Under the designation T 5, the Prussian State Railways combined tank locomotives for passenger transport, some of which differed significantly from one another, and which had been procured between 1880 and 1905. The wheel arrangements 2-4-2 with fixed and movable carrying axles, 4-4-0, 0-6-0 and 2-6-0 were used. The most numerous sub-variants were the T 51 and T 52, the former of which was built from 1895 for the suburban railways of Berlin.
In order to achieve an increase in performance compared to the older machines used there, another carrying axle was added. To improve the driving characteristics in the sometimes narrow curves, the wheelbase of the two coupled axles was made relatively short and the two running axles were designed as Adams axles, which could be moved sideways and radially.
By 1905, Henschel had manufactured 309 engines for Prussia, and between 1907 and 1921, 20 more almost identical but slightly lighter Hanomag units came to Oldenburg. After the advent of more powerful engines, the T 51 were withdrawn from the Berlin suburban railways and distributed to branch lines in various parts of Prussian territory. Despite the good running qualities in curves, the running smoothness at higher speeds was not sufficient for efficient use on main lines.
The Oldenburg T 51 number 280 “Nadorst” became 71 420 in the Reichsbahn
collection Oliver Westerhoff / www.laenderbahn.info
As with other locomotives from this period, the already reduced number of T 51 fell sharply between the conception of the Reichsbahn's renumbering plan and the actual renumbering. In 1923, for example, 115 engines were assigned a number in the 710-1 range, but in 1925 only 26 units were renumbered. Five years later the last ones were gone.