The Altenburg-Zeitz railway company was founded in 1870 in the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg to transport lignite from the Meuselwitz-Rositz mining area. In addition to transporting the lignite, passenger transport and other freight transport also had to be handled. For this reason, locomotives had to be procured that could handle both freight and passenger transport for the small company.

The five locomotives purchased by Borsig for this purpose had 1,525 mm coupling wheels and a leading axle mounted fixed in the frame. Other features included inside valve gear and a rudimentary cab. Between 1880 and 1888, five more tank and tender locomotives were procured. When the Altenburg-Zeitz railway company was nationalized in 1896, all machines were taken over. The numbers 1 to 5 were classified in the Saxon type II and provided with the numbers 745 to 749. The last three units survived until 1922 and were not given new numbers by the Reichsbahn.

The locomotives of type XI were four-coupled tender locomotives with a leading axle for freight train service, which were procured from 1860 by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways. They were characterized by relatively large wheels, which allowed them to be used in front of passenger trains if necessary. From 1868 it was called V a.

The locomotives were equipped with a Crampton boiler, which protruded beyond the first and last axle. Initially, the saturated steam was only extracted from a regulator attachment directly on the upper edge of the boiler, which at times led to water being fed into the cylinders. Thus, all engines of the later deliveries received a steam dome. 

The wheel sets were mounted within an outer frame, so the power was transmitted via Hall cranks to the first coupled axle. With a driving wheel diameter of 1,524 mm it was ensured that at the top speed of 40 km/h low rotational speeds and smooth running were still guaranteed. The leading axle was rigidly mounted, but in view of the short overall wheelbase and the low speeds, this did not entail any particular disadvantages.

The primary operational areas of the XI were the Baden main line from Mannheim to Constance and the Odenwald line, which branched off from the main line in the direction of Würzburg. In addition to shunting services in the port of Mannheim, the deployment increasingly shifted to secondary routes with the commissioning of more powerful engines, where they benefited above all from the low axle load. In the mid-1890s, the remaining 18 of the 22 examples were withdrawn within a short period of time. One of them was converted into a tank locomotive in 1875, but it was to remain a one-off.

Since the locomotives from the early days were no longer powerful enough, newer ones with an 2-4-0 wheel arrangement were procured from Maffei in Munich. 20 of these were delivered from 1873 and were based on the Bavarian locomotives. It is noteworthy that from 1888 all of them were converted to tank locomotives with an 2-4-2T wheel arrangement and remained in use as such.

In order to increase the output, following the trend of the time, the grate area was enlarged without significantly increasing the dimensions of the boiler. A further increase in power was achieved through a higher boiler pressure, which had become possible due to new materials and production techniques. The locomotives had an external frame and external cylinders, but internal Stephenson-type valve gear. Braking, as was usual at the time, was done with mechanical transmission only to the wheels of the locomotive.

After a few years of operation, it became apparent that the adhesive weight was too low and the running characteristics with the long rear overhang were no longer up to date. Therefore, the locomotives were equipped with a trailing axle and turned into tank locomotives, while most parts remained the same. Because the weight of the boiler feed water was now acting on the couple axles, the adhesive weight increased. In addition, more powerful boilers of the Baden type were used later and the brakes were replaced with a modern air brake system of the Westinghouse type.

The conversion was completed on all locomotives in 1892 and extended their operating life beyond what the original tender locomotives would have achieved. The decommissioning began in 1901, the last locomotive was taken out of service in 1910.

In 1869 and 1870, some locomotives with the wheel arrangements 2-2-2 and 4-2-0 (Crampton) were converted into four-coupled ones in order to increase the tractive effort for the increased loads in express traffic. Four locomotives with 0-4-2 wheel arrangement were then ordered and assigned to class B IX, but soon sold to the Reichseisenbahnen Alsace-Lorraine. Finally, in 1874, Maffei began to manufacture the new B IX, which had a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement and was thus the first four-coupled express locomotive in Bavaria to be procured in series.

