Leipzig-Dresden Railway “Borsdorf” to “Zittau”

In the later type II, the Royal Saxon State Railways grouped together various locomotives with a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement that had been built between 1854 and 1875 for various railway administrations. The clients were the Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie, the Altenburg-Zeitzer Eisenbahngesellschaft and the Saxon-Thuringian Railway. The state railways also had such machines built and placed them in the same category. The 20 machines of the LDE with the names “Borsdorf” to “Zittau” are to be discussed here as representative of these types. As usual with the LDE, these locomotives built between 1866 and 1868 were not given numbers, only names.

An externally visible feature of the first generation of locomotives was the firebox with a large, four-sided cupola that protruded far beyond the boiler barrel. The Stephenson type valve gear was within the frame. In addition, an exhaust steam condenser was used to reduce water consumption, as was found on many locomotives at the time. However, it did not prevail due to the serious long-term effects of deposits.

The 20 examples were taken over by the state railway in 1876 and given the operating numbers 584 to 603 in addition to the existing names. Initially they received the type designation K III, which indicated the manufacturer Kessler. Later they were renamed K II and then only II, while they were given new numbers several times. The first ones were taken out of service as early as 1893, but the last examples only disappeared 20 years later.