DRG CLASS 86

A different style of photo.  I set up the engine on a piece of weathered track stood in front of a Bavarian Alps pic on the computer screen.  Experimented with depth of field until I got a sharp foreground and grabbed the shot. 

To highlight some of the detail I selected and made layers of different levels of black and adjusted shadows and highlights on each one until I was satisfied that it matched the rest of the engine. Probably called 'dodge and burn' in the good old days?



DRG CLASS 86 

A standard goods train tank locomotive with the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. It was intended for duties on branch lines and was delivered by almost all the locomotive building firms working for the Reichsbahn. From 1942 it was built in a simplified version as a 'transitional war locomotive' . 

Almost all German locomotive factories took part in building these engines, 775 examples being produced in the period from 1928 to 1943. Its area of operations was predominantly the routes in Germany's central mountains (Mittelgebirge); as a result the first 10 units were given a Riggenbach counter-pressure brake. Twenty locomotives were destroyed during the Second World War; lightly damaged engines were repaired. Of the original 775 units, 175 went to the GDR railways, 385 to the Deutsche Bundesbahn, 29 to the Austrian Federal Railways(ÖBB), 44 to the PKP in Poland as the Class TKt3, 73 to the SZD and 62 to the CSD (6 of which later went to the SZD and 86 043 in 1958 to the GDR). On the last-mentioned 62 engines 28 became the CSD Class 455.2. The ÖBB began to retire them as early as 1945, but the last did not retire until 1972. However the Austrian engines had some of the most spectacular duties, including working double-headed on heavy, empty, ore trains with a DRB Class 52.
The Bundesbahn stationed most of its 86's in Nuremberg for the Franconian branch lines and the marshalling yards there. The locomotive shed at Hof, Germany was also renowned Class 86 territory. Short, semi-fast trains were also regularly hauled by the Class 86. The DB retired its last one in 1974.
In the GDR railways the 86's were mainly stationed at Aue engine shed (with over 50 engines) for the surrounding Erzgebirge routes. Some DR engines stationed at Heringsdorf shed on the island of Usedom were even given smoke deflectors.  The Class 86's last (official) year in service in the DR was 1976, but several engines continued to run on into the 1980s. Since its inauguration in 1928, no. 86 001/86 1001 was under steam almost every day, but in its latter years was often just used as a heating engine. Its last duties were on the stub line from Schlettau to Crottendorf, where it ended its steam services in 1988.  Source: Wikipedia