy express trains in the hilly terrain of the ''Mittelgebirge''. They were the last Prussian passenger train steam locomotives to be developed in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

before the state railways were merged into the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...

(German Imperial Railway), who eventually designated them as DRG Class 39. The design by

Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig Ernst August Pau ...

, under the supervision of chief engineer August Meister, was ready in 1919 but, due to material shortages, no locomotives were produced until 1922. They were three-cylinder locomotives, all cylinders driving the second

coupled axle On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled tog ...

. Three sets of

Walschaerts valve gear The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgian railway engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes named without the final "s", since it ...

were used, the one for the inside cylinder being mainly located inside the frame, but driven from the same eccentric crank as the valve gear on the left-hand side; two eccentric rods of different lengths being attached to the same crank. The locomotives' heavy axle-load exceeded the 17

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

standard specification of much of the German rail network, so they were limited to specific lines which were constructed to higher standards. A total of 260 of these locomotives were ultimately constructed and they worked primarily on the ''Main-Weser-Bahn'' between

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

and Kassel, as well as the Eifel region, the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

network until their replacement by Class 221

diesel locomotives A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

, and the Gäubahn (Stuttgart–Singen). They were the most powerful of all the state railway passenger locomotives. The vehicles were originally equipped with Prussian 2'2' T 31,5 tenders. The

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...

fitted many of the surviving examples with ''Witte''

smoke deflectors Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smokebox at the front of a ste ...

and 2'2' T 34 tenders. The last three engines were stabled in Stuttgart and taken out of service in 1967. The

DB Museum The Nuremberg Transport Museum (') is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications ('). It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel (the '' DB Museum Koblenz'') and Halle ...

owns 39 230, which may be viewed currently at the

German Steam Locomotive Museum The German Steam Locomotive Museum (''Deutsches Dampflokomotiv-Museum'') or DDM is located at the foot of the famous ''Schiefe Ebene'' ramp on the Ludwig South-North Railway in Neuenmarkt, Upper Franconia. This region is in northern Bavaria, Ge ...

. In the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn the Prussian P 10 was indispensable and was therefore included in their reconstruction programme. The 85

Rekolok {{unreferenced, date=December 2014 The German term Rekonstruktionslokomotive (abbreviated to: Rekolokomotive or Rekolok) meant 'reconstruction locomotive' and was introduced in 1957 by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR. The term was used for clas ...

s were grouped into

DR Class 22 The steam locomotives of DR Class 22 were reconstructed passenger train locomotives in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany after the Second World War. These engines were rebuilt from DRG Class 39.0-2 locomotives and appeared b ...

References

* * {{Prussian locomotives 2-8-2 locomotives P 10 Railway locomotives introduced in 1922 Standard gauge locomotives of Germany Borsig locomotives 1′D1′ h3 locomotives Passenger locomotives

See also

References