An introduction to the goods wagons used in Bavaria from 1909 - 1940

(This article is a compilation of a series of replies I received on the Railways of Germany Forum (see links). I would like to thank Johannes Wittmann for his kind permission to reproduce his text)

On April 1st, 1909 the state railways of Prussia-Hesse (KPEV), Bavaria (KBayStsB), Saxony (KSStEB), Württemberg (KWStE), Baden (Baden), Mecklenburg (MFFE), Oldenburg (GOE) and Alsace-Lorraine (EL) – in those days under German rule – formed the German State Railways Wagon Union (Deutscher Staatsbahn-Wagenverband).

Up to that time it was policy of the German state railways, that every goods wagon, which had left the rails of its owner had to be returned immediately, either loaded or, if no proper freight was available, empty. This practice caused lots of superfluous runs and was, of course, extremely uneconomical.

The railways now agreed upon the joint use of their standard-gauge goods wagons. Each railway could employ the goods wagons of the other partners like its own – with the exception of wagons for special purposes – and had, if the wagon was on its territory in case of damage or routine maintenance, to do the necessary repair works. Only for larger overhaul the wagons went back to the shops of their home railway.

At the time of the foundation of the wagon union the various state railways brought the following shares into the joint stock:


Prussia-Hesse & Alsace-Lorraine: 379,669 goods wagons = 78.1%
Bavaria: 42,391 goods wagons = 8.7%
Saxony: 30,865 goods wagons = 6.3%
Baden: 17,485 goods wagons = 3.6%
Württemberg: 10,097 goods wagons = 2.1%
Mecklenburg: 3,291 goods wagons = 0.7%
Oldenburg: 2,323 goods wagons = 0.5%
Total: 486,121 goods wagons


Prussia-Hesse, Alsace-Lorraine, Mecklenburg and Oldenburg formed the Prussian State Railways Wagon Union since 1881 and relied mainly on Prussian standard designs for their goods wagons. For this wagon union on the one side and the four South German railways which adhered to their own designs till 1909 on the other side the distribution of the total numbers among the main types of goods wagons was as follows:

Class(es) G O SIRu, OIRu, OLg S SS, SSS H Ve, Vf, VO, K Total
Type Description goods vans open wagons stake and
 lattice wagons		 platform wagons bogie
platform wagons		 timber trucks livestock
and lime wagons
Prussion State Wagon Union 111,140 233,365 14,207 2,312 6,028 5,555 12,676 385,283
Bavarian State Railways
(inc. Palatinate)		 16,680 18,864 722 1,669 275 3,886 295 42,391
Badenian State Railways 7,652 8,447 708 - 145 503 30 17,485
Saxon State Railways 11,227 17,215 1,096 - 288 612 377 30,865
Württemberg State Railways 5,842 2,522 767 2 47 680 237 10,097
Total 152,541 280,413 17,500 3,983 6,783 11,236 13,615 486,121

Despite the 80%-fraction of wagons with Prussian origin and despite the fact that the „modern“ 15-ton wagons built after 1890 formed the most numerous vehicle generation, the huge wagon fleet was of a remarkable heterogenety concerning types and age.


Hence it was the need of the moment to settle down on new designs, built on uniform standards and mandatory for all partner railways. Two reasons were decisive for the standardization: First, repairing a foreign wagon in a short time with reasonable costs required a wagon design known by the ordinary shop staff and a basic stock of standardized components like buffers, axleguards, wheelsets etc. Second, the steady increase of traffic as a consequence from the constant economic upturn in Germany before the Great War demanded permanently new goods wagons: As a first step the DWV planned to expand the wagon fleet for common use to 560,000 wagons till the end of 1911.
In consideration of the expected extensive acquisitions the goods wagon committee (Güterwagenausschuß) of the DWV, leaded by the central railway office (Eisenbahn-Zentralamt) of the Prussian State Railways, started its standardization work already in 1909. With the years the conferences of the committee resulted in 3 series of standard drawings, drawn by the Prussian central railway office and named A, B and C.

Series A covered drawings showing the overall design of finally 11 standard goods wagons – the so-called „Verbandsbauarten“. In the sequence of the release of the drawing appeared till 1914:


A1: 15-ton open goods wagon
A2: 15-ton covered goods van
A3: 35-ton eight-wheel rail wagon with a loading length of 15 m
A4: 15-ton stake wagon („Rungenwagen“)
A5: 18-ton timber truck
A6: 15-ton coal wagon
A7: 15-ton lime wagon
A8: 15-ton double-deck small-livestock van
A9: 15-ton large volume covered goods van
A10: 20-ton open goods wagon
A11: 15-ton four-wheel rail wagon with a loading length of 13 m


For each wagon type also a detailed description was prepared.

Series B fixed standards for the design of the underframes, wagon bodies and brakeman’s cabs of the various types. Finally, series C contained drawings for the standard parts used in all wagons like axleguards and axleboxes, springs, wheelsets, brakes, steel profiles bolts, rivets and so on. Moreover, the committee established regulations for the fabrication of the unified wagons and an instruction for their painting and lettering, based on the former corresponding Prussian instruction.

