HSB Köf II Diesel Locomotive

HSB Diesel Locomotive Road Number 199 011 (Kö II) After World War II, around 350 small locomotives of Output Group II (Kb/Kö/Köf II) remained in the GDR on the German State Railroad (DR). They were successfully standardized and improved. More powerful motors were installed over the years, the last series of motors with 125 horsepower output. In addition, by 1962 the DR had 42 Kö/Köf II units copied. From 1970 on the units were designated with the computer-generated class 100. In the process, 295 units with wheel gear boxes were designated as the class 100.1-7, the 78 locomotives with hydraulic drive were designated as the class 100.8-9. In the joint numbering plan of the DB and DR, the DR's small locomotives were given the new class designation 310. In 1983, the DR looked for cost-effective alternatives to replace worn out diesel locomotives for the roller freight car service on the narrow gauge lines (1,000 mm / 39") of the Halle/Saale industrial railroad. They were found in the standard gauge small locomotives, road numbers 100 128 (former Kö 4028II) and 287 (former Kö 4187). After having their gauge changed and after replacing the standard gauge coupler and buffer equipment with the kind used for the roller freight car service nothing more stood in the way of using them as road numbers 199 003 and 004. The DR adapted three small locomotives for the Harzquer and Brocken lines in the same manner. In 1984, road number 199 010 emerged from road number 100 325 (former Kb 4325), and in 1991 came road numbers 199 011 and 012 from the conversion of road numbers 100 639 (former Kö 4639) and 213 (former Kb 4113). On these three units, the cabs were pulled in below and the side brakeman's steps were made narrower due to the loading gauge. Road numbers 199 003 and 004 were put into storage in Halle after the roller freight car service was halted in 1991 and were retired in September of 1992. Road number 199 004 went in 2006 to the BSW Group at the Halle P maintenance facility, which placed it on a small memorial base in the same year at the same facility. In June of 2007, road number 199 003 was acquired from the IG Hirzberg Railroad and was transferred in the same month to the association headquarters in Georgenthal. By contrast, road number 199 010-012 was given number 399 114-116 for a short while in the new numbering plan of 1992. Since 1993, it has been back in its old road number on the roster of the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways (HSB). It was busy as in the past in switching work at the stations of Wernigerode, Nordhausen, and Gernrode and was taken out of service with the exception of road number 199 011 by October of 1999 due to no longer being needed. Road number 199 011 served until the end of October of 2015 as a switch engine at the locomotive maintenance facility at Wernigerode-Westerntor and had to be taken out of service due to expired maintenance deadlines. By contrast road number 199 012 was reactivated. It had spent the last sixteen years in the locomotive hall at Ilfeld. Its good state of preservation helped this 82-year old locomotive as a successor to a "second career". After a successful overhaul, it has been available for use again for the next several years starting in November of 2015.