Class E 95 Electric Locomotive

The E 95 – a Milestone in German Locomotive Building
Larger, more powerful, more expensive: This is how the class E 95 electric locomotive can be described which was placed into service in 1927 as six units by the German State Railroad. With a continuous rating of over 3,200 horsepower, a length of over 20 meters / 65 feet, a weight of 138.5 metric tons, and a price of 543,000 Reich Marks, these characteristic units were at that time the most powerful and most expensive German electric locomotives. They were designed for the many heavy coal trains, up to 2,200 metric tons, which rolled every day from the Silesian mountain area in the direction of Dresden and Berlin. Their quaint, almost terrifying appearance was based among other things on the two high hoods that contained the oil-cooled main transformer and the contactor control circuits. Moreover, the class E 95 units were actually double locomotives to allow installation of the necessary six driving axles. In operation these power houses turned in marvelous performance. At that time, they reached the highest running performance of all Silesian freight locomotives. When demand for coal went down in the course of the global economic crisis, these 70 km/h / 44 mph locomotives were also used to pull passenger trains. Road number E 95 02 has been preserved in the maintenance facility. Perhaps in the not too distant future you can even experience this one-time technical masterful achievement live. It will certainly not be pulling coal trains. That is reserved – in the small scale – for the new, excellent Märklin model.

Prototype: German State Railroad Company (DRG) class E 95 heavy freight electric locomotive. Used to pull heavy unit coal trains in the Silesian network. Bluish gray basic paint scheme. The electric locomotive was the largest electric locomotive in Germany for a long time. Locomotive road number E 95 01. The locomotive looks as it did around 1928.