Marklin German Tank Locomotive Class T 16.1 of the KPEV (Sound Decoder)  
    

Prototype: Prussian State Railroad (K.P.E.V.) class T 16.1 steam tank locomotive. Road number 8118, Magdeburg.

Model: The locomotive is new tooling and the frame, body with boiler, and the tender are constructed of die-cast zinc. Other applied parts are mostly constructed of metal. This is a highly detailed model with many separately applied details and a prototypically detailed cab. The locomotive has a cab with a rounded roof without a ventilation installation, riveted water tanks, a coalbunker without added sides and filled with real coal. The smoke box door has a central locking device and can be opened. There are signs on the sides of the smoke box and a reproduction of the smoke box door equipment. The sand container cover and water tank covers can be opened and the cab doors can be opened. The locomotive has sprung buffers, triple headlights with kerosene lamps, and much more. The locomotive has an mfx digital decoder, controlled high-efficiency propulsion, and a sound generator with running sounds synchronized with the motion of the wheels as well as extensive sound functions. The locomotive can be operated with AC, DC, Marklin Digital, and DCC. All of the driving axles are powered. The locomotive has a built-in smoke generator with chuffing synchronized with the motion of the wheels, multiple step cylinder steam, and a steam whistle. The triple headlights have a light color correct for the era and change over with the direction of travel. The headlights will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally. Maintenance-free, warm white LEDs are used for the lighting. The locomotive has sprung buffers, cab lighting, firebox lighting, and running gear lights. The locomotive has newly designed, remote controlled Telex couplers front and rear that can be replaced by the reproduction prototype couplers included with the model. The valve gear switchover is done with a servomotor (forward, reverse, continuous operation). An accessory package with reproduction prototype couplers, smoke fluid, and a figure of a locomotive engineer and a fireman is included with the locomotive. Minimum radius for operation 1,020 mm / 40-3/16". Length over the buffers 39.5 cm / 15-9/16".

Highlights

• Completely new tooling.
• Highly detailed full metal construction.
• Frame, superstructures, boiler, etc. constructed of die-cast zinc.
• Smoke generator with chuffing synchronized with the motion of the wheels, multiple step cylinder steam.
• Load-controlled running sounds synchronized to the motion of the wheels.
• Smoke box door, sand boxes, and dome hatch can be opened, many original details included.
• Headlights with light color correct for the era, warm white LEDs used for the lighting.
• Multiple color firebox flickering.
• Cab lighting.
• A variety of sound functions.
• mfx decoder for operation with AC, DC, Marklin Digital, and DCC.
• Valve gear switchover with a servomotor.
• Telex couplers front and rear.

The famous Prussian locomotive department head Robert Garbe initiated the development of a five axle tank locomotive in 1904, whose frame and running gear was to be designed using the Golsdorf Principle for better running on curves. The first, third, and fifth driving axles were mounted with side play and the drive was on the fourth driving axle. The firm Berliner Maschinenbau AG (BMAG, formerly Schwartzkopff) delivered two prototypes based on this principle as early as 1905. Additional units of the new class T 16 quickly went into service. Due to partially dissatisfactory running characteristics the drive was switched from the fourth to the third driving axle starting in 1910, the latter driving axle now being mounted rigidly. In 1913 systematic changes were made with the installation of a four-part super heater, valve gear with Kuhn slides instead of hanger valve gear as well as exhaust steam pre-heater that was initially mounted lengthwise and later next to the boiler. The transfer to the T 16.1 was complete with this "reinforced" T 16. Purchases of this T 16.1 stretched out to 1924, i.e. well into the period of the DRG. A total of 1,236 units were built for Prussia and the DRG. In addition to BMAG, Hanomag, Henschel, and Linke-Hofmann also participated in the building of them from 1921 on. In 1915 Grafenstaden delivered another six of the T 16.1 for Alsace-Lorraine. Reparations after the end of World War I decimated the ranks such that the DRG was able to reclassify the remaining T 16.1 locomotives as road numbers 94 502-1380 and 94 1501-1740. The T 16.1 units were not only powerful locomotives for pusher and freight service. Starting in the Twenties the DRG equipped a number of the T 16.1 locomotives with a Riggenbach counter-pressure brake for operation on steeply graded routes. They were used in part in Thuringia, and in West and South Germany replaced rack railroad operations with rack locomotives there. After the end of World War II a large number of the locomotives found new homes in Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. The majority of the class 94 locomotives remained however in the western zones. After units damaged in the war were retired, the DB in 1950 still had 679 of the T 16.1 on its roster while the DR in East Germany still had 249 of these locomotives after the end of the war. The class 94 locomotives remained indispensable on both German railroads for decades, chiefly at large switch yards, and many of them were thus equipped with radio switching equipment. In 1968 140 locomotives on the DB were given the computer-generated class designation of 094. It was the stepped up delivery of the class 290/291 heavy diesel switch engines that finally replaced the last of these locomotives with their five driving axles so that in December of 1974 the last of the T 16.1 units were retired. The T 16.1 remained in use on the East German DR only a little bit longer than on the DB. The last units were retired in 1975. At least twelve of the T 16.1 escaped the cutting torch. Road numbers 94 1292 on the Rennsteig Railroad and 94 1538, which has stood for many years as a monument in Gonnern, have the best chances of being put back into operational condition.