Electric Locomotive

37069 – Bavarian EP 3/6 20104 (Starting in 1926: E 36 04) The route Salzburg – Freilassing – Berchtesgaden was also part of the first electrification program in Bavaria, and an electric test operation was possible starting April 15, 1914. In 1912, the Bavarian State Railroad ordered four locomotives with a 2-6-4 wheel arrangement for passenger service on this route with its many grades and curves from Krauss in Munich (mechanical parts) and SSW (electrical parts). They were taken into operation in April and June of 1914 as road numbers EP 3/6 20101-20104. Their running gear was designed to correspond to the difficult route characteristics: The front pilot truck together with the first coupled wheel set formed a Krauss-Helmholtz frame. The rear pilot truck together with the last coupled wheel set rested in a Krauss-Lotter frame. The first runs showed the marvelous design of the running gear without a fixed wheelbase. The good running features free of hunting and jerking were praised. A special feature was the steam boiler for train heating located behind the front engineer's cab. Its smoke stack projected from the roof. The front pantograph therefore had to be placed in the middle of the locomotive. Electric test operations to Berchtesgaden ended however as early as August 3, 1914 due to the outbreak of World War I. Electric operations did not resume until April 10, 1916. On the DRG, these locomotives ran starting in August 1926 as road numbers E 36 01-04. Their served was reduced drastically with the introduction of the new E 44.5 starting in 1933/34, and they were finally retired between 1941 and 1943. Road number E 36 02 was then converted to a snowplow and survived. It can be admired today in the Bavarian Railroad Museum (BEM) in Nördlingen.