keywords = Berlinerwerke Ruhnia Ruhnian State Railways RSR Kroplihne RK railroad stories tall tales apocrypha S. Berliner, III's Berlinerwerke RSR Apocrypha Page 1
Updated: 08 Dec 2008, 22:40 ET
(Created 29 Jan 2008)
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S. Berliner, III's

(Berlinerwerke)

RSR Apocrypha Page 1

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THE BERLINERWERKE APOCRYPHA

This page sponsored jointly (lots of 'em) by the
National Railway Hysterical Society
and the
National Muddle Railroad Association.

(Lighten up - they're spoofs!)

[See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga
and Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha (for taller tales?):

NORTHEAST CORRIDOR FREIGHT ENGINES.

LEWELLEN NORTHERN GARRATTS.

CSXT AC100CBW and NSC CB100W-10 10,000 horsepower locos!
Also, see the fabled BW DDP45 and other EMD engines EMD may never have dreamed of!]

Insanity doesn't run in my family, it just sort of dawdles along.

Because the Apocrypha and Guest Apocrypha indices exceeded the capacity of the individual pages, they are now presented in full on a separate Berlinerwerke Apocrypha Index (including the Guest Apocrypha Index).

INDEX

The main Berlinerwerke Apocrypha Page.

Earlier occurrences of joint RSR-BW efforts:

Ruhnian State Railways's 665A-001.
Ruhnian State Railways - con't'd.
Rhunian State Rwys 465B Push-Pull.
Rhunian State Rwys 465C V8.
Rhunian State Rwys 465W Wankel.
RSR 465H Heisler Beyer-Garratt.
RSR 46.5 Heisler.
RSR 164B 6-Cyl. Compound Beyer-Garratt Express Passenger Loco.
RSR 815A 10-Cyl. Compound Beyer-Garratt Express Passenger Loco.
RSR and PRR Meyer 0-4-4-0Ts.
RSR T900-10r Super Tanker.
RSR DD2 Banker
RSR Dual-Service DD3 Banker (29 Sep 08)
RSR ABCDEF Super-Banker

On this Ruhnian State Railways Apocrypha Page 1:
RSR 863 Boosted-Tender Series.
RSR RU94-15 Articulated 2-Unit Diner-Lounge.
RSR/BW 323-2I Inspection Car.
RSR/BW 523E2 2-10-6-10-2.
RSR/BW 533F 4-10-6T.
RSR/BW 675A 4-6-6-4.
1st RSR Loco Found! E24A 4-2-0 #1.
RSR/BW 756A Garratt.
RSR/BW 865A 4-8-8-8.
RSR/BW C9x 1-1-1. (06 Oct 08)
RSR/BW Cat D8. (06 Oct 08)
RSR/BW 464A 6-cyl. 2-4-2+2-4-2 Garratt. (17 Oct 08)
RSR/BW 323-2B. (03 Dec 08)

On Ruhnian State Railways Apocrypha Page 2: (08 Dec 08)
RSR/BW 460B Fireless Cooker. (08 Dec 08)
RSR/BW 460C Fireless Cooker. (08 Dec 08)
RSR/BW 460D Ersatz-Garratt Fireless Cooker. (08 Dec 08)
RSR/BW 1280 Ersatz-Garratt Fireless Cooker. (11 Dec 08)
RSR/BW E48D 4-2-2T. (14 Dec 08)
RSR/BW E24B 4-2-0 and E44B 4-4-0. (15 Dec 08)
RSR/BW 165A/B/C 4-2-2 and 4-2-4T. (18 Dec 08)

Before I start, I should note that all this (the BW Apocrypha) started with a secret project that is still unfinished and the next major development of the Berlinerwerke was their fabled DDP45:

For more about her and her family, see my EMD page.

RUHNIAN STATE RAILWAYS
APOCRYPHA

Because the Ruhnian State Railways (RSR) had so much interaction with the Berlinerwerke, and especially with the BW's George and Ira Ersatz and their sons, George, Jr., and Ira, Jr., I have decided to place any new BW-Apocrypha coverage of RSR loks on a separate page (or pages).

The RSR, and its cooperative competitor, the Kroplihne Railway (RK), under the successive directorship of Chief Engineers Giorg Maznicek (1839-57), Marek Luršimonš (1857-91), Karel Belčamin (1891-1919), Bela Šahlmeti (1919-29), Frihdrik Tešlov (1929-50 - in exile 39-45), Mikhail Rodnivacek (1950-62), Jochann Ketterik (1962-85), and Artur Gorote (1985-present), has presented to the astonished world some incredible examples of unique and pioneering locomotive design.

