Ol12
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Ol12-7, the sole surviving example in
The same machine, photographed on
Ol12-4. My data give ‘location unknown, June 1959’,
but this may be a pre-war picture. Photo from my collection.
Ol12-7 inside the Chabówka
shed; November 12, 2008. In September 2009 this engine participated in the ‘Parowozjada 2009’ steam gala: some pictures can be seen here. And in September 2013 this engine visited Warsaw –
some pictures are there.
KkStB 429.117
(BMMF
402/1911) later became ČSD
354.737 and survived in service until January 1964. Postcard from my
collection.
Ol12-7 visited Warsaw again on October 26, 2014; this
picture was taken near Warszawa Miedzeszyn station,
a few minutes’ walk from where I live.
An earlier visit of the Ol12-7 in Warsaw: June 17,
1995. Photo by Marek Niemiec (from my collection).
Another picture of the Ol12-7 by the same author: Sucha Beskidzka, June 7, 1996.
Side drawing of class 429; source: Triebfahrzeuge österreichischer Eisenbahnen: Dampflokomotiven
BBÖ und ÖBB (see References).
KkStB
429.07 (StEG
3587/1909), location and date unknown, probably a factory photo. Taken over
by ČSD and re-numbered 354.703, this locomotive
was rebuilt in 1927 with single-expansion engine. In 1939 it was impressed
into DRG as
35 243; returned after the war, it was withdrawn in 1949. Source: Die Lokomotive June
1912.
Czechoslovakian Reko version with twin steam domes: 354.7152 (ex kkStB
429.1996, BMMF
657/1917). Withdrawn in July 1967, this engine is operational and based at
the Railway Museum in Lužná
u Rakovníka, Czech Republic. Photographed in 2007
by someone who wishes to be known as Rainerhaufe
(source: www.commons.wikimedia.org).
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Between
1907 and 1909, Austrian (kkStB) and Hungarian (MÁV)
state railways took delivery of 148 class 329 passenger locomotives with the 1-3-1 axle arrangement (93 and 65
examples, respectively), built by four manufacturers (WLF, Wiener Neustadt, StEG and BMMF). Two more went to k.u.k. Heeresbahn Banjaluka-Doberlin in Bosnia. After WWI, 21 kkStB engines
were taken over by PKP and classed
Ol11. These locomotives were fitted with compound engines and ran on
saturated steam. Initially Austro-Hungarian railways did not favor
superheated steam, as they were afraid that high-grade lubricants, necessary
with higher steam temperature, could be in short supply. For this reason,
Austrian manufacturers produced a considerable number of compounds and the
most renowned Austrian railway engineer, Karl Gölsdorf,
preferred this layout. Advantages of steam superheating, however, finally
prevailed and some of these engines were later redesigned and fitted with superheaters. Class 329 was no exception and was
developed into class 429, which featured steam superheating. Prototype (StEG 3581/1909)
was followed by 56 examples which retained almost identical steam engines and
externally hardly differed from class 329. Further 132 engines (class
429.100) differed mainly in having piston valves on both cylinders (initially
low-pressure cylinder had a slide valve). Tractive effort and maximum speed
remained unchanged. Compounds remained in production until 1912; furthermore,
in 1916, StEG built an additional batch of ten
examples (s/n 4078 through 4087, KkStB 429.216
through 225, included in the above total). Almost all went to KkStB. Only six
(built by Magyar Királyi
államvasutak gépgyára,
Budapest) served with Südbahn,
but due to certain differences they are sometimes considered a separate
class. In
parallel, a single-expansion version was developed and accepted as class
429.900. Prototype (WLF s/n
2018) was accepted in 1911 and production started in 1913, to last until the
end of the war. Superheater was slightly enlarged and boiler pressure reduced
from 15 to 14 bar. Tractive effort and power increased by a few percent. 197
engines were delivered, all to KkStB,
bringing the total up to 386 examples from StEG
(135), WLF
(159), Wiener
Neustadt (49), BMMF
(37) and Magyar
Királyi államvasutak gépgyára (6). After
the war, these locomotives were divided between several countries. 86
examples remained with Austrian railways BBÖ, 152 went to
Czechoslovakia (ČSD
class 354.7) and 25 to Italy (FS class 688). Small numbers served in Romania, Yugoslavia
and Hungary. In 1926, ČSD
launched a reconstruction program, with the aim of unification within the
354.7 class made up of three distinct versions. All machines were fitted with
single-expansion engines and boilers with two steam domes, connected with a
horizontal tube. Only two compounds survived until 1938. Some ČSD
machines were also fitted with Westinghouse brakes and modified smoke-box
