Steam Locomotive 66 002
Swift, powerful, frugal, and elegant: The best new construction steam locomotive from the German Federal Railroad came out in 1955 as the class 66. With around 1,000 horsepower performance and a maximum speed of 100 km/h / 63 mph it was intended as a jack-of-all-trades to replace numerous types of locomotives that dated mostly from provincial railroad times. The two prototypes, road numbers 66 001 and 002, were very convincing. They pulled passenger trains on main and branch lines as reliably as well as express trains on the main route Frankfurt – Giessen. Compared to the rapid development of diesel locomotives that were considerably less expensive to maintain, the class 66 had no chance. The service area for the two prototypes of the class 66 was finally taken over starting in 1958 by the class V 100, for example, that the DB bought in large quantities. The class 66 is however a symbol for the high level of German locomotive construction that can also shine in the small scale with the new Märklin model.
Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) class 66 passenger tank locomotive. Road number 66 002. The locomotive looks as it did in the mid-Sixties. Based at the railroad maintenance facility in Giessen.
Highlights
- Completely new tooling.
- Buffer capacitor included to bridge over short areas of track without current.
- Factory-installed smoke generator with speed-dependent dynamic smoke exhaust.
- Triple headlights and dual red marker lights that change over with the direction of travel.
- Cab lighting can be controlled digitally.
- Especially intricate metal construction.
- A variety of separately applied details.
- Buffer height conforms to the NEM.
- World of Operation mfx+ digital decoder with extensive light and sound functions.