Thanks to the generosity of Norman Clubb, proprietor, we are able to show here some of the additional unbelievable adaptations of RSR lok types as developed jointly with the Berlinerwerke. (29 Jan 08)

Rebuilt in 1921 from Belčamin D8 0-8-0 2-cylinder goods locomotives by the RSR Works in Bevice-Akohniçe, Ruhnia, under the direction of Chief Engineer Bela Šahlmeti, the loks were reclassified to 423A and then provided with new boilers and leading axles as the 423AA class. Šahlmeti, looking for ways to improve their starting tractive effort on the gradients of the southern highlands, designed a booster tender, which was attached to one of these engines, thus creating Class 423AC. The outside cylinders on the short-wheelbase bogie caused severe hunting and resulting in derailments and the exhaust steam, being led through the water tank, over-heated the feedwater, stopping the injectors from working properly, among(st) numerous other problems. (29 Jan 08)

(RSR images courtesy of B. Clubb - all rights reserved)
D8/423A (left) - 423AA (center. - 423AC (right)

[Technically, having 6 powered axles and 4 cylinders, the 423AA should have been classified as a 643A.]

The BW's George Ersatz, visiting from the USA, noted the many problems besetting the 423AC and yet impressed by the high efficiency of the new boiler, consulted with brother Ira and they came up with a lengthened tender with a second booster bogie, greatly improved tracking, insulated inside piping, and dual stacks, the Class 863A:

RSR maintenance staff, although basically grateful for the many improvements in serviceability, still objected to the reversed cylinders on the front tender truck, which collected dirt and scored the piston and valve rodding. In addition, dispatchers wanted longer runs between fuel and water stops. So, the BW simply reversed the front bogie, resulting in the very-well-accepted Class 863B:

To allow even longer runs between water stops and assure traction for the tender, an auxiliary tender, operating on the Ersatz transfer system (moving water into the main tender as its supply is depleted), was added later by Artur Gorote, the combination classed as the 863B1:

Whil(e)(st) the U.S. dollar was high, American tourism in Rhunia, especially on rail tours, skyrocketed. In order to accomodate the rush of tourists, Arthur Gorote commissioned the BW to design a 15-bay articulated 2-unit diner-lounge which the RSR's Bevice-Akohniçe works could build out of Piotr Furahtine's old 1994 standard RU94 7-bay restaurant cars:

(30 Jan 08)

(30 Jan 2008 image by and © 2008 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Click on thumbnailed picture for larger image.]
RSR RU94-15 Articulated 2-Unit Diner

Named after famous American railroad features, these cars are still in active service on the extremely-popular Nostalgia Expresses, although the weakening dollar may curtail those trains.

We are going to have to delve further into the RSR and BW files for even more instances of RSR/BW cooperation.

One great example is the RSR/BW 323-2i, The BW's collaboration with the RSR led George to hear of a need for RSR brass to inspect both their electrified and non-electrified territory. He introduced them to the PRR E10i and they loved it, but then-Chief Engineer Mikhail Rodnivacek nixed the idea because the E10i's little auxiliary diesel simply couldn't hack it in Rhunia's hill country. Ira then hit on the novel idea of stretching a surplus RSR class 323-2a, converting it to oil firing, moving the fuel and water tanks into the space between the engines, and grafting on an E10i-style Directors' greenhouse: (22 Apr 08)

That combo hit the spot and, to my knowledge, the little steamer is still in service (I've never heard of its scrapping).

The RSR was in dire need of more power but was strapped and couldn't really afford to double head it's powerful early post-WWII classes 523C (2-10-0) and 523E (2-10-2T) because of the labor cost. George Ersatz came to their rescue; Ira took two 523E side tankers and doubled them up, oil-fired back-to-back, with longer pannier tanks, engines hinged at the inner ends over a new truck, and flexible steam pipes, for the redoubtable 2-10-6-10-2 523E2: (22 Apr 08)

(22 Apr 2008 image by S. Berliner, III, after B. Clubb/RSR - all rights reserved,
center truck revised 02 May 08)
[Click on thumbnailed picture for larger image.]

The BW design is Fairlie obvious.

