The Prussian S 4's were German superheated express steam locomotives with 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 ...

, later grouped as DRG Class 13.5 in 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 ...

. They were an evolutionary development of the Prussian S 3. The first locomotive was built in 1898 by Vulcan, Stettin as a modified S 3. She was the first superheated locomotive in the world.Rauter and Scheingraber (1991), pp. 84-90. She was initially designated as ''Hannover 74'' and towards the end as the S 4 ''Cassel 401''. Two further trials locomotives appeared in 1899 and 1900 as ''Hannover 86'' and ''Berlin 74'' also classed as S 3's. They were later reclassified as S 4's ''Hannover 401'' and ''Posen 401''. Not until the teething troubles had been resolved was the S 4 put into series production in 1902 in

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 ...

, from 1906 also in Henschel and Humboldt. Unlike the prototypes the production engines were developed independently of the S 3, and 104 examples were built in the years to 1909 when procurement was halted in favour of the Prussian S 6. Up to 1906 a smokebox superheater was installed; afterwards smoke tube superheaters were used. The S 4's star waned even before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, so that within a few years most of the engines had disappeared from the tracks. The remainder were employed on passenger train or even goods train duties. In 1923 the

recorded 44 S 4's in its provisional renumbering plan as 13 501-544. But by 1925 only four of them were left. These were given running numbers 13 501–504 in 1925 and were retired by 1927. After the

, six locomotives were given to 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 ...

(PKP), where they were classified as Pd2 class, numbers 1 to 6. During the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

five S 4s came into the Reichsbahn holdings from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

as 13 401–405. Two of them were eventually given back to Poland in 1955 by the DR. The locomotives were equipped with tenders of Prussian classes pr 2’2’ T 16, pr 3 T 13 and pr 3 T 15.

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Literature

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prussian S 04 4-4-0 locomotives S 04 Passenger locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1902 Standard gauge locomotives of Germany Borsig locomotives Henschel locomotives Humboldt locomotives 2′B h2 locomotives

See also

References

Literature