Since at that time engineers had already come to the realization that overhanging masses impair the running properties at high speeds, attempts were made to reduce them as much as possible. With the B VIII, which was built in small numbers, experience had already been gained with a firebox whose center of gravity was directly above the second coupled axle, and this feature was adopted with the B IX. In order to also minimize the front overhangs, the cylinders were moved as close as possible to the leading axle. Like the previous series, the B IX had an outer frame, internal Stephenson valve gear and external cylinders. Due to its smooth running, it could be approved for 90 km/h and, with a train weight of 150 tonnes, reached a speed of 70 km/h on the flat.

A total of 104 engines were made between 1874 and 1887. After the end of the First World War, they were no longer used in high-value express service, but the remaining units with the numbers 34 7421 to 34 7440 were included in the Reichsbahn's provisional renumbering plan. However, the new numbers did not need to be attached, since the last machines were retired in 1925. Today, the locomotive with the number 1000 can be viewed as a cutaway model in the Lokwelt Freilassing, a branch of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Starting in 1863, Sharp, Stewart & Co. not only delivered some goods locomotives with a 0-6-0 wheel arrangement to the newly founded Cambrian Railways, but also twelve locomotives with a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement. The driving wheels were not particularly large at 66 inches, but they were used for passenger and express trains. Although relatively small for their time and not particularly fast, the engines were richly decorated with large amounts of brass. From 1890 they were fitted with a new boiler and a driver's cab. Two locomotives were converted to tank locomotives from 1908.

Due to an urgent need for locomotives, the Alsace–Lorraine Imperial Railways turned to other manufacturers in 1874. So they ordered 16 2-4-0 passenger locomotives from Kitson at Leeds and 26 from Esslingen. Originally, the British locomotives were designated A 8 and the German locomotives were designated A 9. In the system introduced in 1906, they were renamed P 2.

They had a raised Belpaire firebox, a huge steam dome and a capuchon chimney with a lip on the forward edge. Originally they only had a Ricour type steam brake, but got air brakes later. Despite a driver diameter of only 5 ft 9 in (1,752 mm), they were also used in express service. Their withdrawals started in World War I and were completed by 1920.

From 1870, the Nord procured 2-4-0 express locomotives from André Koechlin with a driving wheel diameter of 2,100 mm or 6 ft 10 5/8 in. The leading axle could be shifted laterally by 10 mm. The frame was a double one with cylinders and valve gear on the inside and coupling rods with cranks on the outside. The nickname “Outrance” apparently came from the fact that the machines could be used “to the utmost” due to their durable design.

The initially installed boiler had a firebox with a round top, which lay between the driving axles. From 1877 a larger boiler was used, which had a Belpaire firebox that extended beyond the second driving axle. In addition, the boiler pressure was now 10 instead of 8.5 bars. To carry the extra weight, the leading axle was replaced with a bogie. 

No. 632, later 2.822, in original condition as 2-4-0

Die Lokomotive, June 1936

The last batch, twelve of which were built in 1884 and 1885, again had only one leading axle, which was now radially adjustable. Between 1890 and 1898, all locomotives that still had a leading axle were rebuilt to a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and fitted with the new boiler. Some received cylinders with a diameter of 460 mm and were called “Outrances renforcées”.

No. 503 (first batch)

Locomotive Magazine, September 1923

No. 512 (second batch) rebuilt with smaller wheels and new number 2512

Locomotive Magazine, September 1923

No. 508 with 4-4-0 wheel arrangement and Flaman boiler

Locomotive Magazine, September 1923

Although the Crampton locomotive enjoyed long popularity in France in general and with the Est in particular, it reached its limits in the late 1870s. Thus, Regray initially had seven locomotives made with 2-4-0 wheel arrangement. Since the Belpaire firebox ended with the rear on the second coupled axle and the 2.31 meter diameter wheels were still very large, the locomotives were referred to as “coupled cramptons” or “super cramptons”. On numbers 508 to 510, the firebox was pulled further forward so that it lay between the coupled axles. The locomotives had a double outer frame in which the cylinders were situated.