door. Last of them were withdrawn in 1970. With ÖBB and FS
these engines survived until mid-1960s. PKP
after WWI acquired 106 engines in all three versions (18, 28 and 60,
respectively). Some sources give 18, 27 and 61, respectively. This error
results from the fact that Ol12-84 (ex 429.216) was from the above-mentioned
batch of ten compounds, built by StEG in
1916. All were classed Ol12 and numbered Ol12-1 through 18 (ex 429), Ol12-19
through 45 (ex 429.100) and Ol12-46 through 106 (ex 429.900, with the
exception of Ol12-84). Due to comparatively low axle load, they were
particularly suitable in areas where weak tracks dominated, so they served
almost exclusively in southern and south-eastern Poland. In 1939, forty fell
into German hands and were impressed into DRG class 352,3,
which included Austrian and Czechoslovakian engines taken over in 1938
(service numbers 35 349 through 388). One (Ol12-24, ex 429.116, BMMF
401/1911) went to Hungary, possibly with an evacuation train, later served
with MÁV as
323,907, then went to industry and was not returned. All remaining 65 Ol12s
were captured by the Soviets and later served with Polish numbers, written in
Russian script. Fifty of them later became German war booty and were given DRG
numbers 35 392 through 400 (after ex-Yugoslavian engines captured in
1941) and 35 801 through 829, but many of these numbers were assigned
only formally and the engines actually ran with old Polish designations. Some
served with Ostbahn (similarly,
with original Polish numbers), while two (Ol12-25, ex 429.121, BMF
406/1911, and Ol12-65, ex 429.972, WLF 2282/1916) were handed over directly to Romanian state
railways CFR –
the latter was re-numbered 131.901. After
WWII, only a handful of engines were returned directly. As most ex-Austrian
locomotives were directed by DRG to
Austria or Czechoslovakia, the majority of pre-war Ol12s went to ÖBB or ČSD. Most
of them were later identified as Polish property and returned in late 1940s.
Eight engines taken over by Yugoslavian railways JDŽ were returned
in 1949. Two ex-Austrian engines that did not serve with PKP
before the war were also taken over: 429.175, then DRG 35 333, and 429.159, then DRG 35 327, became Ol12-1 and Ol12-3, respectively.
Finally, in 1955, eight locomotives were returned by DR, in a very poor condition, only to be scrapped without
even being given service numbers. In all, PKP received 57 examples, of which 47 were restored in
service. Apart from their traditional assignment to southern Poland, some
later served in north-eastern region. A few were converted to oil firing and
used on the Puck-Hel area on the Baltic coast, where fire hazard in forest
areas excluded coal firing. Most were withdrawn in late 1950s or early 1960s;
probably the last one was Ol12-43. This engine (WLF 2280/1916) had an eventful life. After a brief service
with KkStB as 429.970 it was taken over by BBÖ, but in 1924
went to PKP and
was designated Ol12-64. In 1939 it was captured by the Soviets and later fell
into German hands, to become 35 399. After the war it served briefly
with JDŽ as
106-017; in 1949 was returned to PKP and remained in service until March 1966. Ol12-7
is the only engine of this type preserved in Poland. Most sources give that
this locomotive is StEG
3849/1912, ex KkStB 429.195, which
served with PKP
before the war as Ol12-43. In 1939 it was captured by the Soviets, then
served with DRG as
35 817, after the war went to Austria, but in April 1947 returned to
Poland. The problem is that Ol12-7 has a single-expansion steam engine!
Either it was rebuilt after WWII (possibly fitted with boiler and steam
engine taken for another machine), or Ol12-7 plates were fitted to a former
429.900 – such operations were not uncommon. I have found no information that
would support either of these conjectures. Anyway, Ol12-7 is alive and quite
well. In 1993 it was restored to the working order and for a few years was the
oldest operational steam engine in Poland. After boiler ticket expiry in
1999, this engine was overhauled and restored in service in 2008. Two more
examples have survived until today, namely ÖBB 35.233 (ex KkStB
429.1971, StEG
4147/1916) in Austria and ČSD
534.7152 (ex KkStB 429.1996, BMMF
657/1917) in the Czech Republic. Main technical data
1) Data in brackets for compound
engine version. List of vehicles can be found here.
References
and acknowledgments
-
EZ, LP, AP; -
www.pospichal.net/lokstatistik
(website by Josef Pospichal); -
Tomisław Czarnecki, Dieter Zoubek and
Ingo Hütter (private communication); -
Triebfahrzeuge österreichischer Eisenbahnen: Dampflokomotiven
BBÖ und ÖBB by Heribert Schröpfer (Alba,
2002). |
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