| Class 56 Steam Locomotive
German Federal Railroad (DB) class 56.2-8 steam freight locomotive. Rebuilt Prussian G 8.1 with a pilot truck. German State Railroad lanterns on the locomotive and tender, without a bell. Type 3T 16,5 coal tender. Road number 56 814. The locomotive looks as it did starting in 1950 at the Nördlingen maintenance facility.
Right across the Country
In the Thirties, many class G 8.1 locomotives were converted to the class 56.2-8. The most striking feature of this conversion was the addition of a pilot truck. Moving the cab and the boiler also resulted in a completely new side view of the locomotive. These conversion measures allowed the permissible maximum speed to be increased by 15 km/h / 9 mph to 70 km/h / 44 mph. This meant that these locomotives were also suitable for passenger train service. Approximately 370 locomotives of this type were taken over by the German Federal Railroad. In 1967, the last locomotive of this class was retired on the DB. |
