Epoch II

Introduction
The rise of the long-distance railroad traffic
A new era, a new generation of coaches
Standard design locomotives
Service on a high level, the Mitropa
The rise of a trainlegend
A new numbering scheme for passenger cars
Beginning of the modern age, electric locomotives
A new idea, the SVT
The competitor of the SVT, the Henschel-Wegmann-Zug
Result of renewal: the Schürzenwagen
The temporarily ending

The rise of the long-distance railroad traffic

The rise of the long-distance railroad traffic was already started in the Länderbahn era. But it was only limited to the former states. After world war one, Germany was more oriented to Berlin. As a result of this many main railroads were going to and from Berlin.

The DRG developed a system of different train categories, so that you could easily recognised long-distance trains in the timetable. There were the FD-trains, these trains were high-graded long-distance trains like the InterCity today. There were international trains running as well in the FD network, for example the famous Rheingold and the Nord Express. FDt trains were FD trainsets (t stands for triebwagen). Besides the FD-trains were the L(uxus)-trains, these trains were exploited by the CIWL (Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits), for example the Berlin-Rome Riviera Express was a L-train. In the train hierarchy below the FD-train was the D-train. The letter D stands for "Durchgangszug", this meant that you could walk along the train via closed corridors between the coaches, these were old style corridor connections which withstand weather influences. For all these trains the average travelspeed was 100-120 km/h.

The first FD-trains were running on the 1st of June 1923 on the routes Berlin-Hamburg, Berlin-Köln and Berlin-München. The FD-train to Köln made the trip in 7,5 hour (600 km), this resulted in an average speed of 80 km/h. The FD-train to München was only stopped at Halle/Saale and Nürnberg, the distance between these two stations was the longest distance without stops (314 km).

The first long-distance trains in the period 1920-1924 and in the beginning of the DRG, consisted of rolling stock from the former state railways. Which rolling stocks was used depended on where the trains were running, most of the rolling stock stayed in the originally states. For the locomotives was it the same. For example Bavarian locomotives stayed in Bavarian and Saxon locomotives stayed in Saxon. Locomotives like the Prussian P8, the Württembergse C and the Bavarian S 3/6 had their service in the long-distance trains, the first mainly in D-trains and the other two in FD-trains. Only Prussian locomotives came across the former borders of the former states, they came mainly in the south of Germany. Later the Bavarian S 3/6 who pulled the Rheingold was coming to other areas of Germany too. These former state railway locomotives where all running in 1920 in their original livery with their original numbers. In 1926 all locomotives had their new number and new livery.

Like the locomotives, the coaches of the first long-distance trains were came from the former state railways too. The trains from around 1920 until 1924 consisted of a mix of coaches from different former state railways. After 1924 most of the coaches had their new numbers, logos and their new liveries. The color of the coaches was mostly green.