Express Train Locomotive BR 01 DB

Info about the original

From 1958, the German Federal Railway (Deutsche Bundesbahn) equipped 50 locomotives of the 01 series with the so-called Type I high-performance boiler. Designed according to the construction principles developed by Friedrich Witte, this boiler type had previously been successfully installed in the Bundesbahn’s series BR 01.10 locomotives. The new, fully welded boiler had a significantly better ratio of radiant to tubular heating surface (1:8.8 compared to 1:13.54 in the old-style boiler), which was mainly due to the built-in combustion chamber. To put this in figures: while the evaporation surface of the high-efficiency boiler was 54 m² smaller than that of its predecessor, this was compensated for by an 18 kg/m²h increase in the heating surface load. This made it possible to achieve the same boiler output with significantly lower fuel consumption. Visually, the conversion to the high-performance boiler resulted in locomotives that looked far neater and more modern. In addition, some adjustments were made with regard to occupational health and safety. The pipework was routed in cleaner lines. The sandbox was removed from the top of the boiler. The running board was replaced by a wide circulating plate and handles were integrated into the wind deflectors. On the technical side, the Knorr surface preheater was replaced by a type 57 mixing preheater. The locomotives 01 217 and 223 were fitted with experimental roller bearings in the driving and coupling rods, similar to those used in the BR 01.10. In operational terms, the new locomotives were deployed alongside the “old-style boiler” locomotives from traditional maintenance depots. The use of both 01 variants by DB only came to an end when steam locomotive maintenance finally ceased at the Hof railway depot in 1973.