Robert Garbe

rdf:langString Robert Garbe

rdf:langString Robert Hermann Garbe (pronounced 'Garber') (9 January 1847 – 23 May 1932) was a German railway engineer and chief engineer of the Berlin division in the Prussian state railways from 1895 to 1917. He was especially known for his steam locomotive designs and is described as one of the greatest authorities on the locomotive. He was the first to suggest the use of superheated steam, universally. However, he saw superheated steam as competing with other innovations such as double expansion compound steam engines (he held a grudge against Hannover's August Borries that his pupil Richard Paul Wagner inherited) or combustion chambers. His designs were, on the one hand, simple to maintain and operate; on the other hand, he blocked innovations that every other pre-Reichsbahn state railway used successfully. He held the belief that two coupled axles were enough for any express engine (his masterpiece being the Prussian S 6 class) and trailing axles as in the "Pacific" configuration were unnecessary. The Prussian P 8 class had to be re-designed almost entirely from his design to become successful, and he envisaged it as an express engine. In that way, he is known as one of the key pioneers of locomotive design because of his achievements concerning the use of superheated steam; his image is tarnished, however, by a conservatism that was proven wrong time and again contemporarily (e.g. by the Bavarian S 3/6, and thereafter André Chapelon designed highly successful modern compound locomotives, proving the success of every single innovation Garbe rejected).