The IX was an express locomotive of the Crampton type, which was originally to be built as a freight locomotive and underwent a number of modifications before it was delivered to the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways. Also due to the very rapid development at that time, the locomotives differed depending on the year of construction.

The characteristics of a Crampton locomotive were immediately apparent. These included a low-lying boiler mounted approximately midway above the two leading axles and a single driving axle with very large wheels located behind the boiler. This design offered great smoothness at high speeds, but only a low friction weight.

Since a broad gauge of 1,600 mm was initially used in Baden, the class IX was also designed for this gauge during its development phase. However, because between 1854 and 1855 all lines were changed to the standard gauge of 1,435 mm, later locomotives were also built with this gauge. 

Comparison of the first design with a chimney located to the rear and the fourth series from 1863

Die Lokomotive, September 1909

Another change before commissioning was the installation of a normal smoke box with the chimney at the front end of the boiler. The first two engines “Adler” and “Falke” had received a return flue from the factory, which means that the chimney was located in the middle of the boiler and thanks to the shorter steam tubes, the back pressure from the cylinders was reduced. However, this arrangement was not convincing due to the flue clogging with soot and ash and quickly disappeared from the scene.

The locomotives had an outside frame, whereby the power was transmitted to the driving axle via Hall cranks. In the second series, the leading axles were in a bogie, but in the rest they were stored in the frame again.

In addition to the two pre-series models, three other series of eight locomotives each were produced. Due to the increasing train weights, the first examples were retired in 1875. The others were first pushed into service with normal passenger trains and later only used for shunting. Today only the “Phoenix” locomotive still exists. It was refurbished in 1960 and has been in the Nuremberg Transport Museum ever since.

The locomotives of type XI were four-coupled tender locomotives with a leading axle for freight train service, which were procured from 1860 by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways. They were characterized by relatively large wheels, which allowed them to be used in front of passenger trains if necessary. From 1868 it was called V a.

The locomotives were equipped with a Crampton boiler, which protruded beyond the first and last axle. Initially, the saturated steam was only extracted from a regulator attachment directly on the upper edge of the boiler, which at times led to water being fed into the cylinders. Thus, all engines of the later deliveries received a steam dome. 

The wheel sets were mounted within an outer frame, so the power was transmitted via Hall cranks to the first coupled axle. With a driving wheel diameter of 1,524 mm it was ensured that at the top speed of 40 km/h low rotational speeds and smooth running were still guaranteed. The leading axle was rigidly mounted, but in view of the short overall wheelbase and the low speeds, this did not entail any particular disadvantages.

The primary operational areas of the XI were the Baden main line from Mannheim to Constance and the Odenwald line, which branched off from the main line in the direction of Würzburg. In addition to shunting services in the port of Mannheim, the deployment increasingly shifted to secondary routes with the commissioning of more powerful engines, where they benefited above all from the low axle load. In the mid-1890s, the remaining 18 of the 22 examples were withdrawn within a short period of time. One of them was converted into a tank locomotive in 1875, but it was to remain a one-off.

Locomotives with no coupled axles were soon no longer sufficient on the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways either, and so class XII was developed with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and a remarkably short wheelbase. Certain similarities to Swiss locomotives are not surprising, since the Swiss network was also used in part.

Earlier locomotives often had a 2-2-2 wheel arrangement, but when adding a second coupled axle, a front bogie was chosen instead of two individual carrying axles. In order to be able to continue to use the existing turntables, the overall wheelbase was designed to be as short as possible. Due to the large driving wheels, this was not achieved simply by moving the bogie back; the bogie itself had to be made very short and the distance between the remaining axles kept as short as possible.

Since development was making rapid progress at the time, the engines differed depending on the year of construction. It was noticeable that the steam dome was relatively small in the first batches and significantly larger in the later ones. What they all had in common was that the external leaf springs were noticeable and the deceleration was carried out via spindle brakes on all wheels of the tender. Due to the design of the boiler and the position of the cylinders in front of the bogie, a speed of only 60 km/h was possible despite the large wheels.

At the beginning of the 20th century, this locomotive could be found working in shunting service in Basel

Locomotive Magazine, April 1903

Despite the inadequacy, the engines of the series designated as type III from 1868 became indispensable, so that from 1869 a reinforced version was procured as III a. From 1881, many of the 41 examples of the XII or III and the III a were converted to the III b with an even more powerful boiler and longer frame. The locomotives that had not been converted were taken out of service at the beginning of the 1890s, and the rest were able to survive for a few more years after the turn of the century.

The type X d, known as VII a according to the new scheme from 1868, was the first freight locomotive to be purchased in large numbers by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways. With more and more improvements, it was able to stay in production from 1866 to 1891, resulting in 171 engines from 17 batches.

To increase the adhesive weight, all three axles were coupled, with the power being applied by the outside cylinders to the middle axle. The Stephenson-type valve gear was inside, and the greater wheelbase between the first two axles compared to the rear two is visible. In the first three batches, a large steam dome was used directly above the firebox, later a Belpaire firebox and a steam dome on the boiler barrel were used. Boiler pressure was nine bars for most batches, but was increased to ten bars for the last two batches due to advances in manufacturing and materials. Later, some engines even received a new boiler with twelve bars pressure. Two and three-axle models with different capacities were used as tenders. After retiring from line service, some locomotives were converted into tank locomotives and received a new driver's cab that was better suited for shunting.

By the outbreak of the First World War, 141 of the 171 units were still in use and the Reichsbahn finally took over 44 units in 1925, including three units from the first year of production. However, not only these were already obsolete, but also the newer batches and thus all examples of the locomotive now designated as class 53⁸⁵ were retired before 1930.

