Bavarian BB II

The problem on the Bavarian local railways was that there were very tight curves in some cases, and there were also many inclines and therefore increasingly more powerful locomotives were needed for the ever increasing requirements. For this reason, the BB II was developed, whose coupled axles were not in a common frame for better running characteristics in curves.

As a Mallet-type tank locomotive with only two axles each in the frame and in the bogie, it was ideal for the winding lines. Due to the lack of carrying axles, the running properties at line speed proved to be insufficient. In addition, the locomotive tended to slip and was therefore not always able to fully utilize its power.

Production consisted of a batch of 29 machines between 1899 and 1903 and a second batch from 1908, in which only two examples were made. The latter were slightly longer and heavier than the previous ones. They were all taken over by the Reichsbahn in 1925 and designated as class 98⁷. However, due to the shortcomings described, most of them were already retired in the 1930s. The remaining ones were sold to various works railways from around 1940, where the smooth running of the machines was not a problem. The former 98 727, which was sold to Südzucker AG in 1943, is now being kept operational by the Darmstadt-Kranichstein Railway Museum. Due to the advertising character of its former operator, it was nicknamed “Zuckersusi” (“Sugar Susi”).