The shipment of the dismantled locomotive from England to Nuremberg by ship and mule took almost eight weeks. It was reassembled in Wilhelm Späth’s Mechanical Workshop in Nuremberg.

The first official railway journey under steam in Germany was undertaken with the Adler between Nuremberg and Fürth on 7 December 1835. The engine driver hired was an experienced Englishman, William Wilson, who earned more as a specialist than the Director of the Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft. The original locomotive was sold in 1857, as it no longer satisfied the technical requirements, and has not been heard of since.

A virtual tour Open interactive graphic: A virtual tour

Replicas

There are two 1:1 replicas of the Adler in existence. Both are owned by the DB Museum. The replica built in 1935 is still in good working order and can be booked for charter trips. The second replica, which is on display in the museum, was built by Deutsche Bundesbahn apprentices in 1952 and used as an exhibit at trade fairs. The beer barrels featured on both replicas did not exist on the original and were added in 1935 as an advertisement for the Lederer Brewery, which had actually used the original Adler train only once to transport two barrels of beer in one of the passenger coaches.

Damage and restoration 

The working replica built in 1935 was severely damaged during a fire in the depot in 2005 and was restored in 2006/07 by the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Repair Shop, making use of the latest information obtained from research on the Adler. The chimney was rebuilt in a conical shape as shown in the original drawings and not in a concave shape, as had been the case in 1935. A darker colour was chosen for the Adler’s livery compared with that of 1935. Locomotives from the same period as the Adler that were still in existence served as models, such as the Nordgau, which is also on display in Vehicle Hall I.