RAILWAYS - ADLERID92910050
For the year 2021-2022, taking advantage of the celebration of the European Year of the Railway and the 80th Anniversary of Renfe, the FNMT-RCM is issuing a collection of 20 coins dedicated to the History of the Railway, with the aim of showing our customers the evolution of one of the most important means of transport in Humanity.
The collection consists of twenty coins. The first fifteen will be issued in 2021 and the remaining five in 2022.
The obverse features a colour image of the ADLER locomotive, which is considered to be the first locomotive to operate in Germany. Above the central image is the legend ADLER. On the outer part of the coin are motifs reminiscent of railway rails.
On the reverse (common to all the coins), the legend RAILWAY HISTORY appears inside a central circle; below it, the value of the coin is 1.5 EURO. Outside the central circle is an image of a railway track.
| Year | 2022 |
| Colour | Yes |
| Diameter (mm) | 33 |
| Face Value (Euro) | 1.5 |
| Metal | Cupronickel |
| Weight (g) | 15 |
Adler
Maker: Robert Stephenson & Co.
Year of production: 1835
Country: Germany
Traction: Steam
Transport: Passengers
Top speed: 65 km/h
Diameter of the driving wheels : 1,371 mm
Tensile stress: 550 kg
Working pressure: 4.2 kg/cm2
Power: 41 hp
Cylinders: 2 (229 x 406 mm)
Germany joined the railway era on December 7 1835, when Louis I, Duke of Bavaria, inaugurated a short railway line of barely six km between Nuremberg and Fürth. As the first two autochthonous locomotives, made in 1816 and 1817, proved to be unsuccessful, the English Adler (Eagle) is considered to have been the first locomotive to run in Germany. Given that the railway’s promotor, Johannes Scharrer, had failed in the attempt to acquire the locomotive’s component parts in Germany, he had no alternative but to order them urgently from Robert Stephenson & Co.
The first seven locomotives to run on German tracks came from the United Kingdom (6) and the United States (1). However, the year of 1841 witnessed the dawn of a period in which foreign suppliers were gradually yet quickly substituted so that, by 1845, 52 percent of new locomotives came from Germany’s own plants.
The Adler was sent to Germany unassembled and had to be rebuilt at the workshop of Wilhelm Späth. Despite its historical importance, information about this locomotive is surprisingly scant. According to specialists, it was a Patentee, introduced by Robert Stephenson on October 7 1833. It was noted for the fact that the additional driving axle enabled a larger boiler. It had a working pressure of 4.2 kg/cm2; two cylinders; a driving wheel with a diameter of 1,371 mm; maximum power of 41 hp; and a top speed of 65 km/h.
The Adler operated with fully satisfactory results for 20 years. A reconstruction of the locomotive, executed in 1935, is on display at the German Railway Museum in Nuremberg.