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Placeholder for information relating to German railways and railway equipment.

Parameters of standard diesel switching locomotives available from the German locomotive industry.

Class I

Axle arrangement: B
Rail gauge: 1,435 mm standard (1520mm alternate)
Length over buffers: 5,475 mm
Height: 3,005 mm
Width: 2,960 mm
Overall wheel base: new 2,500 mm
Smallest curve radius: 50 m
Service weight: 8,000 kg
Top speed: 18 km/h
Installed Power: 50hp
Driving wheel diameter: 850 mm
Fuel supplies: 56 litres diesel (can be configured to run on liquefied petroleum gas)
Engine type: Motorenwerke Mannheim RHS 310A
Transmission: mechanical (gear, roller chain)
Locomotive brake: foot brake


Class II

Axle arrangement: B
Rail gauge: 1,435 mm standard (1520mm alternate)
Length over buffers: 5,575 mm
Height: 3,025 mm
Width: 2,962 mm
Overall wheel base: 2,506 mm
Smallest curve radius: 50 m
Service weight: 10,000 kg
Top speed: 23 km/h
Installed Power: 90 hp
Driving wheel diameter: 850 mm
Fuel supplies: 65 litres diesel (can be configured to run on liquefied petroleum gas)
Engine type: Motorenwerke Mannheim RHS 315A
Transmission: mechanical (gear, roller chain)
Locomotive brake: foot brake


Class III

Axle arrangement: B
Rail gauge: 1,435 mm standard (1520mm alternate)
Length over buffers: 7,830 mm
Height: 3,200 mm
Width: 2,990 mm
Overall wheel base: 2,600 mm
Smallest curve radius: 53 m
Service weight: 22,000 kg
Top speed: 45 km/h
Installed Power: 300 hp
Driving wheel diameter: 900 mm
Fuel supplies: 130 litres
Engine type: Motorenwerke Mannheim RHS 518A
Power transmission: roller chain (331,332), universal joint (333,335)
Locomotive brakes: Knorr compressed air brake

Austauschbauart Railway Vehicles

The term Austauschbau ('interchangeable component manufacture') is a manufacturing concept, the basis for industrial mass production techniques. From the mid-1920s, in the spirit of such interchangeable component manufacture, the Deutsche Reichsbahn began to use a greater number of standard parts. The idea was that, by specifying tight production tolerances, to enable the easy interchangeability of as many parts as possible both within and between various vehicle classes, in order to make maintenance cheaper and easier. To that end the Joint Wagon Standards Committee (Allgemeine Wagennormungsausschuss) , as well as the German Institute for Standardisation (Deutsches Institut für Normung ), developed the relevant norms. The construction of wagons to these principles began in 1927.

The first Austauschbauart goods wagons were based on the extremely successful Verbandsbauart designs of the former German State Railway Wagon Association (Deutscher Staatsbahnwagenverband ).

Standard Good Wagons

Type G “Kassel” and “Oppeln” class Covered Goods Van

The vans of the “Kassel” class were derived from the A2 wagon of the Verbandsbauart , the primary difference being the use of a barrel roof instead of a flat roof and the relocation of the brakeman’s cab to floor level on the undercarriage. The body was stabilised by a diagonal reinforcing brace in the sections of the wall nearest the doors. The loading length of the van was reduced to 7,720mm, while the axle base was increased to 6,000mm in order to provide better riding qualities, as a result of which the maximum speed was increased to 90 kph. Produced from 1930 onward the “Oppeln” group featured welded construction instead of riveted, and gradually became the predominant vehicle in the class.

Type H “Dresden” Large-volume Covered Van

The large volume vans of this class were of welded construction, distinguished from their Verbandsbauart predecessors by their different roof shape, trapezoidal strut frame and diagonal braces on the wagon body in the section next to the door. It was produced only with a hand brake, and had a 7,000 mm axle base and overall length over buffers of 10,800 mm, and was authorised for 90 kph.

Type J “Wuppertal” class Lidded Wagon

These wagons were longer (length over buffers with/without hand brake: 9,100mm / 9,800 mm) and had a greater axle base (4,000 mm) than their Verbandsbauart forebears. The side walls were now divided into two panels by a vertical brace either side of the door.

