Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) class 44 heavy freight steam locomotive with a type 2´2´T30 tub-style tender. Black/red basic paint scheme. Witte smoke deflectors, dual headlights, smoke box with central locking, without an inductive magnet. Locomotive road number 44 1143. The locomotive looks as it did around 1950.

Highlights

• Version with a tub-style tender for the first time.
• Tooling changes include a new smoke box door and central locking.
• Dual headlights.
• World of Operation mfx+ digital decoder and a variety of operation and sound functions included
• Cab lighting, firebox flickering, and flickering at the ash pan can be controlled in digital operation
• Partially open bar frame with mostly clear view between the running gear and the boiler
• High-efficiency propulsion with a flywheel, mounted in the boiler.
• One-time anniversary model for the 30th anniversary of the Insider Club.

Product description

Model: The locomotive has an mfx+ digital decoder and extensive sound functions. It also has controlled high-efficiency propulsion with a flywheel, mounted in the boiler. 5 axles powered. Traction tires. The locomotive and the tub-style tender are constructed mostly of metal. The 7226 smoke unit can be installed in the locomotive. The dual headlights change over with the direction of travel. They and the smoke unit that can be installed in the locomotive will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally. The cab lighting, firebox flickering, and flickering at the ash pan can also be controlled separately in digital operation. Maintenance-free warm white and red LEDs are used for the lighting. There is a close coupling with a guide mechanism between the locomotive and tender. There is a close coupler with an NEM pocket and a guide mechanism on the rear of the tender and on the front of the locomotive.

The minimum radius for operation is 360 mm / 14-3/16".

Protective sleeves for the piston rods, brake hoses, and imitation prototype couplers are included.

Length over the buffers 26 cm / 10-1/4".

This class 44 steam locomotive with a tub-style tender is being produced in 2023 as an anniversary model for the 30th anniversary of the Insider Club in a one-time series exclusively only for Insider members.

Charlies Tips

Freight cars to go with this locomotive can be found in the current Märklin H0 assortment.

This model can be found in a DC version in the Trix H0 assortment under item number 25745 exclusively for Trix Club members.

Publications

- New items brochure 2023

Prototype information

Just a few years after the devastating Second World War, the West German economy experienced a remarkable upswing. With the introduction in 1948 of the D-Mark began the prosperous economic miracle years. As early as 1950, real income for an average working family had exceeded the prewar level.

The new German Federal Railroad (DB) as the most important means of transport had to keep up with this rapid development. Heavy freight locomotives were especially in demand, whereby the railroad was in the fortunate position of being able acquire over 1,000 units of the class 44 heavy three-cylinder locomotive. The class 44 units were among the best standard design locomotives built by the German State Railroad starting in 1926.

However, the DB immediately did technical improvements, which often also reduced maintenance costs. On the class 44, the front skirting was removed, the air compressor and feedwater pump were moved from niches in the smoke box area to the middle of the boiler to be more maintenance friendly and the central smoke box lock was removed as on all other DB steam locomotives. Witte smoke deflectors replaced the large Wagner units or they were installed on locomotives built during the war without smoke deflectors.

In 1950, the German Federal Railroad sent road number 44 1143 of Schweinfurt to the Munich locomotive builder Krauss-Maffei for a basic overhaul due an overload at the railroad's own maintenance facilities. A few months later, the locomotive was gleaming in new splendor, and its appearance had fundamentally changed – with Witte deflectors, without skirting, and with the compressor and pump in the middle of the locomotive. Curiously, the central smoke box locking mechanism remained preserved. However, you looked in vain for the inductive magnet (inductive train control) already in wide use at that time.

The most striking thing was the type 2‘2’T30 tub-style tender newly coupled to the locomotive, which actually belonged to the classes 52 and 42. The operational service due to this unusual combination had to have been somewhat unpleasant because the water supply was 4 cubic meters / 1,057 gallons less compared to a standard tender, which definitely played a role with the class 44. This Jumbo will also attract a lot of attention on a model railroad.

The variety of individual locomotive types during the economic miracle years can be shown impressively with it and the many other Märklin Era III steam locomotives. Locomotives had to run then. The expression "Corporate Design" was a foreign word. Full speed ahead seemed more important. Road number 44 1143 is moreover an interesting exception – like the successful and exclusive Märklin Insider model. The DB had to be sure three other class 44 units with a tub-style tender. This one was larger, carried 34 cubic meters / 8,982 gallons of water, and was designed and built in 1942 by Borsig as an experiment especially for the class 44.

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