The Adler (German for "Eagle") was the first locomotive that was successfully used commercially for the rail transport of passengers and goods in Germany. The railway vehicle was designed and built in 1835 by the British railway pioneers George and Robert Stephenson in the English city of Newcastle. It was delivered to the Bavarian Ludwig Railway (Bayerische Ludwigsbahn) for service between Nuremberg and Fürth. It ran officially for the first time there on 7 December 1835. The Adler was a steam locomotive of the Patentee type with a wheel arrangement of 2-2-2 (Whyte notation) or 1A1 (UIC classification). The Adler was equipped with a tender of type 2 T 2. It had a sister locomotive, the Pfeil.
History
Earlier locomotives in Germany The Adler is often cited as the very first locomotive used by a railway company on German soil, but as early as 1816 a serviceable steam locomotive was designed by the Royal Prussian Steelworks (Königlich Preußische Eisengießerei) in Berlin. During a trial run this so-called Krigar locomotive hauled one railway wagon with a payload of 8,000 German pounds (about ). But this vehicle was never used commercially.Bulletin about the Berlin steam locomotive that was to be used in a coal mine in the Saar (German)Report on the Berlin steam engine, that was to have been used in a coal mine in the Saar (German) Nevertheless, the Adler was undoubtedly the first successfully operated locomotive in regular use in Germany.
Origin
During the construction of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway, founded by Georg Zacharias Platner, the search for a suitable locomotive started in England.
The first letter of enquiry was sent via the London company, Suse und Libeth, to Robert Stephenson & Co. and Braithwaite & Ericsson. The locomotive was to be able to pull a weight of and cover the distance between Nuremberg and Fürth in a time of eight to ten minutes. Carriages were heated with charcoal. Stephenson replied that a locomotive of the same build class as those on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, with four wheels and a weight of between , could be supplied. A lighter engine would not have the necessary power of adhesion and would be more expensive than a heavier engine. In any case, on 16 June 1833, Johannes Scharrer asked for a quote for two locomotives with a weight of and the necessary package of accessories. Stephenson quoted a cost of about £1,800. The German company, Holmes and Rolandson from Unterkochen near Aalen, offered a steam locomotive with a power of between at a price of 4,500 Gulden. Negotiations with Holmes and Rolandson stalled, and this avenue of enquiry was dropped.
A further bid came from Josef Reaullaux located in Eschweiler, near Aachen. At the end of April, Platner and Mainberger from Nuremberg were in Neuwied near Cologne. There they wanted to award a contract for the railway track. On 28 April they travelled to Cologne to meet with a friend of Platner called Consul Bartls. Bartls told them about the Belgian engineering works of Cockerill in Liège.
As a result, Platner and Mainberger travelled to Liège. There they discovered that Cockerill had not yet built a locomotive, though they did find Stephenson was in Brussels at that time. They reached Brussels on 1 May and stayed in a guesthouse in Flanders, where Stephenson and several of his engineers were staying. Stephenson wanted to be present at the opening of the railway line from Brussels to Mechelen which was scheduled for 5 May. On 3 May, both parties signed a letter of intent. Stephenson wanted to deliver a locomotive of the Patentee type with six wheels and a weight of about for a price of between £750 and £800. On 15 May 1835, the new locomotive was ordered from Stephenson's locomotive works in Newcastle upon Tyne to those specifications. Furthermore, a tender for a bogie passenger coach and a goods wagon were ordered. Later it turned out that the locomotive would cost about £900 instead of the sum quoted in Brussels. Stephenson originally promised in Brussels that the locomotive would be delivered by the end of July to Rotterdam.Markus Hehl: Der "Adler" – Deutschlands erste Dampflokomotive. Weltbild, Augsburg 2008, p. 32.
Different units of measurement were used in Nuremberg and England; the English foot and the Bavarian foot were different. The track gauge was predefined to be the same as that of the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was . Stephenson persisted with this gauge which meant the existing track had to be relaid, because its track gauge was too narrow by . The delivery of the locomotive to Nuremberg, together with all its spares comprising over 100 individual components in 19 boxes with a total weight of , came to a cost of £1,140/19/3. The boxes were shipped late, on 3 September 1835, on the ship Zoar from London to Rotterdam. The freight rate from Rotterdam to Cologne was 700 francs, from Cologne to Offenbach am Main 507 South German gulden and 9 kreuzer and from Offenbach to Nuremberg 653 gulden and 11 kreuzer. The board of directors of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway wanted the purchase to be exempted from import duty. The locomotive was declared as an item of a formerly unknown product which was to be used by factories in the Bavarian interior. After several difficulties the Ministry of Finance approved the tax-free import with Johann Wilhelm Spaeth as the recipient of the consignment.Wolfgang Mück. Deutschlands erste Eisenbahn mit Dampfkraft. Die kgl. priv. Ludwigseisenbahn zwischen Nürnberg und Fürth. Fürth 1985, p. 115–126.