George Ersatz came back from one of his periodic visits to Rhunia and told his brother Ira that the Rhunian State Railways (RSR) was going to scrap Jochann Ketterik's 1968 Class 533E 3-Cylinder general-purpose 2-10-4T tank locomotives. The story was that "the boiler was a stretched version of that fitted to the 423E, but with the firebox left unchanged, which didn't do the steaming much good. The long wheelbase was not at all happy on many of the more sharply curved lines"; "despite its Krauss-Helmholtz leading axle, the engine was suspected of spreading the track. The back end of the loco was identical with that of the 423E and the bogie [trailing truck] was not adequate for the greater weight and sheer bulk of the 533E, so bunker-first running suffered also" [per RSR site]. (01 May 08)

Ira was outraged; he had a partiality for the 533E (and it's sister 423E). After some quick negotuiations, he acquired some of the 423E and 533E locos and set about a major redesign.

Using components from Mikhail Rodnivacek's 433F and Jochann Ketteriks' 533E and stretching the pilot frame and the piston rods and associated valve gear, he dropped a four-wheel lead truck under the three cylinders. The boiler was greatly enlarged, both in length and diameter, and the firebox and water panniers were also lengthened. In additon, the steam dome was placed at the high point of the boiler, a detail which had previously somehow escaped the RSR designers. Then, he stretched the rear frame, enlarged the fuel tank, and put the six-axle truck from the 523E2 (making it an un-Fairlie truck) under the rear end. To improve drafting (the triple exhaust had been prone to standing wave oscillations), he added a smaller stack for the third cylinder. He also added ALCo lateral motion devices to the outer axles. The resultant 4-10-6 was classified the 533F:

(30 Apr/01 May 2008 image by and © 2008 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
rear truck revised 02 May 08)
[Click on thumbnailed image for larger one]

At last, the RSR had a high-speed, heavy, ten-coupled tanker which was easy on the track, stayed on it, and steamed well. Unfortunately for the BW, the RSR management did NOT place follow-on orders.

The flat-opposed-6 of the 465A was so successful that George was asked if Ira could come up with a big articulated version, which he did, the fantastic 4-6-6-4 12-cylinder 675A: (09 May 08)

(30 Apr/01 May 2008 image by and © 2008 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Click on thumbnailed image for larger one]

Oil-fired (oil was readily available from nearby Ploesti in Romania) and with Ira's novel articulation (inspired by Märklin and Bachmann), the big lok was almost too powerful for Ruhnian couplers.

First RSR Loco Found! Through the tireless efforts of the BW's George Ersatz, II, the first Ruhnian loco has been found and lovingly restored in the RSR's Bevice-Akohniçe Shops! Ruhnia's first line was opened by the Kroplihne Railway (RK, predecessor of the RSR) from Kropčahne to Bevice in 1839 with this very engine! She's the 1839 E24A 4-2-0 #1 and predates the 1846 Giorg Maznicek E44A, which was derived from her by simply stretching the design and adding an additional coupled driver axle: (10 May 08)

Cute as a bug, ain't she? #1 has been restored to full operating condition and is expected to run from the shops to the station at Bevice and thence on to Kropčahne and back, hauling restored period coaches, recreating for the public the inaugural run for the great 175th anniversary celebration in 2014.

Emboldened by the success in deterring war of the huge RSR ABCDEF Super-Banker, the Ruhnian government encouraged the RSR to go ahead with a long-planned Schlachtschiff (Dreadnought) Class Garratt locomotive, the staggering 12-cylinder 4-10+4-10-2+2-10-4+10-4 756A: (12 May 08)

(11/12 May 2008 image by and © 2008 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Click on thumbnailed image for larger one and be prepared to
SCROLL, baby, SCROLL!]

Designed by the BW's Ira Ersatz, based on the redoubtable RSR Class 115A, with a greatly-enlarged boiler and firebox, this loco could simply run over any country in Europe with room to spare!

RSR/BW 865A 4-8-8-8 - over-running the rest of Europe so appealed to the ruling class in Ruhnia that the RSR was authorized to work with the Ersatzes and the BW to enlarge the class 665A 2-6-6-6 into a monstrous 4-8-8-8 class 865A: (30 Sep 08)

(30 Sep 2008 image by and © 2008 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Click on thumbnailed image for larger picture.]

Even with ALCo lateral motion devices on all outer axles, this beast straightened curves and spread rails all over Ruhnia and the unit was quietly allowed to rust away behind the Bevice-Akohniçe Shops.

