History of the Brigadelok

German military railways or "Heeresfeldbahnen"

The German army was quick to see the potential of railways in warfare. It is sometimes difficult for us to realise that in 19th century railways were just about the only alternative to move troops and heavy equipment. I am not talking of moving fast but simply moving at all. Especially behind the front the ground soon turned to mud and mud has the bad habit of immobilising heavy equipment. Initially all kinds railways were used but various conflicts in the last decades of the 19th made the need for standardisation painfully apparent. By the start of the 20th century 600 mm gauge had settled as the standard for German military railways with easy to lay and lift track.

Production

From 1901 a new four axled steam locomotive was developed. A prototype saw daylight in 1903 and from 1905 building began in a earnest. Until 1919 no less than 2,573 examples were built. Henschel was the most prolific builder with 789 locomotives, followed (not even closely) by Borsig (377) Orenstein & Koppel (359), Schwartzkopf (218) Maffei (175) and Krauss (164) and the remaining 491 by no less than 9 other manufacturers.

As far is I know 101 members of the clas survive until today. This mainly caused by the fact the many of the locomotive proved to be extremely useful for industrial lines especially in the logging industry so many operated well into the sixties.

Source: WikiPedia, Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag Meißen, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain

Versions

With thousands produced by a wide variety of manufacturers over a period of fiteens years it is inevitbale that differences existed. The drawings below demonstrate this

• Hensche, early designl: straight watertanks, no fitting for waterhoses, steamdome at the front, long smokebox.
• Henschel, later design: slanted watertanks, waterhose fittings on the front sanddome, steamdome in the middle, short smokebox.
• Linke Hofmann: slanted watertanks, waterhose fittings on the rear sanddome, steamdome in the middle, short smokebox.

Construction details

The brigadelok was conventional in every way except one: it was designed with Klien Lindner axles on the first and fourth axle, which means these axles were radially adjustable.

This places the loco's in the class of (semi-)articulated steam locomotives. In fact I think, but I will stand corrected if a different opinion convinces me, this is by far the most numerously built homogenous class of articulated steam locomotives in the world. Admittedly there were more Shays ever built but they rank in many many classes, even if would restrict yourself to dividing the class in its two most apparent operational differences: two of three cylinder, and two, three or four trucks. In fact Shays were rarely built in batches so similar that you could designate them as one class.

It is worth noting that in some cases (no idea how many) the Klien Lindner axles were later replaced by conventional axles to improve running behaviour.

Another noteworthy construction detail is the use of Stephenson valve gear where the Walschaerts' valve gear (in Germany usually referred to Heusinger valve gear as they claim the same invention as well) had already had acquired firm ground in the industry. Drivers and maintenance crews were accustomed to Stephenson's valve though and the designers were hesitant to adopt Walschaerts' instead.

Survivors

About 100 brigadeloks survive until today, Wikipedia lists the numbers so no use in copying that here.

One survivor resides in the Netherlands, but is unfortunately currently not publicly accessible. Another one rests in pieces at the Narrow Gauge railway Museum in Katwijk.

The excellent website Heersefeldbahn.de lists all survivors and their whereabouts. For those who struggle with German you may find this Googlenglish translation convenient.