Trains to the Trenches: The Men, Locomotives and Tracks That Took the Armies... by Andrew Roden

Again the Engineers and MRS units worked together on these rail bridges ...

Thanks to Richard for this great post! He writes...a number of these locomotives were captured and operated by MRS units during the war and afterward. My last photo (Photo #6) shows one of these MRS operated locomotives.

 In addition, several more of these locomotives were built shortly after the war under the supervision of the MRS 757th Railway Shop Battalion when they operated the Henschel Locomotive Building Plant at Kassel, Germany.

The attached article describes the German wartime built Type 52 'Kondenslokomotive' 2-10-0 steam locomotives that were equipped with the special condenser tender. These locomotives were a sub-group of the standard German Type 52 Kreigslok (also known as the Kreigslokomotive) wartime built 2-10-0 steam locomotives and were specially made to operate for long distances on the Eastern front railways without having to stop for the resupply of water. 

The condenser tender enabled the locomotive to condense its exhaust steam back into water and then continue to use this water in the boiler to produce further steam. In a normal steam locomotive the exhaust steam is discharged to the atmosphere and lost. 

The German operated railways on the Eastern front had difficulty supplying sufficient clean and treated boiler water to its steam locomotives. The Kondenslokomotives locomotives were designed to reduce this problem and to enable the locomotives to operate over longer distances. In addition, the water tanks were subject attacks by the Soviet partisans and air force and were easily damaged and put out of use. 

This article is an in depth technical description of the locomotive and its special condenser tender. It was written for USA railway mechanical engineers, but it does contain some information related to the German methods used for Eastern Front wartime locomotive operation. The stated operating range of 1000 Km (660 miles) was reported by other railway sources to be lower and in the range of 640 Km (400 miles). For comparison, the typical operating range of a standard mid-size steam locomotive during wartime operation would be approximately 80 Km (50 miles) before it need to obtain water. 

 These condenser locomotives, and the standard German Type 52 Kreigslok 2-10-0 steam locomotives, were operated by both the Wehrmacht’s own railway operating units and the Deutsche Reichsbahn (the German State Railway) staff. All Type 52 locomotives were built using a much simplified method of construction to reduce construction time and materials and were designed to have a light axle load in order to operate on many of the lightly built Soviet railway lines. 

Approximately 180 of the Type 52 condenser locomotives were built by Henschel at their Kassel Works during the war and a number of additional ones built afterward. For comparison, several thousand of the standard Type 52 Kreigslok 2-10-0 steam locomotives were built by both Henschel and by other locomotive builders, including companies in the occupied countries. 

 A number of the Type 52 Kreigslok condenser locomotives operated on the Western Front railways, including in Belgium and Italy and some remained in operation after the war. Several were captured and used by the US Army Railway Operating Battalions in Germany during and after the war. In addition, one of the captured locomotives was sent to the USA after the war for examination. 

The standard Type 52 Kreigslok 2–10-0 steam locomotives remained in operation in Germany and on the state railways of many countries throughout Europe into the 1970s. Some continued in service in several Eastern European countries into the 1990s and a number remain in existence today. 

 The original article was printed in the December 29, 1945 edition of the USA magazine 'Railway Age’ which was the main USA railroad industry publication.

 

The attached photos #1, #2 & #6 were copied from the Italian model railway website Märklinfan Club Italia’. The remaining photos were copied from the internet. 

"The attached photo from the 6 April 1945 issue of 'The Railway Gazette’ shows a US Army captured German StuG Assault Gun that an MRS unit converted to serve as a shunting (switching) locomotive to move railway cars over covered tracks laid on city and dockyard streets and within warehouses or other covered storage areas. The reason the conversion was made either because the warehouses, dockyard or storage areas were subject to a fire hazard if a steam locomotive was used or because the track curvature was too sharp or too light to enable use of a standard Army steam shunting (switch) locomotives or one of the available French or Belgium locomotives. The backdrop of the photo shows what appear to be a merchant ship crane boom so this photo may have been taken at a harbor dock. 

The StuG would have been operated by one of the unit’s locomotive engineers who would be guided by hand signals given by an Army brakeman or switch crew. The conversion was likely made by one of the US Army Railway Operating Battalions or one of the attached US Railway Shop Battalions. The StuG apparently is equipped with a rigid welded steel bracket at each end to enable it to couple to the railway car but it is not equipped with any type of freight car buffers. It cannot operate the railway cars brakes and would depend on its weight and tracks to slow and stop the cars. 

The Railway Gazette was a British magazine that discussed the British railway industry and railways world wide. 

Thanks Richard

Ling to Journal page HERE

Part 1

  

Part 2  

Part 3

Missing page 184 

 

Army Transportation Journal Vol 1 No 8 September 1945 pp. 68

 

Impact : the history of Germany's V-weapons in World War II / Benjamin King & Timothy J. Kutta 

Author King, Benjamin Kutta, Timothy J 

 "Published in the UK by Spellmount Ltd, Staplehurst, Kent"--Verso, t.p. 

Summary"An in-depth account of Hitler's V-weapons, the devastation they caused, and the massive allied countermeasures taken to destroy them"--Cover, P. [4]. 

Physical description 358 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm Place Europe 

Topic V-1 bomb V-2 rocket Guided missile bases, German World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, German Surface-to-surface missiles

 

 

Red Ball express--The Influence of Transportation on Operations Army Transportation Journal, Vol. 4, No. 5 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1948), pp. 11-14, 69

Army Transportation Journal, Vol. 3, No. 5 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1947), p. 22,24

PART 1: The Military Railway Service 

 

PART 2: The Military Railway Service 

 

 Army Transportation Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4 (JULY/AUGUST, 1948), pp. 16-18, 44-45

Railroad History , Fall-Winter 2004, No. 191 (Fall-Winter 2004), pp. 100-106

Army Transportation Journal, Vol. 1, No. 11 (December, 1945), pp. 3-5

National Defense Transportation Journal , MAY-JUNE, 1951, Vol. 7, No. 3 (MAYJUNE, 1951), pp. 31-34

 

Army Transportation Journal , July, 1945, Vol. 1, No. 6 (July, 1945), pp. 8-11

short historyof 753rd

Mr Bailey older and his various amazing photos

Thanks Richard!