Class 44 Steam Locomotive
German Federal Railroad (DB) class 44 heavy steam freight locomotive, with an oil tender based on the type 2´2´T34 tender. Black/red basic paint scheme. Transitional wartime cab with only one window per side, standard design Witte smoke deflectors, pilot truck wheel set with disk or solid wheels, without smoke box central locking, with an inductive magnet on one side. Road number 44 1264. The locomotive looks as it did around 1962/63.
Langer Heinrich / Long Henry Oil Jumbo
It was an impressive show, when two heavy class 44 Öl (starting in 1968: 043) heavy steam freight locomotives hauled the Long Henry ore trains of up to 4,000 metric tons as double headed motive power and at speeds up to 80 km/h / 50 mph from Emden in the direction of the Ruhr area or Saarland. For many years, this use of oil-fired units formed the high point of heavy freight service on the DB and it can now be modelled on a model railroad too. Starting in 1955, the DB had 32 class 44 locomotives equipped with oil firing that enabled an increase in performance of around 190 pounds per square inch. Up to the end of steam motive power on the DB in October of 1977, the last class 043 units were used and based at Rheine and Emden. |