P8 (locomotive)

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P8

P8 in the Bochum Dahlhausen Railway Museum
Power type	Steam
Builder	Schwartzkopff Linke-Hofmann
Build date	1908 - 1928
Configuration	4-6-0
Gauge	1435 mm
Leading wheel size	1000 mm
Driver size	1750 mm
Length	18590 mm
Weight on drivers	16,6 - 17,3 t.
Locomotive weight	78,2 t.
Locomotive and tender combined weight	50 t.
Tender capacity	7,0 t.
Boiler pressure	1,2 Mpa
Fire grate area	14,28 m2
Heating surface: Firebox	2,64 m2
Cylinder size	575 mm
Tractive effort	10500 kg.
Career	Prussian State Railways
Class	P8

The Class P8 locomotive of the Prussian State Railways was designed by Robert Garbe and built at the Berliner Maschinenbau Company (formerly Schwartzkopff) and later at the Linke-Hofmann Werke (today part of Alstom in Breslau. It became the Class 38.10-40 locomotive of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. In Poland it was named PKP class Ok1. The locomotive was meant as a successor of the Class P6 locomotive that was considered obsolete.

[edit] Design

Garbe advocated a simple design and therefore opted for a simple high-pressure duplex engine. A high-pressure solution had been recently introduced by Wilhelm Schmidt resulting in an excellent performance for the time. The P8 was a very fuel-efficient locomotive, not requiring any special skills of the railroad engineer. At the beginning, Garbe also planned to use the P8 for hauling express trains, aiming at a maximum speed of 110 km/h so the first locomotives were equipped with aerodynamically shaped cabs.

[edit] The P8 outside Germany

Before World War I, about 2350 P8s were built. After the War, 628 units were given to the victors as part of war reparations. Poland obtained 190 units (named Ok1), Belgium 168, and France 162. Up to 1923, the newly founded DRG replenished the stock with new constructions. The last P8 was built in 1923 by AEG at Hennigsdorf near Berlin. In total, 3948 units were built (including the Romanian replicas), making the P8 the passenger-train locomotive with the most units built worldwide.

Austria kept after the war the units number 38 1069, 1391, 1434, 1677, 1809, 1818, 2052, 2692, 3264, 3495 and 3525. Unit number 38 2052 was returned in 1952 to the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Numbers 38 1391, 1434, 1818, 3495 und 3525 went to the Soviet Union. The remaining five engines became ÖBB Class 638. Im 2004, the Austrian Society for Railway History obtained two replicas from Romania. One of these is used at special occasions bearing the fictitious number ÖBB 638.1301.

[edit] Surviving units

• Number 38 1182, property of the Verkehrsmuseum Nürnberg, was built in 1910 by Schwartzkopff in Berlin and served for 61 years. She is currently shown at the railway depot of Gera.
• The Eisenbahnmuseum Bochum-Dahlhausen owns the functioning Number 38 2267 (built in 1918), used for historical rides in the Ruhr area. She is currently out of order with boiler damage.
• The 38 3199 of the Süddeutsches Eisenbahnmuseum Heilbronn in Heilbronn had a special fate. She was built in 1921 by the Lokfabrik Linke Hofmann in Breslau. The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft gave her first the number 2580 Elberfeld, but she was later renumbered to 38 3199. She was last stationed at the depot of Breslau. The Romanian CFR bought the engine already in 1926 and gave her the number 230.106. In 1974 she was retired. Railway enthusiasts discovered her at a scrap yard in Cluj-Napoca and had her restored to a functioning state in 1999 in the colors of the former Reichsbahn. The engine is used again since 2002 for historical rides.