Heating cars are needed at the railway to supply the steam heating of passenger cars . Steam-heated passenger carriages are usually only available at museum railways today because modern passenger coaches have electrically operated heaters or air conditioning systems.


Heating van of the type 1931-1943


Heating car in the railway museum Schwarzenberg
On the occasion of the electrification of the Stuttgart - Ulm - Augsburg - Munich railway line in May 1933, the Deutsche Reichsbahn put four - axle bogie wagons into service, matching the then purchased express train wagons .
These heating cars were purchased from 1931 to 1943. In the years 1941 to 1943 alone, 180 units were built primarily for military purposes (troop transports, hospital trains). The cars have a side corridor and can be adjusted in the middle of the train to provide the coaches evenly at both ends of the train. The weight of this heater is 62.2 t, the length over buffer 17.10 m.
The use of the Heizwagen ended at the German Federal Railways probably about 1965, but there were still observable heating cars around 1971/72. At the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), they were until 1993 in use. There they were last held as a strategic reserve for the supply of military and military trains.
These four-axle heating cars have gotten a special meaning at museum railways today. On the one hand, they allow the preheating of the historic wagons before the train starts, on the other hand, they are used to preheat the heavy oil supplies, oil firing systems and steam locomotive boilers.
Received are two operational heating cars of the type 1931-1943, one of which is coal-fired, at the Ulm railroad friends . A car is available on the grounds of the South German Railway Museum Heilbronn . There, this vehicle is used to preheat oil-fired steam locomotives. Another heating car is currently at the steam locomotive community 41 096 e. V. worked up for this purpose. The Association of Saxon Railway Friends in Schwarzenberg e. V. is in possession of such a heating car, which is being restored. Finally, a non-operational heating car from the outside and inside to visit the Bavarian Railway Museum in Nördlingen .