Type M “Augsburg” class Four-wheel Flat Wagon

This four-wheeled, flat wagon with 8,000 mm axle base, 12,988 mm loading length, 20 ton maximum load and no hand brake was built from 1927. It differed from the Verbandsbauart A11 type in a large number of design details. Welded construction was introduced from 1933 onwards.

Type O “Königsberg” class Open Goods Wagon

These wagons with a 20-ton maximum load were among the first to be manufactured in Austauschbau; initially with riveted construction but from 1930 with welded. Its 9,100mm long undercarriage over buffers (9,800mm with hand brake) had a 4,500mm axle base.

Type R “Stuttgart” class Stake Wagon

The “Stuttgart” class wagon was 600mm longer than the A4 Verbandsbauart wagon, and could be easily recognised by their trapezoidal strut frames. In 1934 welded construction was introduced and the axle base was increased from 7,000 mm to 8,000 mm, while the wagons reverted to a three-dimensional, diagonal strut frame again. This stable design enabled a top speed of 90 kph. Wagons of this class were fitted with Kunze-Knorr brakes.

Type S “Köln" Eight-wheel Flat Wagon

Derived from the Verbandsbauart type A3 wagon, the “Köln" class had a maximum load weight of 40 tons, and could be distinguished from the A3 by the use of a fish belly girder. All wagons of this class were fitted with a hand brake, and from 1931 they were of welded construction. Wagons of this type were fitted with a foldaway brakeman’s platform in order to transport longer loads over the ends of the wagon.

Type V “Hamburg” class Livestock Van

The dimensions of the “Hamburg” class were the same as the Type G “Kassel” class covered vans. These continued to be manufactured with riveting until the first welded units were produced in 1937.


Special Goods Wagons

While not constructed in the same numbers as the standard good wagons of the Austauschbau plan, a number of specialist vehicles were constructed using standard components as far as possible.

Type D “Saarbrücken” class Eight-wheel Covered Vans – High volume goods vans built in small numbers – often used for the transportation of racehorses.

Type K “Berlin” class Refrigerated Vans - Four-wheeled kühlwagen built with modern insulation that was also suitable for the transportation of fish and frozen meat.

Type P “Trier” class Hopper Wagon - A four-wheeled hopper, with rapid discharge, was developed from a design of the former Prussian state railways

Type T “Oldenburg” class Sattelwagen – saddle-bottomed wagons for the transportation of coal, coke and ore as part of unit trains.

The streamlined diesel train sets of the SVT137 class were introduced in 1934, providing high speed rail transport on high density corridors. With maximum speeds of approximately 160 kph and regular running speeds of up to 130 kph, they were the first high-speed trains to operate in Central Europe.

The first train sets of this class appeared in 1934, and were first employed on the route between Berlin and Hamburg. Services were subsequently extended to Berlin-Hannover-Köln (commenced 1 July 1935), Berlin-Leipzig-Erfurt-Frankfurt (commenced 15 August 1935) and Berlin-Nürnberg-Munich (commenced 17 February 1936).

A total of thirty-three train sets of this class were constructed by Waggon und Maschinenbau AG, Görlitz (WUMAG), Lokomotivfabrik Linke-Hofmann AG, Breslau and the Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG, Berlin.

Berlin Group – train set in four sections including a power/postal car, 970 kW, 2'Bo'2'2'+'2'2'+Bo'2', 210.6 t, seating for 126 passengers

Görlitz Group – train set in three sections, conventional bogies, 956 kW, 2'Bo'+2'2'+Bo'2', 160 t, seating for 132 passengers

(Central European Sleeping and Dining Car Company)

Best known for managing the sleeping and dining cars of German railways, this firm was founded on 24 November 1915 by a consortium of German and Austro-Hungarian railway companies to succeed the operations of the Belgian-owned Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. While the former firm was able to regain its position of ascendancy following the Great War Mitropa – a derivative of Mitteleuropa – was able to maintain its routes within Germany, Scandinavia and parts of Central Europe. In the postwar period it expanded its activities to include catering services at railway stations and, when they appeared, at service plazas of Germany’s Autobahn network. In 1939 the firm made the decision to enter the hospitality field by the acquisition of Scharnow-Reisen, one of Germany’s larger chains of economy hotels.