The transport boxes containing the locomotive were shipped by the barge van Hees (owned by its captain, van Hees) and pulled upriver by the steamboat Hercules on the Rhine until it reached Cologne.Peter Heigl. Adler – Stationen einer Lokomotive im Laufe dreier Jahrhunderte. Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Amberg 2009, , pp. 37–38 As the waterline in the Rhine was low, Captain van Hees had to use horses to pull the barge instead of the steamboat, as originally planned. On 7 October, the train of barges reached Cologne; the remaining distance to Nuremberg had to be covered by road because the Main was too shallow to be navigable by barge. The transport on land was disrupted by a strike of the freight forwarders in Offenbach am Main, and a different freight forwarder had to be ordered. On 26 October 1835, the transport reached Nuremberg. The steam engine was assembled in the workshops of the Johann Wilhelm Spaeth engineering works, with the assembly being observed by Stephenson's engineer William Wilson, who had travelled with the locomotive to Nuremberg. They used the help of the technical teacher Bauer and local carpenters.
On 10 November 1835, the board of directors of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway expressed their hope that the locomotive would be serviceable soon. The locomotive was a symbol for power, daringness and rapidity.Peter Heigl. Adler – Stationen einer Lokomotive im Laufe dreier Jahrhunderte. Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Amberg, 2009, , p. 30
Both bogies delivered by Robert Stephenson & Co. turned out as too heavy for use at Nuremberg. The German constructor Paul Camille von Denis had planned that the railway wagons should be pulled either from the steam locomotive, or from horses, making a lighter construction necessary. Several companies built the wagons: the bogies were produced by Späth, Gemeiner und Manhard; the wooden coachwork were delivered by the wheelwright Stahl from Nuremberg.
As these companies were used to capacity with different orders three bogies and 16 wheels were produced by the company Stein in Lohr near Aschaffenburg. Denis threatened these companies that he would place future orders in England if they would not work faster. At the end of August 1835, the first wagon was completed. In the second half of October that year, further wagons were nearing completion, with nine wagons produced before the opening of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway. The wagons consisted of two wagons for third class passengers, four for second class and three for first class. On 21 October 1835, the first test run with one horse-pulled wagon took place. Denis had constructed a brake for the wagons which was tested at this opportunity. The wagon could be stopped in each situation without any effort by the horse.
On 16 November, the first test run of the steam locomotive from Nuremberg to Fürth and back again was accomplished. Due to the cold weather that day, the speed was reduced. Three days later, five fully occupied wagons were transported on the track in 12 to 13 minutes. On the way back the brakes and also boarding and disembarking of the passengers were tested. During the following tests it was discovered that, if wood was burned in the locomotive, the sparks which came out of its chimney singed the clothing of the passengers. The passengers' participation in the test run cost 36 kreuzer each, and the revenues from this were donated to the welfare of the poor.
Construction and bodywork
Locomotive The Adler was built on a wooden framework which was covered with sheet metal. Both wet steam driven cylinders were placed horizontally inside the frame and drove the driving wheelset which was placed in the middle of the three axles. The driving wheels had no wheel flange, so the locomotive could be operated on small radius curves. The forged spokes were rivetted to the rim. The original wheels were made of cast iron and were encircled with a forged tyre made of wrought iron. The original wheels made of brittle cast iron were replaced later through wheels made of wrought iron. The hollow spokes had a core made of wood to make them more flexible to cushion unevenness of the track. All wheels of the locomotive were unbraked. A mechanical railway brake braked both wheels of the tender on the right side where the fireman was located. There was a fixed connection between the locomotive and the tender. The buffers were made of wood. The horseshoe-shaped water box surrounded the coal stored in the tender. At first coke was burned in the firebox, later bituminous coal was used.Peter Heigl: Adler – Stationen einer Lokomotive im Laufe dreier Jahrhunderte. Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Amberg 2009, , p. 25–26.Georg Rebenstein: Stephenson's Locomotive auf der Ludwigs-Eisenbahn von Nuernberg nach Fuerth. Nuremberg, 1836.
Railway coaches The passenger wagons had the same bodies that were used for horse-drawn carriages. They were mounted on a bogie made of iron. The shape of coupé-carriages with two axles and three separated compartments in line was the archetype for the first German railway wagons. Specific bogies for passenger coaches were first developed in 1842 by the Great Western Railway. All wagons were painted in yellow which was the colour of stagecoaches at that time. The third class wagons originally had no roof, three compartments with eight to ten seats and the entrances had no doors. The second class wagons had originally a roof made of canvas, had doors, unglazed windows and curtains originally made of silk later made of leather. All wagons were of the same width but from the cheapest to the most expensive class the number of seats in one line were reduced by one. The first class wagons were lined with a precious blue foulard, had windows made of glass, the door handles gilded and all metal fittings were made of brass. The second class wagon No 8 which still exists was rebuilt between 1838 and 1846, it has a length of , a weight of about and has 24 seats.
Operation and retirement
On 7 December 1835, the Adler, driven by William Wilson, ran for the first time on the 6.05 kilometres long track of the LudwigsbahnUlrich Scheefold: 150 Jahre Eisenbahnen in Deutschland. Munich, 1985, p. 9. in nine minutes. 200 guests of honour were on the train and 26-year-old Northumbrian William Wilson was in the cab. In time intervals of two hours two more test runs were made.