Verbandsbauart
The open wagon with drop-down sides of Class A1 were based on the Prussian truck, built to Sheet II d3.
These flat-roofed wagons were produced with and without hand brakes and in two variants of loading door and ventilation flap.
The new raised brakeman's cab was given a gabled roof with a pointed ridge and handrails were added to the outside of the steps.
In the late thirties the end panels were reinforced by diagonal braces in order to better stabilize the van body when shunting.
As DWV vans they railway wagon association they bore the class letters "GM" or "NZ".
Due to the high number of A2s, the Deutsche Reichsbahn had to create two or this type of wagon two "district classes" (Gattungsbezirke) for them: "Kassel" and "München" ("Munich") as well as the category letter "G".
These flat wagons had 12 folding stanchions made from riveted steel profiles, an underframe and Kunze-Knorr compressed air brakes.
The Class A4 stanchion or stake wagon (Rungenwagen) was built from 1913 to 1927 and was based on a Prussian design, Sheet IId5.
The twin-axled, Class A7, lidded wagon (Klappdeckelwagen) was built from 1913 for the transportation of hygroscopic bulk commodities and were very similar to the lime truck based on Sheet IId4.
They differed, however, in not having the upper door handle, steps and body struts on the longitudinal beams over the axle boxes.
These enclosed wagons were so designed that the lids and side doors were very close fitting in order to protect the goods from sun and rain.
The six lids were attached in the centre to the ridge beam that ran the length of the wagon and made loading easier.
For example, the Class A8 livestock vans of the Royal Saxon State Railways had their loading area being doubled by having a second deck.
The wagon bodies of these goods vans were made of wooden boards and fitted with additional loading hatches and feed openings.
In the late 1930s these flat-roofed goods vehicles were fitted with welded braces in the end panels to reinforces the side walls.
The Class A9 covered wagons were designed for the transportation of weather-sensitive, light, large-volume or very long goods, such as furniture, automotive parts, decorative wood or large glass containers that, due to their volume, could not be moved in other goods wagons.
Just like the large-volume, covered vans of the state railways the Class A9 were also called Hohlglaswagen ("container glass wagons").
This expression derived from the fact that the Prussian and Saxon statey railways had large-volume vans specially built for the transport of container glass.
The prototype for these Verbandswagen vehicles, roughly 6,000 of which were produced between 1914 and 1928, were the Saxon and Prussian state railway vans.
The Deutsche Reichsbahn grouped them into classes Essen and Breslau, two series being needed because a single range of wagon numbers was not enough.
As state railway vehicles they bore the letter marking "Ommk[u]" and in the Deutsche Reichsbahn "Om".
In the DB, these trucks continued to bear the letter marking Om and class number (Bauartnummer) 12 until 1964.
Instead it carried everything that was too short for a stake wagon, for example: casks, agricultural machinery, motor vehicles and chassis for export, wool, cotton and cork rind from the port railways.
It had end walls over 400 mm high, 12 removable steel stakes or stanchions and loading sleepers across the bed of the wagon.
Many wagons were given a welded steel profile underframe by the Deutsche Bundesbahn which enabled the payload to be increased to 20 tonnes (Sm 14).
From about 1922, by order of the Reich Transport Ministry (RVM), almost all goods wagons were marked with the name of their owner, "Deutsche Reichsbahn", the name of a so-called "class district" (Gattungsbezirk), a wagon number ( wagonnummer) and a category letter (Category letters).
Standard colours → RAL colour number (840-B) After the state railways had been subordinated to the sovereignty of the German Empire in 1920, the Reich Railway Authority began in 1921 to group all goods wagons with the same or similar roles into so-called "class districts" (Gattungsbezirke).
