I posted this in Locomotives, but it probably deserves a mention here.
No diesel-electrics are running in this shot.
What about that 80 Ton GE?
I meant behind the Krauss-Maffei. (9010 has been running as a ‘cab car’ pushed by other locomotive(s) for some time. She is now not only moving under her own power but developing considerable tractive effort of her own…)
I wonder if the gang working on that Krauss-Maffei restoration have a nickname for that German “battleship.”
You know, like Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau…
Hmmm…looks like a Fitz to me, but thats not a ship. Das Boot?
We better be careful here.
You have to admire the visibility from the cab.
Nah, GE had first dibs on U-Boats.
Kron Prinz Zug?
Not bad, not bad at all!
Prinz Eugen popped into my mind earlier, but that was a heavy cruiser, not a battleship.
Huh?
OK, how about we go back further in history to the dreadnought era?
The Kaiser class was a series of dreadnoughts built 1909-1913.
Ten 12-inch guns were the main armament.
The way that thing is smoking in the video, it does look like it is burning Ruhr coal.
In fact, the ghost of Admiral Beatty and the First Battlecruiser Squadron may be steaming into San Francisco Bay towards the smoke at this moment.
So here is a suggestion of “The Kaiser”, just for fun.
You folks are missing the boat (pun intended) - this thing is a working success and a grand achievement, and yes, they appear to have crossed their Ts very successfully indeed, all down the line.
I suggest there is a more appropriate name for that locomotive, and it follows the naming condition that was used for
Name it after Adenauer.
(I don’t think he was still Bundeskanzler when 9010 was built, but he certainly was when it was ordered … and in the early years of the Amerika-Lok program.)
Der Alte…the Old Man
Crown Prince Train.
I went into the archives here at the “Fortress Firelock” and “Penny Trains” isn’t too far off the mark.
There was a German battleship during the First World War named the Kronprinz, later changed to Kronprinz Wilhelm.
Scuttled with the rest of the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919, she’s still there.
“Der Alte.” That’s not bad either.
I kind of like the nickname of the S.M.S. Seydlitz, “The Iron Dog.” (I have a card model of it on a a shelf right behind me as I write this.) But anyway I drove a Mercedes 300 like that once for the woman who owned it but couldn’t drive it. The reason was, standing still it was almost impossible to turn the steering wheel. Parking must have been fun! But, when it was in motion, it was like it had power steering. Unusal to say the least. But, wasn’t the KM a diesel-hydraulic like a lot of German diesels?
In the early 60’s, DB was pretty big on torque-converter rather than electric transmissions. The 21 KM’s exported to the United States were based on European designs modified for North American usage.
Yes, but larger – American-size larger.
According to Trains, the hydraulic transmission was one of the chief problems, but not in the way you’d see coming. First was that with Teutonic thoroughness, the transmission was interlocked so it ‘sequenced’ through reversing and couldn’t have power applied until it had thoroughly settled. This took some time, and on a typical pair of these there were four separate transmissions – this was one of the very few things slower to load when switching than a pollution-optimized GE. Apparently anything involving repeated reverses was slow and agonizing compared to what’s required for a MUed diesel-electric consist.
Second, and perhaps the kiss of death, each transmission contained a great deal of hydraulic fluid. Every liter of which, along with the lubricant in all those Cardan shaft bearings and gearboxes, was supposed to be replaced every 30 days, under the terms of the guarantee, and only German fluid was supposed to be used … I don’t know if this was Pentosin, or the Esso equivalent that BMW used in the ZF transmissions, but it was mind-numbingly expensive in the early '60s. It might be interesting to see how the Alco C855 compared in this respect.
Add in the requirement that fairly frequent wheel turnings had to be made to prevent premature gearbox and shaft damage… and you’re rapidly running out of the advantages gained by using the MD870s and synchronized slip-resistant drive…
Speaking of ‘American-size larger’ but German, how about this, in steam, from even before the era of the ‘Atlantic Coast Line’ 19 1001 motor locomotive…
Not sure how prototypical that ‘flag of convenience’ is … but I’d certainly have flown it proudly in my backyard fish pool!
What a great looking toy! Although the Germans broke tradition naming it “Tirpitz,” I’m sure the Grand Admiral was still very much alive when that toy was new.
Probably just too nice for some rich kid to play with, which is why it’s in such good condition.
Probably worth a hell of a lot more than any of us would be willing to spend!
A little bit of “Antiques Roadshow” here on the forum.
I don’t think there was a German warship named Tirpitz until 1941.
Tirpitz was an Admiral concerned with ship construction, so that may have led to the name on the model.
Of course the cruiser Prinz Eugen was taken over by the USN after WWII and flew a US flag, so there was a precedent. I don’t know if any ships were taken over after WWI.
Peter