Dept. Montania Nordhausen of O&K-A.G.

The history

The company "Gerlach und König" was founded in 1905 and it produced mining equipment and stationary engines. In 1907 the factory was renamed into "Maschinenfabrik Montania vorm. Gerlach & König". in 1908 they Already manufactured Their first internal combustioned engined locomotive. The products were sold over the sales department of the Orenstein & Koppel A.G (O&K). In consequence of this case the company joined in the O&K trust in 1912. In 1916 it became a department of O&K named "Montania Nordhausen".
In the twenties and thirties of the last century the company grew to one of the largest manufacturers of internal combustion locomotives in the world. Many locomitives were exported to Asia and South America. Those orders helped the factory to survive the depressions of these years. Since 1937 the "Montania" also produced tractors. Due to the disappropriation of jewish seisins in 1935 the company was renamed into
"Maschinenbau und Bahnbedarf AG Nordhausen" (MBA), until 1940 with the appendix "vorm. Orenstein & Koppel". With the beginning of the manufacturing of tank engines in 1942 the locomotive production was relocated to Prague. After World War II until 1947 the factory was completely disassambled, the buildings were mostly demolished. Since 1948 the new founded company "IFA Schlepperwerk Nordhausen" was built up on the same area. It began its production in 1949. (source: H. Kieber)

The Locomotives

The first locomotives of the "U"-series had engines running on benzene with performances between 6 an 30 h.p. They looked nearly like the locomotives made by Deutz. This company delivered the engines. Around the year 1915 the "U"-series was replaced by the "L"-series. Now also the engines were produced in the own works. After World War I came a change from the slow-moving, lying, single cylinder engines to more-cylinder engines with high speed, the "S"-series was created. At the end of the twenties there were built the first locomotives with diesel engine ("for running on crude oil"). It was the first type of the "RL"-series with a power between 11 and 40 h.p. The end of this development was the "MD"-series with 9 until 33 h.p. during the thirties. In addition to the "RL"- and the "MD"-series the type "LD" was created. It has a lying diesel engine. The most of the "Montania"-locomotives could be delivered as a field railroad or a mining version with some special add-ons. Because of the limited capacity of the "Montania"-factory in Nordhausen the bigger types of the locomotives were produced in the O&K-works in Drewitz near Berlin. (source: H.Kieber)