The Straßenroller, or road roller, colloquially known as a "Culemeyer", is an item of intermodal transport equipment that permits the carriage of fully-loaded rail wagons and heavy loads on roads.

In the late 1920s the Deutsches Reichsbahn was seeking innovative ways to respond to the increasing demand on the national rail transport system, as well as respond to competition posed by the motor vehicle. Doctor Johann Culemeyer, a senior administrator of the Reichsbahn’s equipment department, proposed development of a wheeled, articulated platform on rubber-tyred wheels that could transport fully-laden railway wagons from a railway siding directly to a customer’s facility without the need for construction of separate rail spurs to link the two locations. This was seen to offer significant cost savings to both the railway and to potential customers, and opening an untapped market for the carriage of goods by railway.

Development of an acceptable design for the transport vehicle itself, and for the ancillary handling equipment, took some time, and it was not until 1931 that a patent for the basic vehicle was obtained, and it would not be until 1933 that the straßenroller system could be demonstrated to the Press and to potential customers. The debut of the system was in April 1933, in Berlin, with the promotional slogan "Die Eisenbahn ins Haus". The first regular shipment of freight wagons by straßenroller began in October 1933, and it quickly demonstrated its popularity in service. At the outset movements were at the rate of thirty wagons per week; after a few months this had risen to ninety wagons per week; by 1938 straßenroller platforms were moving more than 200,000 wagons per year, for more than forty regular customers. In addition to rail cars, the straßenroller system was very much suited for carriage of boilers, heavy machine tools, transformers, locomotives and steel girders.

The first straßenroller were of the R40 type, two articulated frames each with two axles and eight solid-rubber tyres. The frames were adjustable between loading and transport heights, and it had a load limit of 31 tonnes; from 1935 the adjustment feature was removed from the design, which permitted the load capacity to be increased to 40 tonnes.

In 1935 a larger design, the R80 type, was placed in service. It too comprised two articulated frames, each supported by twenty-four tyres. It was designed with a load capacity of 80-tonnes, but from 1938 design improvements allowed the load limit to be increased to 100-tonnes.

Under development at this time is the R42 type, a single-unit straßenroller with twelve tyres, suitable for loads up to 40-tonnes.

For safety reasons the speed limit of the straßenroller is limited to twenty-five kilometers per hour. Each unit is fitted with a combination air/hydraulic braking system, double leaf-spring suspension system and mechanical system. The Reichsbahn has contracted with the Gothaer Waggonfabrik to manufacture straßenroller to its patented design. To date more than two hundred and fifty straßenroller have been constructed, and production is continuing.

The term Eisenbahntransportbehälter (literally, ‘Railway Transport Box’) refers to a standardised series of steel containers introduced experimentally by the Deutsches Reichsbahn late in 1946 to implement its plans to integrate road and rail transport in support of German industry.

The Eisenbahntransportbehälter system comprises two types of units:

Size One: Exterior dimensions 2.5 meters wide, 2.6 meters high, and 3.0 meters long; maximum gross weight 10 tonnes

Size Two: Exterior dimensions 2.5 meters wide, 2.6 meters high, and 6.0 meters long; maximum gross weight 20 tonnes

The standard Reichsbahn Type M “Augsburg” class four-wheel flat wagon can carry up two Size One or one Size Two eisenbahntransportbehälter, while the Type S “Köln" eight-wheel flat wagon can carry up to four Size One or two Size Two eisenbahntransportbehälter. The design of specialised eight-wheel wagon for the transport of Eisenbahntransportbehälter is under consideration.

Eisenbahntransportbehälter are constructed from rigid weathering steel, corrugated for additional strength. This material, Kortenstahl, was originally developed by the Huttenwerke Oberhausen for architectural purposes but was adopted due to its ability to resist corrosion, adding to the life of the unit and allowing it to be reused many times.

Tests by the Reichsbahn have confirmed that Eisenbahntransportbehälter can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another without being opened, dramatically reduced transport costs. Transfer between modes of transport is accomplished by mechanised means, decreasing the time required to do so and significantly reducing the risk of pilferage. Cargo contained within Eisenbahntransportbehälter is protected from the elements and the units may be used to form temporary storage depots if required.