Goods wagons of welded construction


Goods wagons of welded construction were developed and built by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany from 1933 to about 1945. With the introduction of welding technology in 1933 almost all wagon components were joined by welding and no longer by rivetting. This enabled goods wagons to be designed, for example, for higher speeds or for higher payloads through the use of different types of steel and other engineering changes, but their further development was so heavily influenced by the exigencies of the Second World War that, as early as 1939, the Deutsche Reichsbahn had to temper the design of goods wagons to the new economic circumstances. Because there were overlaps in the change from the Austauschbauart - goods wagons made with interchangeable components - to the new welded classes, the period of the changeover cannot be exactly defined. Several standard goods wagons and their classes are covered in other articles. Goods wagons built during the Second World War that were purely intended for military transport use, are covered under the article on Kriegsbauart - wartime classes.
As early as 1921 the development of goods wagons in the German states began to distinguish between those without special features, that represented the standard or norm, and those with certain characteristics i.e. that had a special equipment or properties.
Likewise the welded class of goods wagons were divided into:
Germany's goods wagons of Austauschbauart design, with their interchangeable components, were too expensively designed to continue to be economically manufactured. Consequently, the Deutsche Reichsbahn began to modify existing models or bring out new designs for all goods wagon classes, both from an economic standpoint and with regard to the increasing competition they faced in the transportation market from lorries. This led to a series of trials of various wagon types that got under way in 1932. The aim was to develop a series production in which the covered vans could be permitted to run at speeds higher than 65 km/h and open wagons would have a higher payload than 15 tonnes. The increase in maximum speed was necessary to enable goods wagons to be inserted in fast through trains as well as enabling goods wagons to be hauled within passenger trains. Through the introduction of various materials and production technologies, wagons could be produced more efficiently and the newly developed goods vans and trucks were continually developed and their designs optimised.

Goods wagons of the standard type

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Ordinary covered wagons

This wagon class was built in several variants. For example, the first series of these vans were delivered as "Grs" i.e. able to be transferred onto the Russian broad gauge network. There were also variants with steam heating and with both steam and electrical heating. The first trial wagons were built in 1934 in order to find an alternative to the Gr Kassel class. These goods vans were also known colloquially as "short Oppelns".

Large-volume covered wagons

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