After the first ten examples had been manufactured in the Est workshops in Épernay in 1878 and 1879, the next 32 examples were ordered from commercial suppliers. The numbers 511 to 522 came from Cail in Paris in 1881 and the 523 to 542 in 1882 from the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik. Their wheels were only 2.10 meters tall and the cylinders were slightly smaller. They also featured a conventional firebox that was larger than the previous Belpaire firebox. 

A third series of 20 examples was made again in Épernay in 1884 and 1885. These were given a larger boiler, which exceeded the 100 square meter mark for the tubular heating surface. This enabled them to achieve a boiler output that was greater than that of contemporary locomotives with a 2-4-2 or 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. Furthermore, they had received a larger tender that, in addition to the three tons of coal, could hold up to 13 cubic meters of water instead of the ten cubic meters of the older tenders. Traction was later increased on 48 of the 52 examples in the last two series by reducing the wheel diameter to 1.83 metres.

Numbers 508 and 509 were converted to a Flaman boiler in 1888, which could hold a maximum number of smoke tubes with two barrels. Since the front axle was heavily loaded after the conversion, the carrying axle was replaced with a bogie. Since the results of the conversions did not justify the high effort, no other engines were converted in this way. The engines with smaller coupled wheels were soon increasingly used in ordinary passenger train service and were partly used until 1936. The first of the non-converted examples, on the other hand, had already been retired in 1906.

At a time when attempts were being made to use the largest possible wheels to achieve high speeds while keeping the center of gravity low, some curious designs emerged. In 1855 Blavier and Larpent built the “L'Aigle” (“The Eagle”) with 9 ft 4 in wheels on the French Ouest. Their goal was to double the speed of the Cramptons. Since these had already reached 120 km/h at that time, this goal was hardly realistic to achieve.

With this wheel diameter, a boiler, which was usually above the axles, would have been very high above the top of the rails. At that time, everyone was convinced that a low center of gravity was the most important criterion for smooth running and developed many long boiler type locomotives, which had a thin and long, overhanging boiler to achieve the lowest possible center of gravity. Since this was not possible with the “L'Aigle”, completely new paths were taken.

Section through the special, two-part boiler

Locomotive Magazine, December 1901

The actual boiler, with a small diameter, lay below the axles and was connected to a second, cylindrical barrel, which lay above the axles. Although the boiler had sufficient volume, there were no smoke tubes in the upper boiler body. This made it impossible to produce enough steam for the large cylinders at higher speeds. Thus, the one-off never made it into commercial service and the allegedly achieved speed of 100 mph must be doubted.

The Galician Carl Ludwig Railway originated from the k.k. Eastern State Railways and operated their lines east of Kraków. These routes are now in Poland and the Ukraine and went via Lemberg and Tarnopol to the border of the Russian Empire. In 1870, ten express locomotives with a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement were ordered from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, which were classified as IId. In 1878 and 1882 a total of eight more were delivered by the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik and designated IIe. As was usual at the time, all three axles were firmly mounted in the frame, but the overall wheelbase of just 3.32 meters still ensured sufficient ability to negotiate curves.

The locomotives from Esslingen were given the names of towns along the CLB routes, the others only numbers. After the railway was nationalized again in 1892, they were given the numbers 2231-2248 by the kkStB. In the same year they received new boilers. Some locomotives on the Kronprinz-Rudolf-Bahn also had numbers starting at 2201, but these became series 122 from 1905 and the CLB locomotives became series 22. All but three locomotives were retired between 1906 and 1915. The fate of the remaining ones was lost in 1917 in the turmoil of war, but probably two pieces came to Poland and one to Russia.