Locomotive DRG Class 05 (001) Reichsbahn Baureihe (1935)

The Deutsche Reichsbahn's Class 05 was a German class of three express passenger steam locomotives of 4-6-4 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2'C2' in the UIC notation used in continental Europe. They were part of the DRG's standard locomotive (Einheitslokomotive) series.

Since the success of the Diesel high speed trains like the Flying Hamburger in the middle of the 1930s, locomotive industry worked on faster steam locomotives. After speed tests with a streamlined DRG Class 03 the Borsig locomotive factories produced three engines:

05 001 in 1935, streamlined,
05 002 in 1935, streamlined, world speed record in 1936
05 003 in 1937, cab forward streamlined.

The locomotives did regular service in FD express passenger trains, e.g. FD 23 from Hamburg to Berlin. The design speed was 175 km/h (109 mph). In 1944, the streamline plates were removed. 05 003 had been rebuilt and lost the cab forward design.

05 001 and 05 002 were mainly used for test runs from 1935 to 1936. Most of these runs were made on complete journeys between Hamburg and Berlin. On June 7, 1935 the 05 002 made a top speed of 191.7 km/h (119.1 mph) near Berlin. The same engine made six more runs with more than 177 km/h (110 mph) with trains up to 254 t (250 long tons; 280 short tons) weight. On May 11, 1936 it set the world speed record for steam locomotives after reaching 200.4 km/h (124.5 mph) on the Berlin--Hamburg line hauling a 197 t (194 long tons; 217 short tons) train. The engine power was more than 2,535 kW (3,399 ihp)). This record was broken two years later by the British LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard engine.

On May 30, 1936 the 05 002 set an unbroken start stop speed record for steam locomotives: During the return run from a 190 km/h test Berlin-Hamburg it did the ~113 kilometres (70 miles) from Wittenberge to a signal stop before Berlin-Spandau in 48 min 32 s, meaning 139.4 km/h (86.6 mph) average between start and stop.