DR Steam Locomotive, Road Number 99 5001

Re-released in 2025 under new variation

Road number 99 5001, better known under its nickname "Little Fat One", saw the light of day in the world of railroading at the locomotive builder A. Borsig in Berlin-Tegel in 1925 under builder number 11870. It was then first placed into service as road number 11 on the Spremberg City Railroad near Cottbus. When this railroad was abandoned in 1956, this unit found employment under the German State Railroad Management Group at Magdeburg at the railroad operations facility at Wernigerode-Westerntor, that is on the narrow gauge line in the Harz. Its service plan included switching and roller transfer operations between Wernigerode Freight Station and a location in Hasserode. Here a local brewery was served in addition to a chocolate and paper factory. Later the locomotive was transferred as a local switch engine to Nordhausen-North, the other end point of the Harz Cross Railroad. Its duties were the same as in Wernigerode, only here the industrial operations to be served were located between Nordhausen-North and Niedersachswerfen. 

In 1967, the locomotive was put into storage but was not scrapped. After that it was not actually possible to report on a spectacular, marvelous locomotive life. This was to change greatly, however, in 1974. LGB brought out this locomotive as new tooling for an attractive way to get started in the hobby of model railroading. This was done in different paint schemes as well as for electric and battery operation. In addition to the well-known "Stainz", this locomotive was henceforth designated as the "Little Fat One" and quickly became a popular figure. It was the highlight of the contents of many starter sets. For many people, this locomotive in a starter set was the beginning of a lifelong passion or fascination for the theme of "LGB".   It was therefore the LGB model, which raised the prototype – actually a simple switching engine, you can even talk about a narrow gauge class 80 - to the level of a legend. When locomotives began to be retired in the GDR and consequently scrapped, there were museum railroads in Western Europe constantly on the lookout for usable, even operational locomotives and rolling stock.

Various narrow gauge locomotives in the GDR thus appeared on the "KoKo" sales list. "KoKo" is the abbreviation for the "Commercial Coordination", an organ in the GDR for generating currency and under the direction of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski. In 1973 a French buyer was found for road number 99 5001, who wanted to bring this unit for use on a narrow gauge line in the Département Haute-Loire in the Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. A condition for the purchase was the overhaul of the locomotive in a German State Railroad facility in the GDR. The locomotive was thus put into order at the maintenance facility in Wernigerode-Westerntor for its trip to France from the Harz to south of Lyon and left the Harz after a test run in December of 1973.

Since the axle load and meter load for this small locomotive were too high for the French line, the French railroad regulators declined to authorize the locomotive for operation. The "la petit grosse" (German: "die kleine Dicke") thus stands with other narrow gauge units, in the best of company, inaccessible to the public in a warehouse in the Rhône Valley somewhere between Lyon and Marseille and slumbers during its 100th anniversary line like a small Sleeping Beauty in her own slumber.