DRG Kleinlokomotive Class II

After tests with several trial locomotives, they were placed in service from 1932 onwards by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) and used on small stations for light shunting and marshalling work.

Köf, therefore, stood for a light locomotive (Kleinlok) with diesel engine (Öl-(Diesel-)Motor) and hydraulic transmission (Flüssigkeitsgetriebe).

They were initially divided into two power groups: DB had over 700 new Köf II engines newly built and further developed after the war.

A plan – similar to the one of DB – to build a series of more powerful Köf III was subsequently discarded and replaced by the DR class V 60 project.

Because the open cab gave no real protection from the weather in winter, doors and windows were added during the course of main inspections from the late 1950s.

For a while, DB 323 412 and 323 415 were the oldest locomotives in the Deutsche Bundesbahn), as well as a handful of battery-operated light locos, of classes 381 and 382.

In 1970 the Deutsche Reichsbahn incorporated 378 machines of power category 2 in its EDP classification scheme as Class 100.

The Deutsche Reichsbahn converted many Kö to compressed-air brakes, this programme had not been completed when the Berlin Wall came down.