One loco has been preserved, the DB BR 86 457 which unfortunately got extensively damaged in the fire at the Nuremberg Transport Museum. Twelve Class 86s have survived into preservation today with 9 stored in Germany, 2 in Austria and 1 in Poland. The last loco to be withdrawn was 86 0001, making it the longest serving of all the standard locomotives in a scheduled service by a national railway at an impressive 60 years old. Deutsche Bundesbahn retired all engines in 1974, the DR used the engines till 1976, with two of the engines being re-activated in 1982 untill 1988.
During their operating life this class did haul incredible ore trains with the aid of the DBR Class 52s. The first member of the class was retired as early as 1945 by ÖBB who withdrew their entire fleet by 1972. The Class 86 was designed to be operated on goods trains across branch line routes throughout Germany and beyond with Deutsche Bundesbahn, ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and PKP (Poland) all being buyers of this locomotive.Īfter 1942, the Class 86 started to be built as ‘transitional war’ variants to simply the design, making construction and maintenance cheaper and easier during the Second World War, changes were made to the cab windows and the wheels to name a few. The first 10 locomotives were built with counter pressure brakes to be operable on mountain routes.
The Standard, or Einheitsdampflokomotive Class 86 was built between 19 by many of the German locomotive manufacturers of that era, it was a 2-8-2 tank locomotive and 776 were built. Experience the thrill of controlling classic German steam traction in the form of the DR BR 86, which is available now for Train Simulator.