German state railway norms

In German railway engineering, norms ("Normalien") are standards for the design and production of railway vehicles.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Prussian norms were developed for the locomotives, tenders and wagons of the Prussian state railways under the direction of the railway director responsible for railway engineering, Moritz Stambke. Later, these were largely adopted by the other state railways ("Länderbahnen") in Germany. These norms are defined by technical drawings to 1:40 scale on individual sheets and show the locomotives and wagons as full design drawings, referred to by their sheet ("Musterblatt") numbers. The first drawings date from 1878. In 1885 the Minister for Public Works tasked the Hütte Academic Institute with the publication of the norms. The drawings were regularly updated as technical developments occurred. The last Prussian drawings were issued in 1923.

The design drawings for goods wagons were of special importance. The wagons built to these specifications appeared in large numbers and formed the bulk of the German wagon fleet until well after the Second World War. The 1973 DR Goods Wagon Handbook still contained most of the DSV wagon classes as well as the former Prussian Class II^d wagons. The most important types are listed in the following table. Note that Class II^b are goods wagons based on old designs, II^c goods wagons under 15 ton maximum load and II^d goods wagons with at least 15 tons maximum load.

Other examples of Prussian norms are:

Literature and Sources

*Autorenkollektiv: Güterwagen Handbuch, Transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin 1974
*Behrends, H.; Hensel, W.; Wiedau, G.: Güterwagen-Archiv (Band 1), Transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin 1989
*Carstens, S.; Ossig, R.: Güterwagen. Band 1. Gedeckte Wagen, W. Tümmels, Nürnberg 1989
*Carstens, S.; Diener H. U.: Güterwagen. Band 2. Gedeckte Wagen – Sonderbauarten, W. Tümmels, Nürnberg 1989
*Carstens, S.; Diener H. U.: Güterwagen. Band 3. Offene Wagen, Eigenverlag, Hasloh 1996
*Carstens, S.: Güterwagen. Band 4. Offene Wagen in Sonderbauart, MIBA-Verlag, Nürnberg 2003
*Carstens, S.: Güterwagen. Band 5. Rungen-, Schienen- und Flachwagen, MIBA-Verlag, Nürnberg 2008
*Deutsche Bundesbahn, EZA Minden: Handbuch für Umzeichnung der Güterwagen, Minden 1951
*Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, Reichsbahn-Zentralamt: Merkbuch für die Fahrzeuge der Reichsbahn. IV. Wagen (Regelspur). Ausgabe 1928, Berlin 1928
*Königl. Eisenbahn Zentralamt: Merkbuch für die Fahrzeuge der Preußisch-Hessischen Staatseisenbahnverwaltung. Ausgabe 1915, Berlin 1915
*Troche, H.: Die preußischen Normal-Güterzuglokomotiven der Gattungen G 3 und G 4. Kap. 17. Die Normalien-Güterwagen, EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1992

ee also

* History of rail transport in Germany

External links

* [http://www.hs-merseburg.de/~nosske/EpocheII/fg/e2f_gwix.html German goods wagons from 1910 to 1945 (German)]
* There is an English-language discussion forum at [http://germanrail.8.forumer.com/ Railways of Germany]