Its striking features in comparison with the G 3/4 N were its superheater system, the feedwater preheater, the larger and higher-positioned boiler and its Adams axle. In addition, they were more powerful and efficient than their predecessors. All 225 examples that were built were taken over by the Bavarian Group Administration within the Reichsbahn and were initially operated under their old numbers. Later they were given operating numbers 54 1501–1725 following the final renumbering plan issued by the DRG. The majority of locomotives also survived the Second World War. The last engine (with operating number 54 1632) was not retired until 1966.
Numbers 54.1534, 1548, 1550, 1559, 1589 and 1663 remained in Austria after the war. The ÖBB added them to their fleet and ran them as ÖBB Class 654. All engines in this class were retired by 1957. Number 654.1663 was reassigned in 1956 as an industrial locomotive in the main workshop at Simmering, where it received the number 913.502.
The engines were equipped with a Bavarian 3 T 18,2 tender.
Surviving locomotives
Remains of a G 3/4 in the Bavarian Railway Museum in Nördlingen
In 2004 the remains of a G 3/4 with works number 5395 was discovered during construction work in Treuchtlingen Station. The locomotive from the fleet based at the Munich shed was destroyed during an air raid on 11 April 1945 and buried in a bomb crater during clear up work.
The remains of the locomotive – part of the tender, the feedwater heater and pressure vessel and the first and second axles – area displayed in the Bavarian Railway Museum.
References
Hütter, Ingo (2015). Die Dampflokomotiven der Baureihen 54 bis 59 der DRG, DRB, DB, und DR (in German). Werl: DGEG Medien. pp. 63–69. ISBN978-3-937189-85-7.
Weisbrod, Manfred; Müller, Hans; Petznik, Wolfgang (1978). Dampflokomotiven deutscher Eisenbahnen, Baureihe 41–59 (EFA 1.2) (in German) (3rd ed.). Düsseldorf: Alba. pp. 112–113. ISBN3-87094-082-4.
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