marklin MAXI E 44 144 Serie Mode D'emploi page 5

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Prototype
The Class E 44 (144) Electric Locomotive
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 loco-
motive. Each builder developed his own solution that was designated by the
German State Railroad as the class E 44 (SSW version), E 44
and E 44 20 (BEW version).
While the E 44 20 remained a one-off unit and the E 44
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.
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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 opera-
tions. One of the critical differences compared to earlier electric locomotive
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(MSW version) building was the use of two trucks without pilot trucks. This locomotive
thereby represents the beginnings of modern locomotive framework designs.
5 was built in only two With a maximum speed of 90 km/h or 56 mph and up to 2,200 kilowatts or
2,950 horsepower, this successful design was able to fulfill operating require-
ments 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.