Class 65 Steam Locomotive

The 65 – a Universal Genius
It was the beginning of the legendary Economic Miracle Years, when the new German Federal Railroad took a great leap forward. Here, steam motive power was to play a large role initially. The result was new, highly modern steam locomotive types, from which a class can be designated as a universal genius8. We are talking about the 65, a compact tank locomotive that chalked up maximum achievements during its relative short career. With an output of just 1,500 horsepower, it exceeded the parallel development of the V 80 diesel locomotive and also the subsequent V 100 – and it provided absolute peak performance during its ten years of service in fast S-Bahn traffic between Essen and Düsseldorf pulling shuttle trains. On the steeply graded branch lines in the Odenwald area it performed extremely successful in passenger and freight service. Old Darmstadt engineers preferred the 65 even over the replacement V 100. The brilliant characteristics of this steam iron horse had no chance at the end against the much less expensive diesel competition. It thus remains reserved for the new, excellently designed Insider model to tell of steam operated S-Bahn shuttle trains on model railroads.

Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) class 65 passenger tank locomotive as it looked in Era IIIb.