Basically, the unified types of the Verbandsbauart were further developments of the older Prussian standard designs, but some details, e. g. the brakeman’s cabs, showed obvious influences from the other rail-ways, too. Just so, some wagon types like the timber truck or the large-volume goods van based more on a Bavarian or a Saxon predecessor, cause this special wagon was more used by and more typical for these state railways.

When the Deutsche Reichsbahn was founded in 1920, it again started a standardization work forced by the dictate of economy, resulting in the famous Einheitsbauarten – unified designs. Regarding goods wagons this work wasn’t as pressing as for locomotives and coaches, cause the designs of the state railway’s wagon union were already Einheitsbauarten in the true sense of the word (the Reichsbahn consis-tently used this name for them). So they were ordered until around 1927, when they were replaced by the so-called Austauschbauarten, the next step in the development of the German goods wagon: the parts were manufactured with defined tolerances now, to ensure free interchangeability from wagon to wagon.

The period between 1910 and 1925 was a time with a immense demand for goods wagons. The steady economic growth of imperial Germany before 1914, the needs of a modern war with railways as the only efficient means of transport, and finally, consequence of the defeat, the necessity to replace the losses by war and the armistice treaty made the unified designs of the state railway’s wagon union to the largest group of goods wagons ever built. They were the goods wagons pure and simple of the Reichsbahn era, and because of the armistice deliveries they were also common in Germany’s neighbouring countries. The second war spreaded them wider then before, and even in the 1950s they were a stay for rail transport. They finally disappeared, differing from type to type, between 1955 and 1975.

So far about the background behind the Verbandsbauart wagons. In the discussion some specific types were mentioned, and I will try to add some informations about them:

Goods vans. From 1892 onwards the typical German goods van was a flat-roofed 4-wheeler for 15 tons load, with a wheelbase of 4.5 m and a body length of 8 m. (The only exceptions were the Württemberg state and the Palatinate railways, which preferred 7 m and 9 m vehicles, respectively). These vans were all very similar, however they differed in details like axleboxes, ventilation openings, brakeman cabs etc. After 1909 the design was standardized to the Verbandsbauart van with the same main dimensions. The various Länderbahn types were classified G Stettin or Hannover by the DRG, G 02 by the DB, whilst the Verbandsbauart van became G Kassel or München and G 10 later. These standard types were built in very large numbers (approx. 20,000 for the South German types, more than 70,000 of the Prussian one and maybe 140,000 or so of the Verbandsbauart van). Besides them the other types of goods vans were an absolute minority: large-volume vans for the transport of bottles, furniture and so on, the six- wheelers for the use in passenger trains and the Fakultativwagen which could be used as auxiliary passenger coaches. Maybe some additional words about the large-volume vans: South German types (Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Alsace-Lorraine) were basically elongated versions of the standard van, the only difference a body length of 10 m; but the North German types (Prussia, Saxony) had already a rounded roof for more loading space. In the Länderbahn-era these vans were rare - e.g. in Bavaria the ratio between the standard and the large-volume van was 20:1 - and even the Verbandsbauart-design was built in larger quantities after 1920 only. On a branchline a standard type was quite common, a large volume-type was a rather rare sight. But if you have a bottle or a furniture factory at your branchline you have a good excuse...

O Schwerin. The O Schwerin is a former Prussian Omk[u] acc. to dwg. IId 1. This wagon is typical for the former Prussian state railways and was used as a coal wagon mainly. Its iron construction was a tribute to the rough loading/unloading practices in coal traffic. Its sucessor of the Verbandsbauart was the very similar O Nürnberg. The Prussian type was acquired by the KPEV and the EL only, but the Verbandsbauart-sucessor was built for more state railways. These wagons were freely used all over Germany (see above); so, if the terminus on your branchline needs some coal from the Ruhr, the Saar or from Upper Silesia they got it with one or some more of these wagons...

Bavarian GwL. The fact that these wagons were built exclusively for branchlines doesn't mean that other goods wagons were forbidden on branchlines. The function of the GwL was the transport of piece-goods collected or distributed on the various stations of the branch. If a complete wagon load was sent from or to a station on a branchline, of course a normal goods wagon was transferred from the mainline to the branchline and vice versa...

K-wagons.  K-wagons were used for quicklime, lime marl, milled limestone, soda, salt and pulverized minerals. It was not allowed to transport pulverized fuel (lignite) with them. BTW, K stands originally for Kalkwagen, i. e. lime wagon. Later the interpretation was Klappdeckelwagen = lidded wagon.

Tiefladewagen. The Bavarian State railway named 4 twelve-wheel Tiefladewagen (well wagons) for a load of 50 tons, built 1904/05, SSS first. This type designation was changed after 1909, with the introduction of the standardized designation, to SSml.

(c)Johannes Wittmann 2006

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