George Ersatz did a lot of prowling in the RSR dead lines and scrap yards, to the mutual benefit of the cash-strapped RSR and the Berlinerwerke. One of his wildest suggestions was the RSR-BW C9x 1-1-1 Shunting Tank Locomotive, designed by Karel Belčamin and Ira Ersatz and originally built in 1905 by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen, Esslingen, Germany, and rebuilt in 1921 by the Bevice-Akohniçe Shops to Berlinerwerke specifications. (06 Oct 08)

When the RSR's hump-marshalling yards at Martihpe and Daemenova were rebuilt just after the World War I, George noticed that Šahlmeti's more powerful 0-6-0 tender locomotives of 1921 were having trouble negotiating the tight curvatures. He knew of the many class C9 shunters lying around (witness the RSR Meyer 0-4-4-0T C9-2) and reasoned that they could easily be rebuilt into 1-1-1 (Whyte System) locos by the very simple expedient of removing the tires on opposite odd axles, leaving only the hub, counterweight, and crank on the other end of the axles. In this way, the loco could easily run on tight radii. The only major drawback was that two sets had to be kept on hand, one for left-hand curvature and one for right; since the old C9s were going to be scrapped anyway, this presented no major problem.

Here is the C9x in its right-hand-running configuration:

In spite of the incredibly-odd wheel arrangement, these locos also soldiered on well into the 1960s.

One of the RSR's old D8 four-axle shunters blew its front tube sheet upward and outward, obliterating the smokebox and boiler front end and leaving the rest of the loco otherwise unscathed. Knowing that there was a Caterpilar D8 dozer in the BW shops with an unsalvageable track base, George had Ira ship the engine section over to Ruhnia and set the Bevice-Akohniçe crew to work on it and the D8 loco. Taking his cue from the German, BW, and Ruhnian diesel-pneumatics and converting two of the Cat's six cylinders to compressors, changing the tender to a BIG oil tank, and adding a huge air reservoir, they quickly came up with this neat RSR-BW Cat D8: (06 Oct 08)

That unit was last seen still cranking away at the Daemenova yard.

The huge RSR/BW 865A 4-8-8-8 (above) was fine in its own way but the RSR desperately needed a really-powerful, high-speed lok for its tortuously-twisting branches so they turned once again to George Ersatz and the BW. Utilizing a damaged RSR six-cylinder Class 864A 2-8-2+2-8-2 Garratt that George turned up and ingeniously reducing it to a 2-4-2+2-4-2, Ira Ersatz came up with exactly what was required, the RSR/BW 464A: (17 Oct 08)

Economic conditions and a shortage of other available damaged 864As prevented forwarding this clever design.

Speaking of more power for the RSR (as always), Bela Šahlmeti's 1928-29 Stephenson-built Class 433A 0-8-0 3-Cylinder Heavy Shunting Locomotive was amended to show her inside cylinder and Gresley-Holcroft conjugated gear and that reminded me that George Ersatz had persuaded Tešlov to do the same with the old RSR-BW Class 323-2A (used as the basis for the RSR/BW 323-2I Inspection Car (above). A diligent search of the BW archives turned up the drawing (amazingly also as always): (03 Dec 08)

This was an easy conversion; all Ira needed to do was to diddle the rear of tank slightly and beef up the running gear a bit.

As always, you know you can count on the BW to find totally-unbelievable info.

- Any attempt to inject an element of reason into this series of pages will be forcibly rejected!

Continued on BW/RSR Page 02.

[See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga.]

I always wondered at the incredibly tight security at the Berlinerwerke during WWII; now it can be told! See, for starters, the wild site of Sig Case, Rails to the Stars - Steam in Space, files from the National Aeronautics and Steam Administration and the tie-in to the Berlinerwerke V1 on Apocrypha Page 2.

See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga
and Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha (for taller tales?):

NORTHEAST CORRIDOR FREIGHT ENGINES.

LEWELLEN NORTHERN GARRATTS.

CSXT AC100CBW and NSC CB100W-10 10,000 horsepower locos!
Also, see the fabled BW DDP45 and other EMD engines EMD may never have dreamed of!

If you like this sort of nonsense, take a gander at Jim Wells' incredible

and at the AW NUTS Magazine site, "A Publication of the A.W. N.U.T.S. Garden Railway Society".

If you are air-minded (take that as you choose), you must see the Lion Air site! I'd be Lion if I didn't warn you to keep your tongue in your cheek on this one!

Take your tongue out of your cheek and visit D. Dickens' The Patiala State Monorail Tramway site; whooie (and it's for real)!

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

S. Berliner, III

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

of the Berlinerwerke Apocrypha pages.

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