Saarbrücken 3143 - Prussian G 3

The class G 3 locomotives were the backbone of Prussian rail freight transport. The last surviving engine of this type has been preserved in the DB Museum. The G 3 was one of the most prolific classes of steam locomotive in Germany, with 2,233 of them built in total.

At the dawn of the 20th century, these machines were indispensable to the transport of goods in Prussia. The G 3 was a slow but reliable workhorse and had a high tractive effort. Due to its characteristic design with a high-mounted boiler and long overhangs at the rear, it swayed heavily at higher speeds. In practice, this rarely posed a problem, as the average freight train in those days travelled at a sedate 30 km/h.

The "Saarbrücken 3143", exhibited at the DB Museum, was withdrawn from service in 1920. It was used until the 1970s as a weight to test the lifting capacity of cranes at the Trier repair works. The locomotive was rebuilt in Trier in time for the major celebrations in 1985 marking 150 years of railways in Germany. It then joined the collection of the Nuremberg Transport Museum.