The class XIV was procured by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways from 1866 as a simply designed locomotive for slower passenger trains and possibly also for freight trains. In the new scheme of 1868 it was given the designation IV a. It is characterized by the fact that all engines built were later converted to tank locomotives. 

The original model had only two driving axles and a two-axle tender. The coupled wheels were fixed to an outer frame with outside cylinders. However, only the connecting and coupling rods were on the outside, while the valve gear was on the inside.

Rebuilt as tank engine

Because the entire weight of the locomotive was carried on the coupled wheels, it had a high tractive effort and was also used to pull freight trains. Trains weighing more than 1,000 tons could be moved at 45 km/h on almost level routes. By 1868, 46 examples had been produced in three batches, which were manufactured by the Karlsruhe and Grafenstaden factories.

When significantly faster and more powerful tender locomotives became available in 1880, conversion of all engines to tank locomotives began. The driver's cab was now closed all around and got a coal bunker on the back. Due to the resulting greatly increased overhang, a fixed trailing axle was installed, which means that the locomotives now had a 0-4-2 wheel arrangement. The water tanks were now on the side of the boiler, the latter also being new.

These conversions increased the service weight from 27 to 41.2 tonnes and by increasing the boiler pressure from 116 to 131 psi, the performance could also be improved. Despite the trailing axle, there was still a large overhang, which meant that weight transfer was still a problem and would repeatedly lead to derailments. Thus, the retirement took place around 1900, when the conversion of the last machines was only 14 years ago.

Since the locomotives from the early days were no longer powerful enough, newer ones with an 2-4-0 wheel arrangement were procured from Maffei in Munich. 20 of these were delivered from 1873 and were based on the Bavarian locomotives. It is noteworthy that from 1888 all of them were converted to tank locomotives with an 2-4-2T wheel arrangement and remained in use as such.

In order to increase the output, following the trend of the time, the grate area was enlarged without significantly increasing the dimensions of the boiler. A further increase in power was achieved through a higher boiler pressure, which had become possible due to new materials and production techniques. The locomotives had an external frame and external cylinders, but internal Stephenson-type valve gear. Braking, as was usual at the time, was done with mechanical transmission only to the wheels of the locomotive.

After a few years of operation, it became apparent that the adhesive weight was too low and the running characteristics with the long rear overhang were no longer up to date. Therefore, the locomotives were equipped with a trailing axle and turned into tank locomotives, while most parts remained the same. Because the weight of the boiler feed water was now acting on the couple axles, the adhesive weight increased. In addition, more powerful boilers of the Baden type were used later and the brakes were replaced with a modern air brake system of the Westinghouse type.

The conversion was completed on all locomotives in 1892 and extended their operating life beyond what the original tender locomotives would have achieved. The decommissioning began in 1901, the last locomotive was taken out of service in 1910.

When the Crampton locomotives used for express trains on the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways were no longer state of the art, a new express locomotive was developed from the class III passenger locomotives.

Special features of the II a were the Belpaire firebox and an outer plate frame. The power was transmitted via Hall cranks to the wheel sets located within the frame. Because the cylinders were located in front of the pivot of the lead bogie, the running smoothness was not entirely convincing. Especially under full load, the overhanging masses of the cylinders generated unpleasant vibrations.

Despite this, the engine performed well and was used on the international trains that traversed the Baden region. The locomotives were able to pull a 220-tonne train with 16 wagons on the flat at up to 84 km/h and thus still reached 60 km/h on a gradient of 0.5 percent. At 1.25 percent, 150 tonnes could still be pulled at 50 km/h.

Another delivery of ten locomotives in 1891 saw the need to lengthen the boiler tubes and increase the diameter of the cylinders to 457 mm. To improve the running characteristics, the wheel base of the bogie was also increased from 1,400 to 2,000 mm.

After the founding of the Reichsbahn, the II a met the same fate as other older Länderbahn locomotives. Of the 24 units built, ten were still included in the renumbering plan as ckass 36⁷³. Eventually all were retired by 1925.

The class II c designated express locomotives which, contrary to usual practice, had been developed based on the English practice. They were the first locomotives in Germany to be certified for a maximum operational speed of 110 km/h. The clearest distinguishing feature was the inside plate frame with wheel housings, which partially covered the 2,100 mm large coupled wheels and started at the level of the very low running board. In addition, the cylinders were on the inside, which was very rare in Germany for two-cylinder steam locomotives.

Due to the long wheelbase of the bogie and the low-lying boiler, the running characteristics were very good, so that the locomotives even ran smoothly at 120 km/h during test drives. The large wheels also helped maintain higher speeds for longer periods, and thus the 110 km/h certification was granted.

The development and production of the first series models took place at Grafenstaden in Alsace, but further vehicles followed from the Karlsruhe Engineering Society and the Saxon Machine Factory Hartmann. A total of 35 pieces were made between 1892 and 1900.

In order to reduce the effort required at high speeds, two modifications were made to the last five machines, as would also be found on later locomotives. One was a wind-cutter cab, i.e. the front wall of the cab was divided vertically in two and both halves were pulled back at a sharp angle in a V-shape. The other adjustment was an aerodynamically clad smokebox door. Instead of being conical like other German express locomotives from the beginning of the century, the tip was pulled down almost to the bottom of the boiler and the fairing formed a transition to the cylinders. Along with these modifications came an increase in boiler pressure from 12 to 13 bar.

Despite their good running characteristics, the tractive power of the locomotives was soon no longer sufficient for lighter express trains, as these could pull a maximum of 260 tons at top speed. In addition, higher demands were now placed on the acceleration of trains, which gradually reduced them to lower services. After the First World War, nine examples came to France and were operated there by the État state railway as class 220.9. In the period that followed, the number of locomotives remaining in Germany decreased, which meant that the planned takeover of the last machines by the Reichsbahn and re-designation to the class 36⁷³ did not occur.