marklin 45 Serie Manual De Instrucciones página 3

Class 45
In the 1920s, the German State Railroad was focused
on building up a system of fast passenger service.
At the beginning of the 1930s it was increasingly
revealed that the freight service with the quite slow
locomotives from the provincial railroad period as
the obstacle to further shortening of travel times.
Because freight trains also had to run on the main
routes, particularly in the major urban areas, and they
hindered the fast passenger service in the process.
As a result of this situation, the German State Railroad
let bids out for different heavy freight locomotives,
the most powerful version of which was represented
by the class 45. The latter was developed by the firm
of Henschel from 1936 to 1937 and was built with
a 2-10-2 wheel arrangement. It had driving wheels
with a diameter of 1,600 mm / 63" that enabled a
continuous speed of 90 km/h / 56 mph on level ter-
rain at the point of heavy freight trains. The indicated
performance on the regular production version (45 003)
was just over the magic line of 3,000 pounds per
square inch. Initially, two prototypes were built and
tested. Over 26 units were built in regular production
in 1940. Additional units were not built, because the
demand for fast freight service faded into the back-
ground during the war. Other models such as the
closely related class 41 freight locomotive had priority
at this point in time.
The class 45 locomotives were used for more than
just freight train. Their maximum speed allowed them
to be used in a pinch in passenger trains at the point
of fast passenger trains ("Eilzug"). All of the class 45
locomotives including road no. 45024 that later
served on the German State Railroad as the basis
for the high-pressure locomotive, no. H 45024,
were acquired by the German Federal Railroad. They
were equipped with new boilers in various rebuilding
programs. In the end, 3 models of this impressive
locomotive were used as braking and experimental
locomotives in Munich and Minden. One locomotive
is now located in the Transportation Museum in
Nürnberg.
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