The Prussian Class G 5.1 steam engines were the first

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

goods locomotives in Europe. They were developed for 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 ...

from the Class G 4 and a total of no less than 264 units of this class were placed in service 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 ...

between 1892 and 1902. The twin-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

G 5.1 had been designed to raise the speed of goods trains on main lines. In addition, more powerful engines were needed for the increasingly heavy train loads. The locomotives, which were equipped with a compressed air brake, were used in charge of fast goods trains (''Eilgüterzugdienst'') and also passenger trains due to their impressive top speed of 65 km/h. The G 5.1 was fitted with inside Allan valve gear and the carrying wheels were of the

Adams axle The Adams axle is a form of radial axle for rail locomotives that enable them to negotiate curves more easily. It was invented by William Bridges Adams and patented in 1865. The invention uses axle boxes that slide on an arc in shaped horn bloc ...

design. The engines were coupled with tenders of Class pr 3 T 12. In Prussian service they were renumbered in 1905 into the 4001–4150 range. The

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 ...

inherited 169 G 5.1s after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which were designated class 54.0-1 in the

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 (''Länderbahnen''). Its basis was the corresponding DRG classification system. ...

; however by 1925 only 71 units, 54 001—54 071, had been renumbered. The locomotives were all retired by 1930. The

Polish State Railways (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant Rail transport operations, railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separati ...

received 28 units after the Great War, initially retaining their Prussian running numbers, and in 1925 they were designated Ti1 and numbered 1–28. During the

Third Silesian Uprising The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...

at least three, 4003, 4160, and 4185, were fitted with armour and used for Polish armoured trains; after returning to civilian use, the armour was removed and they were designated class G5.3 (Ti3 after 1925); it is possible that the latter two were not in fact G 5.1s. Retirement of the class began in 1936, and by 1939 only six remained in operation. Of these, three were captured by the Germans and impressed into Reichsbahn service as 54 601–603. Of these, only one - 54 601 (ex Ti1-15, née Danzig 4002, built by Schichau w/n 1113/1900) was returned to Poland on 29 September 1955 and immediately scrapped.''Beiträge zur Lokomotiv- und Eisenbahngeschichte''
at beitraege.lokomotive.de. Retrieved 27 September 2022. 28 G 5.1s went to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Belgian State Railways The Belgian State Railways ( nl, Belgische Staatsspoorwegen; french: Chemins de fer de l'État Belge) was the original state-owned railway of Belgium. Established by an organic law of 1 May 1834, it began construction of its first line, between Bru ...

Type 75, two were already withdrawn in 1921 and only nine were allocated new numbers in 1925, the last ones were withdrawn in 1929. Another seven went to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

to the Administration des chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine (AL) which designated them class G 5.1 and numbered them 3994—4000; they were all passed on to the William Luxembourg Railway ( fr) before the AL was merged into the SNCF in 1938.

See also

Notes

References

Further reading