Open Freight Car Om21 DB

Info about the original

The previously independent regional railway companies were transferred to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920. One of the first actions of the Deutsche Reichsbahn was to standardise all parts used in locomotives and carriages in respect of threads and types of fit, for example - but also entire assemblies. While, in the case of locomotives, entire vehicles were redesigned, proven carriage designs were often revised to make all parts interchangeable with each other. The freight car Om, which had been developed from the "Verbandsbauart" construction A 10 was one of the first types of the so-called "interchangeable construction". The already proven main dimensions were retained. Most of the freight cars came to DB later on, where they were put in the Om 21 class in 1951. In the fifties, many of the cars were taken apart in the course of a conversion programme and new cars with greater carrying capacity were built from parts that were still usable. However, there were still 390 of these cars in use in 1961. The last of them were not taken out of service until 1969.