The German Western!

DEUTSCHE BUNDESBAHN’S DIESEL-HYDRAULIC
LOCOMOTIVE V300 001 (230 001-0)
By Doug Tompkins

The introduction of Deutsche Bundesbahn’s (DB) class V200 diesel-hydraulic locomotives was the subject of great interest to foreign railway administrations when first exhibited at the German Transport Exhibition in München in 1953 and this led to DB and the locomotive builders Krauss-Maffei sending locomotive V200 005 on a series of demonstration runs to Turkey. On the return leg various tests were also undertaken in Greece and from 12-15 May 1955 in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav railway administration was very impressed with the locomotive’s performance and this led to them placing an order for three V200 type locomotives to haul official trains for President Tito on the Yugoslavian Railways (JZ) system.

In original form however, the V200 had an axle load of 20t, which was too heavy for Yugoslavian lines and so a longer six-axle design had to be constructed instead. The order was placed with Krauss-Maffei in München in 1956 and the first of the new JZ class D66 locomotives was shown at the Hannover Industrial Fair in 1957. The trials with these three locomotives were so successful that the builders decided to construct a fourth example entirely funded by themselves for evaluation in Germany. On 15 August 1957 the locomotive, classified ML2200 C-C, was placed into service at Bw Frankfurt-Griesheim depot and in the first month of operation covered more than 20,000 kilometres. From 19 September to 3 October 1957 a period of extensive test runs took place on the Semmering line in Austria. Following further trials on the Black Forest lines from Bw Villingen depot however, it was realised that for the haulage of the heavier trains the existing power units were inadequate. So, between 17 November 1957 and 22 May 1958, two new and more powerful engines were installed at Krauss-Maffei and the locomotive was renumbered ML 3000 C-C.

As ML 3000 C-C the locomotive returned to DB metals in May 1958 and successfully underwent further trials in the Black Forest and on the ÖBB’s Semmering line. Her performance in use from Bw Villingen showed that the locomotive, compared to a V200/0, could now handle double the trainload in half the journey time. From 3 October 1958 the locomotive returned to Bw Frankfurt-Griesheim until moving later to Bw Hamm/Westf. On 14 April 1964 the locomotive was purchased by DB and renumbered V300 001; officially entering DB service following an overhaul at AW Nürnberg on 4 August 1965.

During her ten-year spell at Hamm/Westf depot she was initially deployed on heavy express passenger services between Hamm and Köln as well as on the line to the East German border station at Helmstedt. On 1 January 1968 the locomotive was renumbered 230 001-0 in keeping with DB’s new computer numbering scheme and one year later she was reallocated to Bw Lübeck, finally moving to Bw Hamburg-Altona on 7 August 1970. For almost five years she was used to haul train numbers D532/533 on the ‘Marschbahn’ to Westerland/Sylt until replacement by newly delivered class 218s. Despite her excellent performance however, she remained a one-off type and on 26 August 1975 she was withdrawn from service and put into store at AW Nürnberg. In September 1977 she was despatched in a freight train to Udine in Italy but her purchase to a track maintenance company there did not proceed and so the locomotive returned to Germany. In 1979 she arrived at the firm Layritz in Penzberg, Bavaria and one year later she was cut up at Feldkirchen, near München.

Technical Details

As mentioned above, the construction of this locomotive in original guise as ML2200 C-C was based on that of the V200/0 with two Maybach MD650 engines each with an output of 810kW (1,100hp) and Maybach-Mekydro type K104 transmissions. Due to her six-axle format the length over buffers was 20,270 mm against 18,470mm on a series production V200/0. During her period in the workshops at Krauss-Maffei in 1957/58 the locomotive was equipped with two new more powerful engines of Maybach type MD655 which, through turbo-charging and intercooling, each gave an output of 1,100kW (1,500hp). In order to cope with this increased output the transmissions also had to be changed and so newly developed Maybach-Mekydro transmissions of type K184U were installed together with a new 15-stage Brown Boveri control system in place of the existing 6-stage unit. Further technical details are given below:

Liveries

The livery carried by the locomotive when numbered ML2200 C-C was blue and white (Bavarian State colours) with dark grey frame and pale grey bogies. On each nose end access door was positioned a cast works plate and the letters KRAUSS-MAFFEI AG were written in chrome along the bodysides. On re-equipping with more powerful engines and renumbering to ML3000 C-C she was repainted in a bright red and off-white livery and two new, larger pattern, works plates were applied to the nose end access doors. The frame was repainted in pale grey. In DB service the locomotive received the standard crimson red (RAL 3002) livery as per the V200 class with the characteristic ‘V’ formation on the front ends. The builders’ plates were repositioned to the bodysides below the DB emblem.

Models

To my knowledge the only model available of this unique locomotive is an HO example from the Italian company Lima. The model has been in existence for a number of years now and it has been offered in all three livery variations and in DB colours as both V300 001 and 230 001-0.

References:

Eisenbahn Fahrzeug-Katalog Band 7: Dieseltriebfahrzeuge.
Gera Nova GmbH, München.
ISSN 0949-197X/B12126F

Album der DB-Lokomotiven-Deutsche Fahrzeug-Entwicklungen 1949-1993.
Andreas Knipping,
Gera Mond Verlag GmbH, München, 1999
ISBN 3-932785-90-9

Die Diesellokomotiven bei der DB, Geschichte-Entwicklungen-Einsatz.
K.Matthias Maier,
Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1988.
ISBN 3-440- 0587-0