Product Features and Details
Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) class 44 heavy freight locomotive. Version with open front skirting and Witte smoke deflectors.
Model: Frame, locomotive body and tender are mostly metal. With digital decoder, controlled high-efficiency propulsion, and multi-function sound effects generator. AC operation or operation with Märklin Delta, Märklin Digital, or Märklin Systems is possible. 5 powered axles. Built in smoke generator. Triple white headlights change with the direction of the train. Drive gear lighting with maintenance-free LEDs. Lighting and smoke generator insert are conventional in operation, and they can be digitally controlled. Steam locomotive running sound effects, whistle signal, and telex couplers can be digitally controlled with Control Unit or Systems. The acceleration and braking delay, as well as other operating sound effects can be controlled digitally with Systems. Engineer's cab with interior details. Many separately applied details. Negotiable minimum radius 1020 mm / 40-5/32". Length over buffers 71.0 cm / 27-15/16".
Locomotive 55440 will be manufactured in a one-time series, for Insider members only. Delivery scheduled for fall 2005.
The five coupled axle, class 44 is one of Europe's most powerful steam locomotives, and justly is considered to be the standard freight train locomotive. The mighty exhaust thrust from the three cylinder drive gear fascinated several generation of railway enthusiasts, who fondly called the 44, "Jumbo". New factory finished locomotives rolled out of the production facilities of various plants in Germany, or countries occupied during the war, for no less than 23 years. It started in 1926 with 10 prototypes. At first they had to take a place behind class 43 two-cylinder E-couplers – the locomotive committee was under the mistaken notion that they could do without the somewhat more service-intensive locomotive with the additional cylinder. Then as total gross train load and speed grew, the time had come for the well-designed 44, which was fast and quiet for its time. Scheduled delivery of the 44 ended in 1944. Lokomotivbau Hennigsdorf built ten additional units from existing parts. In total, 1989 locomotives were built and they differ in numerous details – which should not be any surprise, given the long production period. After the war both German State Railways modernized a portion of their stock. In the west the class 44 was in service until the end of the steam locomotive era, 1977. Late in 1981 it also came to an end in the DDR
