Fastest steam loco in the world today?

FLO · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:07 am **Posts:** 328

I ran across this one tonight, reported to be the fastest operating steam locomotive in the world today: German-built, DR Class #18 201.
Whatever the case, it does look like an amazing (and fast) machine!

(Photo credit below image)

18 201 by hugh llewelyn, on Flickr

Wowak · **Posted:** Mon Jul 15, 2013 12:57 am

Wow, how big are those drivers, 83"? Er, um, 2.1 meters?

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3013

What's the deal with having a turbocharger air scoop for an engineer's window?

484Mike · **Joined:** Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:55 am **Posts:** 173

Wowak wrote:

Wow, how big are those drivers, 83"? Er, um, 2.1 meters?

Just see here: 90,5"

Fastest speed was 182,5 kph (113,4 mph) in 1972 on a run to test passenger coaches at speed. The GDR was the top coach exporter for the soviet block, and the loco had been built for that purpose.

Mike

Ron Goldfeder · **Posted:** Mon Jul 15, 2013 2:22 pm

When I was stationed in Europe during the 1980s I heard a story that perhaps someone more in the know can verify or debunk. I had moved to England after riding some of the German steam trips that were part of the 125th anniversary of railroads in Germany. This was before the wall came down and the two German states reunified. In any case somehow the West Germans arranged to borrow this loco for a few weeks for some trips in West Germany, promising not to run it too fast. No more than 80 mph or so. And they did that . . . until the last trip when it was being returned to East Germany and they got it over 100 mph just to show they could. Now did that happen or is it just just one of those stories? I was on a West German trip out of Hamburg the next year where they tried to match this event with a 3 cylinder 4-6-2 but couldn't get it over 90 mph, which was blamed on poor coal. A British trip, with 3 cylinder 4-6-2 "City of Wells," that I was on later did get to 93 mph but couldn't quite do the 100 mph goal. It was still something to listen to from an open coach window, what a roaring exhaust!

484Mike · **Joined:** Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:55 am **Posts:** 173

Ron Goldfeder wrote:

When I was stationed in Europe during the 1980s I heard a story that perhaps someone more in the know can verify or debunk. I had moved to England after riding some of the German steam trips that were part of the 125th anniversary of railroads in Germany. This was before the wall came down and the two German states reunified. In any case somehow the West Germans arranged to borrow this loco for a few weeks for some trips in West Germany, promising not to run it too fast. No more than 80 mph or so. And they did that . . . until the last trip when it was being returned to East Germany and they got it over 100 mph just to show they could. Now did that happen or is it just just one of those stories?

Ron,
you surely mean the 150th anniversary in 1985, which was an important year for western germany, as the DB lifted a steam ban it had installed 8 years earlier, when steam had been phased out. In 1985, there was still main line steam in East Germany, by the way.

The 18 201 went to Nuremberg where the DB had accumulated their operable steamers as well as hired power from other associations. The trip with 18 201 to the West was indeed a one-off, and no high speed trips were done. IIRC, the loco came in, served as a static display for several weeks and then made a trip back under own steam, assisted by a pacific.

Quote:

I was on a West German trip out of Hamburg the next year where they tried to match this event with a 3 cylinder 4-6-2 but couldn't get it over 90 mph, which was blamed on poor coal.

The point is that the 3-cylinder 4-6-2 the DB had in 1986 was the oil fired series 01.10, which had a top speed of about 88 mph/140 kph... ;-)

It should have been this one, right?

Quote:

A British trip, with 3 cylinder 4-6-2 "City of Wells," that I was on later did get to 93 mph but couldn't quite do the 100 mph goal. It was still something to listen to from an open coach window, what a roaring exhaust!

I can well imagine that!

As to the 18 201, it went over 100 mph on a trip in 1987, so becoming the fastest steam loco in Austria..

Mike

Ron Goldfeder · **Posted:** Thu Jul 18, 2013 4:36 pm

Yes, the 150th. I was visiting family in France and just showed you how my memory is working these days. Had I been home I would have looked it up. Now that I am home I can say the German trip was on June 7, 1988 and the loco was 4-6-2 01 1100.