57 4245 - A Locomotive with unknown Origin

(by Ingo Hütter)

It quite often happens that we find locomotives with unknown identity. One of these locomotives is 57 4245. After WWII it was in the DR stock in Eastern Germany, was renumbered in 1970 to 57 4245-7 and withdrawn at 22.01.1971. There exists a correspondence on this locomotive by Johannes Töpelmann witten in 1967. A short translation is given below:

(15.2.67)

It is said that the locomotive 57 4245 (Stendal 67) was built in 1915. "Manufacturer unknown" according to its papers. But there are some places where the number 5455 was readable. Maybe from AL 5455? The book of the locomotive says, that it had the boiler "Hano 20/ 9150" since 1953 and later got the boiler "He 18/ 15823". There is also a note that the frame had the works number 28, produced 1953 by RAW Engelsdorf, but the papers of the locomotive already start on 1.3.1947 when it was at Bw Hagenow Ld.

(22.4.67)

I heard that 57 4245 was a rebuilt locomotive, so it was no G10. "The G10 boiler didn't fit" was the first I heard. Now I remembered that I made some strange observations when I examined the locomotive in Zwickau: There was something modified between the cylinders. Nevertheless it hat the original G10 boiler! So the wheels (with the other numbers) must come from a different locomotive. But what kind of locomotive has it been? It must have been similar to the G10 - and there is an assumption that it has been a 4 cylinders compound locomotive.

(Download the Scan with a higher resolution).

Still today the identity of this locomotive is unknown. But maybe there is someone out there who can provide some additional information to solve this riddle!

PS: The mentioned AL locomotive remained after WWII in Western Germany and was returned to SNCF in September 1945.