Information about the prototype
The economic crisis at the end of the 1920s in the 20th
century lead to an ongoing decline in activity on the
German State Railroad for further route electrification. At
the same time the purchase of new electric locomotives
was also put on hold. This gap was filled by the three
locomotive builders Bergmann-Elektrizitäts-Werke AG,
Maffei-Schwartzkopf-Werke GmbH and Siemens-
Schuckert-Werke AG by the development of a new electric
locomotive. Each builder developed his own solution that
was desig-nated by the German State Railroad as the class
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E 44 (SSW version), E 44
version).
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While the E 44
remained a one-off unit and the E 44
built in only two small groups of 4 units each, the E 44 from
Siemens was clearly the most successful development with
a quantity of over 180 units. The last of the locomotives in
this class were even purchased by the DB, resulting in a total
period of manufacture of about 20 years for this locomotive.
These locomotives were used mostly on the Stuttgart –
Augsburg route that was electrified starting in 1933. Of the
174 units built before the war, 45 ended up with the German
State Railroad (East Germany) and were later designated
there as the class 244. The remaining units were acquired
by the German Federal Railroad and were operated as the
class 144 starting in 1968. A number of these units were
modified technically for push/pull operations.
Vorbild • Prototype • Exploitation dans le réel • Grootbedrijf
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(MSW version) and E 44
One of the critical differences compared to earlier electric
locomotive building was the use of two trucks without pilot
trucks. This locomotive thereby represents the beginnings
of modern locomotive framework designs. With a maximum
speed of 90 km/h (56 mph) and up to 2,200 kilowatts
(2,950 hp), this successful design was able to fulfill opera-
ting requirements well into Era IV. The E 44 was retired by
the German Federal Railroad in 1982. For the E 44 units on
the DR, 1992 was the last year of operation. Just a handful
of these units are still in existence as museum locomotives.
(BEW
5
was
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