TKh4

No photos of class TKh4 are known to exist. This No. 11C of the Greifswald-Grimmener Eisenbahn (Vulcan 2615/1911) also belonged to Lenz ‘Typ C’ and does not differ much from LRE engines. Location and date unknown. No. 11C later became DR 89 5902 and was transferred to a sugar plant as a stationary boiler in 1957. Source: Geschichte und Bahnen der Aktiengesellschaft für Verkehrswesen (see References).

Another Lenz ‘Typ C’ engine: Frankensteiner Kreisbahn No. 25 (formerly Frankenstein-Münsterberg-Nimptscher Kreisbahn No. 5, Vulcan 2316/1907), June 9, 1936, location unknown. This locomotive was sold to a private owner in 1931 and remained in service until 1949. Postcard from my collection, issued to commemorate 150 years of railway in Frankenstein (now Ząbkowice Śląskie in Lower Silesia).

Schematic drawing of the TKh4; source: Lokomotiven ‘Heim ins Reich’ (see References).

Yet another locomotive of this type: No. 1021 (formerly No. 1c), Kiel-Segeberg Eisenbahn (Vulcan 2654/1911), photographed in Kiel in 1953. This engine remained in use until 1955. Postcard from my collection.

Construction of the Liegnitz-Rawitscher Eisenbahn (LRE) standard-gauge private railway between Liegnitz (today Legnica) and Koppelstädt (Kobylin) began in April 1897 and the main line was opened in February1898. The railway was operated by well-known GmbH Lenz & Co. First ten locomotives were 0-3-0 tank engines of the ‘normalized’ Lenz ‘Typ b’; all were built by Vulcan in 1897. They were numbered 1b through 10b. Between 1907 and 1913 this manufacturer supplied six more locomotives (numbered 21c through 25c and 101), based on Prussian class T3 (PKP class TKh1). Some of them (probably three – data from individual sources are not consistent) differed from their archetype only in minor details, while the rest featured drivers increased in diameter from 1100 to 1200 mm and slightly modified boilers. All six belonged to ‘normalized’ Lenz ‘Typ C’; between 1907 and 1914 Vulcan delivered 39 engines of this type to various local railways in eastern Germany.

After WWI LRE was divided in two by newly-created border and traffic between two countries was discontinued in January 1920. Section between Rawicz and Kobylin (33 km), was sold to Poland in February 1925. However, it was not incorporated into the PKP state railways, but remained in private hands and was operated by the Rawicz-based Polskie Przedsiębiorstwo Kolejowe (Polish Railway Enterprise – PPK); supervision remained with Lenz & Co. PPK took over, among others, No. 23c (Vulcan 2327/1907) and No. 24c (Vulcan 2612/1910); their service numbers were retained. When PPK was purchased by PKP in 1935, these two locomotives were re-numbered TKh4-1 and TKh4-2, respectively. Both survived until the war (their last assignment was the Zbąszyń depot) and were impressed into DRG. TKh4-1 was re-numbered 89 8201 and its subsequent fate remains unknown. TKh4-2 became 89 8202 (both DRG service numbers had formerly been assigned to Sächsische Staatsbahn class V T engines, withdrawn in 1920s). After the war it was returned to PKP, but saw no service and in July 1946 was sold to the Żnin sugar plant. Re-numbered TKh4-8202, it was finally withdrawn in 1970.

One more locomotive from this batch was impressed into PKP, albeit with different designation. No. 21c (Vulcan 2325/1907) after 1920 remained in Germany with LRE and was taken over by Polish state railways in 1945. As it had previously served with a private operator, not DRG, it was included into class TKh100, together with about sixty engines of various types. It was re-numbered TKh100-6 and its further fate is unknown. Of the remaining three locomotives from this batch, No. 25c (Vulcan 2613/1910) was transferred to Kleinbahn Perleberg-Karstädt-Kleinberge-Perleberg in 1945; in 1950 it was impressed into DR as 89 6221 and remained in service until October 1961. No. 101 (Vulcan 2905/1913) was sold to Greifswald-Grimmener Eisenbahn in 1931. This locomotive was also impressed into DR in 1950 as 89 5903, to be sold to the Berth sugar plant as a stationary boiler in October 1956. The fate of No. 23c (Vulcan 2326/1907) is not known. Post-war class TKh4b (described under a separate entry) was a fireless locomotive unrelated to TKh4.

Main technical data

No.	Parameter	Unit	Value
1.	Years of manufacture	-	1907 – 1913
2.	Total built / used in Poland	-	6^1) / 3
3.	Tender class	-	-
4.	Axle arrangement	-	0-3-0
5.	Design maximum speed	km/h	50^2) / 40^3)
6.	Cylinder bore	mm	2 x 350
7.	Piston stroke	mm	550
8.	Engine rating	kW/hp
9.	Tractive effort	kG
10.	Boiler pressure	MPa	1.22
11.	Grate dimensions	m x m	1.35 x 1.04
12.	Firebox heating surface	m^2	6.01^2) / 5.06^3)
13.	Distance between tube plates	mm	3 240
14.	Number of flue tubes	-	132^2) / 133^3)
15.	Heating surface of flue tubes	m^2	53.0^2) / 53.4^3)
16.	Number of smoke tubes	-	-
17.	Heating surface of smoke tubes	m^2	-
18.	Evaporating surface, total	m^2	59.01^2) / 58.46^3)
19.	Superheater heating surface	m^2	-
20.	Diameter of drivers	mm	1 200^2) / 1 100^3)
21.	Diameter of idlers front/rear	mm	- / -
22.	Total weight, empty	kg	28 300^2) / 24 780^3)
23.	Total weight, working order	kg	37 700^2) / 34 000^3)
24.	Weight on drivers, working order	kg	37 700^2) / 34 000^3)
25.	Weight with tender, empty	kg	-
26.	Weight with tender, working order	kg	-
27.	Maximum axle load	T	12.6^2) 10.7^3)
28.	Axle base (with tender)	mm	3 100
29.	Overall length (with tender)	mm	8 880
30.	Brake type	-	Westinghouse

- Built for LRE.

- TKh4-1.

- TKh4-2 and (probably) TKh100-6.

References and acknowledgments

- www.liegnitz.pl;

- www.de.wikipedia.org;

- Bezeichungsweise der Lokomotiven bei Lenz-Bahnen by Henning Wall (Die Museums-Eisenbahn 4/2004);

- Lokomotiven ‘Heim ins Reich’ by Andreas Knipping, Ingo Hütter and Hansjürgen Wenzel (EK-Verlag, 2009);

- Werner Hormann: Blätter zur Verkehrsgeschichte Mecklenburgs Nr. 11: Die Greifswald-Grimmener Eisenbahn (available from http://www.mv-terra-incognita.de/beitraege/gge01.pdf);

- Geschichte und Bahnen der Aktiengesellschaft für Verkehrswesen by Andreas Christopher and Walter Söhnlein (Drehscheibe, 2017).