Hi friends! In the center of visitor's interest was this engine here, the famous "Class 52", Adolf Hitlers mostly built war locomotive. This engine was for decades the most common heavy freight locomotive in Middle Europe... This engine was planned and constructed under the Nazi regime in Germany and their "Third Reich". Its service should be the transport of troopers, weapons, armary and materials to the eastern front in Russia and the transport of freight back home to Germany. The specifications were: 1200 tons on plan tracks with a speed of 65 kilometers/ hour. All german locomotive works were merged in a single organization, the "Gemeinschaft grossdeutscher Lokomotivenhersteller (GGL), key figures were armament minister Albert SPEER and transportation minister Julius DORPMUELLER. Hitlers plan was the construction of 15 000 (!!) locomotives of class 52, really built were more than 7000 till the end of WW II. In July 1943 all locomotive works in the German Reich built 51 locomotives at only ONE day! So the Class 52 is the greatest locomotive row in Europe and one of the greatest worldwide. The class 52 was a very primitive, minimalized locomotive, constructed for a lifetime not longer than 6 months. It was produced in every parts in Nazi Germany although as in all occupied territories, so in Austria, Tchechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Danmark.... After World War II locomotives were needed in all countries, loser or winner, and so the class 52 got a renaissance. They were repaired, upgraded, cheap material was replaced by better, and more than 300 were built from parts of demolished other locomotives. And class 52 was in service in different counties: France, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, East and West Germany, Poland, Soviet Union, Tchechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Many of them served for many decades, and some of them serve in regular service till today! Western Germany earned more then 700 locomotives Class 52 after WW II, and Eastern Germany earned more then 1150. Western Germany was relatively early after WW II in a situation to build complete new locomotive classes, and the class 52 was complete out of service around 1960. In the communistic part of Germany they knew that there were not able to replace their class 52 fleet very soon, it was the centrum of her transportation logistic. They used the class 52 for heavy fright trains although as for people's transportation. So the communistic Germany started a very great upgrade and reconstruction program and called their row CLASS 52.80. They upgraded a series of 200 engines, which served till 1990, when the DDR ended and the Wall felt. Mostly of these engines exist till today, and 10 of them are in service for events like this here. Most of them have private owners today; this locomotive is owned by the "Berliner Eisenbahnfreunde e.V.", a private club of railroad afficionados.... This locomotive have a service weight of 132 tons with tender, reaches 80 km/h forward and 50 km/h backward. The wheel arrangements is 2-10-0, the lengh over buffers is 29 meters. Its power is 1.200 KW (around 1.350 hp) Uff, a novel again! Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for your nice comments and the favorite for my last pic, that made me glad! Please feel free to comment this pic here, too. Thanks and good nite! billy