Adler

The Bayerische Ludwigsbahn — a 6 km line between Nuremberg and Fürth — was promoted in the 1830s as Germany's first steam railway. Lacking domestic locomotive industry, the company ordered a single engine from Robert Stephenson & Co. in Newcastle in 1835. Adler was a standard Patentee-pattern 2-2-2 of the period, dispatched to Germany in component form and assembled at Nuremberg under the supervision of Stephenson's engineman William Wilson, who remained as the line's first locomotive driver.

Adler hauled the first scheduled train on the Ludwigsbahn on 7 December 1835, beginning German railway history. The engine worked the line for some years; further locomotives were added as traffic grew. Adler itself was withdrawn in 1857 and scrapped, the original components dispersed.

For the centenary of German railways in 1935, the Deutsche Reichsbahn built a fully working replica using the original works drawings, which had been preserved at Stephenson's. The replica has been displayed at Nuremberg ever since and is regularly steamed for anniversary events. It survived a serious fire at the Nuremberg roundhouse in October 2005 — it was extensively damaged but was repaired and returned to working order.

Patentee-type 2-2-2 with a single pair of 4 ft 6 in driving wheels, inside cylinders at the smokebox end, four-wheel tender, tall stovepipe chimney, and Stephenson sandwich frames. The replica is finished in dark green with red wheels and polished brass details.

• Adler (1835, original — scrapped 1857)
• Adler replica (1935, DB Museum, Nuremberg — operational)