These engines, built from 1943 onwards, were the second heavy locomotive class of this type after the
DRG Class 52. They were built for duties on routes that were cleared for a higher
axle load, because they were more economical there than the KDL 1
Kriegslokomotiven of Class 52. In principle they were slimmed down
44s. The Class 42 was procured as
Kriegslokomotive KDL 3. The total of 859 units had a number of improvements to the driving and running gear. Originally it was intended to build very large numbers of these engines, but the end of the
Second World War put paid to that. A
condenser locomotive, based on the Class 42 was also planned, but did not come to fruition. At the end of the war there were still half-finished engines in the workshops. So after 1945, 16 engines were built for the Reichsbahn in the western zone by the
Maschinenfabrik Esslingen ('Esslingen Locomotive Works'). 126 engines were built by Polish factories for the
PKP in Poland as Class Ty43 and three ex DRG engines also went over to the PKP as Class Ty3. Another 76 units were produced by the
Lokomotivfabrik Floridsdorf in
Vienna. These were not built for the
Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), but were sold in 1949 to the
CFL in
Luxembourg - 20 engines (CFL class 55), in 1952 to Bulgarian State Railways (
BDZ) - 33 pcs (BDZ class 16). and the rest to
DR and various industrial enterprises in
East Germany. The majority of the locomotives that ended up in the
Deutsche Bundesbahn were stationed in the
Saarland. These were taken out of service by 1960. The engines with the DR continued to work until 1968, and these with BDZ until 1988. Nowadays (2015) there are only two engines in operation - CFL 5519 and BDZ 16.27 (in service since April 2015). They are used for special and tourist trains. Another operational BDZ engine 16.01 is retired since 2013. The DB and DR locomotives had operating numbers 42 001–2810 and 42 5000. However they did not run consecutively and there were gaps. The engines were mainly equipped with 22 T 30 or 22 T 32
tenders. == DB Class 42.90 (Franco-Crosti locomotive) ==