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A ''Kleinlokomotive'' or ''Kleinlok'' (literally: "small locomotive"; plural:''Kleinlokomotiven'') is a German locomotive of small size and low power for light shunting duties at railway stations and on industrial railways. It is usually powered by a diesel engine. However ''Kleinloks'' with steam, petrol or electric engines were also produced. After testing several trials locomotives, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) placed various types of such locomotives into service from 1930 onwards. Industrial lines and railway workshops generally procured the engines of the same design. In Switzerland ''Kleinlokomotiven'' were used as light rail motor tractors. == History == In order to speed up goods traffic and to meet the challenges posed by the emerging competition from road traffic, various national railways in Europe carried out trials from 1923 onwards with small diesel-powered shunters. Until then all shunting movements for goods wagons at small stations and loading yards had to be carried out by the locomotive in charge of the local goods train (''Nahgüterzug''). This extended waiting times and reduced the average speed of the train considerably . Having a dedicated shunting engine at such stations would not have been economic due to the low levels of goods traffic. The development of combustion-engined locomotives offered new possibilities here: the ''Kleinlokomotiven'' were smaller, cheaper and easy to operate. It was anticipated that the resulting improvement in the speed at which goods could be moved would enable the railways to compete with road transport. The first trials - in 1923 by the French Eastern Railway, in 1925 by the Danish State Railway, in 1926 by the Dutch Railways and finally in 1927 by the Reichsbahn - were very promising. As a result, in 1930, the Deutsche Reichsbahn issued the first orders for a total of 18 trials locomotives to various manufacturers. A 1927 shunting unit delivered by the Berliner Maschinenbau AG to the Dutch State Railways served as a prototype. These vehicles were very different from one another, and their performance varied too. For its subsequent orders, in 1931 and 1932, the DRG specified the dimensions and divided the locomotives into two power categories – locomotives with an engine power output of up to 40 PS (29 kW) were allocated to power group I and more powerful locomotives to power group II. Based on its experience with the earlier engines, the ''Kleinlokomotiven'' were then standardised by the DRG as ''Einheitskleinlokomotive'' (standard small locomotives). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kleinlokomotive」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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