HSB 99 7237-3 Con Rod Failure

Quite an incident on Monday near Steinerne Renne, where 99 7237-3 managed to snap a connecting rod in half. Not a good couple of days on the HSB, the line from Schierke to the Brocken is shut due to snow, and it appears there's a loco and three coaches stuck in a drift somewhere on the line too.

 

Ouch! Hope they can repair soon and that they get the train out of the drift

 

Note that it has a stirrup to contain the flailing rod, although I think they were really intended for a Tangmere type incident.

 

https://www.nonstopnews.de/meldung/29142

Watch the video at the bottom. I think it's fair to say 99 234 is definitely stuck!

 

Puts me in mind of this classic...

 

I wonder if the low temperature contributed to this failure? Steel has a brittle transition temperature which varies with condition and composition. It certainly looks like the steel has not bent very much before it has failed completely.

 

There are some better photos of the snowbound train here: https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/nied...n-Nach-dem-Schnee-kommt-das-Eis,harz1278.html
Ray.

 

The loco and van have just returned to Wernigerode Western according to videos on Facebook. The van must weigh a few extra tonnes with the amount of snow on the balcony!

 

There's a Youtube video of the rescue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=1onpGmYWEwo
Ray.

 

Thanks for that. Some of the news sites I 'captured' are now missing the embedded video which is annoying, so having to hunt around and I suppose YouTube is the likely place.

I hear 7232 derailed on hitting a snowdrift a day or so after the much filmed incident, but haven't seen much on that event.

Been nothing beyond Schierke the last few days and I suspect the HSB is playing safe currently.

 

99 234 back in service today after a replacement feedwater heater fitted. No other damage after being frozen on the mountain for three days.

 

How many of the standard 2-10-2 tanks does the HSB have? I know 17 were built (+1 to a different design) and according to Wiki 9 are still in service, but have to others been scrapped or are they in store awaiting overhaul?

 

The HSB website suggests all 17, plus 99 232, are still 'on stock' - I have a feeling that the '9 in service' is actually the daily Peak Season locomotive requirement!

I will be able to better advise in July, as my wife and I will be making our first summer trip to the area (first trip to stay for her, I have always been February or October).

Steven

 

The 'odd man out' is 99.222 which is actually the sole survivor of 3 2-10-2T's built by Schwartzkopf in 1930 for a line at Eisfeld near Erfurt. The other two were taken to Norway during WW2 and no more was heard of them. Re the 17 Neubauloks, I was amused to see one of the locos recently returned from Meiningen in service while, at the same time, a set of frames bearing the same number was laying in the grass opposite Westerntor Works! Have a great trip.
Ray.

 

Pretty sure all are still in existence on the line. The last list I saw had 4 in long term storage in the shed at Ilfeld, 1 at Benneckenstein and 1 at Hasselfelde. Previously 99 7247 was on the list and stored at Gernrode but was overhauled a couple of years ago for the first time under HSB. The other locos rotate between being in service / being overhauled.

 

Most of the ones that have been to Meiningen in the last few years have had new frames. They're just another consumable!

 

99.222 / 7222 was one of the 3 prototypes (pre-production built as per normal German custom to fettle the design prior to becoming the standard locomotive for Harz narrow gauge lines) built in the 1930s but WWII halted further developments and the post-war separation delayed developments further. The "Neubaulok"s are the direct descendant of the prototypes that were built for service in the Harz region; line closures by the DDR during the 1960s / 1970s saw the fleet being concentrated at Wernigerode where all locomotives have finally ended up. As noted by other posters the HSB only requires 9 locomotives to meet current service demands hence the others are either under overhaul in Wernigerode Workshops or stored in various buildings around the network.

The missing pair 99.7221 / 223 were sent to Norway during WWII to work in the heavy water plant established as part of the effort to develop the German Atom Bomb but the Allies attacked the plant and the pair of prototypes were ultimately scrapped in Norway.

 

Slightly mixed up here. Not everything in Norway in WWII was about the heavy water, and the railway to Rjukan was a private std. gauge line, with a railway ferry across a lake.
The only metre gauge line in Norway was and is Thamshavnsbanen south west of Trondhjem way up in centre of Norway. This was 26 km long serving pyrite mines, AC electrified early (British locos).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamshavn_Line
The producion of the mine was strategic for Germany and the line was sabotaged. To keep the traffic going the Nazis sent 99.221 and .223 north together with five 0-4-0 Belgian built locos from France.
No. .223 was set aside already in 1947 but .221 was taken over by the line and set aside in 1953.
General passenger passenger and goods service shut down in 1963 and the railway was used as mineral line until 1974.
The line now preserved with heritage service.
https://oi.no/en/thamshavn-railway

 

What became of the 2 locos then?
Both say set aside not scrapped.