Product Features and Details
Model: Micro Metakit introduced the plans to build the class 229 several years ago and finally they will be delivered this year. Like with all Micro Metakit models, the class 229 will be a functional work of art. Micro Metakit is uncompromising when it comes to detail. All the models are handmade out of brass. Micro Metakit is the only manufacturer that builds accurate locomotives to scale, even the locomotive frames are exact. Every model they build has the exact frame just like the prototype, no other manufacturer would go this far. Micro Metakit models features full cab interior, functional boiler hatch with interior boiler details, replicated brake systems and sand pipes. Each model is painted in a high quality finish with detailed pin stripping and lettering. The lettering and builder's plates on a Micro Metakit Model model is not just printed on the model like with other manufacturers, they actual use brass plates just like the prototypes. Locomotives are equipped with a Faulhaber type brushless, coreless bell shaped motors. The class 229 is a masterpiece and it features too many technical and optical details to list. Model is very limited, less than 50 will be produced worldwide. Expected delivery November 2013.
Prototype: The steam locomotive class kkStB 229 was a passenger tank engine class with the Imperial Austrian State Railways (k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen), kkStB. In order to improve local passenger services the kkStB procured 2-6-2 tank locomotives that were to replace the existing four-coupled tender locomotives in this role. One advantage of tank locomotives was that they did not need to be turned at the end of the route. In their design Karl Gölsdorf laid particular emphasis on good acceleration. The 17 engines of this class, designated as the kkStB 129 were delivered by the Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf and Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik. These Class 129 locomotives proved a be a total success, therefore the Austrian Southern Railway or Südbahn wanted to procured similar engines, albeit with greater water and coal capacity. As a result Gölsdorf modified the design by adding a trailing axle. From 1903 to 1907 Floridsdorf supplied eleven units of this newly designated Class 229 to the Southern Railway, and from 1904 to 1918 the kkStB placed orders for a total of 239 units with all the Austrian locomotive factories. The Class 129 engines were rebuilt to 2-6-2s and placed into a new Class 229.4. In 1913 the Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik delivered four 229s to the Serbian State Railway and the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik built 10 units in 1909 and 1920 for the Aspangbahn (EWA, Eisenbahn Wien-Aspang), that were designated as the EWA IIIa Nos. 41–50.
After World War I 69 engines were left with the Austrian Federal Railways (then the BBÖ), to which were added the eleven engines of the Südbahn, grouped into Class 229.5, and ten machines of the EWA, grouped into Class 229.8, when these companies were nationalized. Other nations also ordered these locomotives giving them their own classifications. The Polish State Railways took delivery of 22 locomotives as PKP Class OKl12, the Yugoslavian Railways acquired 25 as JDŽ Class 116 and the Italian State Railways (FS) procured five as FS Class 912. But the bulk of the engines (145 units) went in 1918 to the Czechoslovakian State Railways, who designated them as CSD Class 354.0. As southern Slovakia was ceded in 1939 to Hungary, 15 units also went to the Hungarian State Railways as the MÁV Class 343.3.
From 1926 to 1934 the CSD rebuilt five of its 354.0 into superheated two-cylinder locomotives which they designated as the CSD Class 355.0. These machines were also given a second steam dome and a connecting pipe between the domes. Between 1936 and 1940, The trailing axle on another five engines was replaced by a bogie; these locomotives then became the CSD Class 353.1. In 1944 another engine was converted to superheating, but the second steam dome was not used.
After the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 the ninety 229s were classified by the Deutsche Reichsbahn as DRG Class 75.701–790. During the course of the war, the CSD Class 355.0 was incorporated as DRG Class 75.901–905 into the DRB; likewise 21 PKP Class Okl12 locomotives as DRG Class 75.851–871 and nine JDŽ Class 116s as DRG Class 75.791–799. After 1945, some 63 engines were grouped by the ÖBB into their ÖBB Class 75. The last of these machines were retired in 1962. The former 229.137, 178, 187, 405 and 115 went into the CSD as numbers 354.0501–0504 and 0506. The CSD Class 354.0 was in service until 1967. Several former 229s also went into the JDŽ and PKP. Apart from normal use, at least 11 Polish locomotives were armoured in Poland and used in armoured trains during the Polish-Soviet War.
