The Prussian State Railway Cabforwards

The Prussian State Railway Cabforward Locomotives.

Updated: 2 Mar 2003

Two 4-4-4 locomotives with forward cabs, numbers 561 and 562, were designed by Kuhn and built by Henschel & Son in 1904, for the Prussian State railway system. They were classified as type S9.
Now, whether these qualify as true cabforwards is something to debate. While they have a front cab, the rest of the locomotive is pointing in the usual direction; in most cabforwards the locomotive is reversed so that the firebox is at the front and the chimney at the rear.

Left: S9 No. 561
The front and back cabs were connected by a casing around the boiler, with windows. There are also windows in the sides of the tender, probably for another crew passage.
Firing No 561 was apparently very hot and uncomfortable, due to the enclosed footplate position.

Left: S9 No. 562
No 562 was a rather different design, with two separate cabs, like the Thuile engine.

Left: A fine model of No. 562 by the German company Westmodel

The S9s were built to be high speed locomotives, but did not achieve more than 137 km/h (85 mph), perhaps because of their unconventional three cylinder compound design. Later the casing and the front cabs were removed, leaving them looking like strangely proportioned ordinary locomotives. They remained in service until 1918.
Additional S9 information kindly provided by Fritz Gallwitz.

Left: The only known photo of the T16.
Is it really a cabforward? This machine also appears to have the chimney at the front and the firebox at the rear.

This 4-6-4 tank locomotive was also designed by Kuhn and built by Henschel in 1904. The grate area was 4.1m², driving wheel diameter was 1750 mm and it's top speed was about 100 km/h. It was clearly not intended to be a high speed locomotive.
The loco was intended to appear at the 1904 world fair in St. Louis, USA but was not ready in time. In Germany, nobody wanted to buy the engine because of it's axle loading of 20Mp (** tons), so it was scrapped. It is not clear if this axle loading was deliberately aimed at the USA market, or if it was a miscalculation. It seems doubtful if Henschel really hoped to sell this kind of locomotive in the USA.
Additional T16 information most kindly provided by Fritz Gallwitz.
Bibliography: 'Rekordlokomotiven' (Record Locomotives) by Wilhelm Reuter