Henschel & Son

"Henschel" redirects here. For other uses, see Henschel (disambiguation).
Henschel & Son; Henschel Works
(Henschel & Sohn, Henschel-Werke)
Limited company
(Aktiengesellschaft)
Industry Mechanical engineering, automotive engineering
Fate Merger, later dissolved
Founded 1810 as Henschel & Son
Defunct 1957
Headquarters Kassel, Germany
Steam locomotive built by Henschel & Son in 1936, at the São Paulo Technology Museum, in Brazil.

Henschel & Son (German: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicles and weapons.

Georg Christian Carl Henschel founded the factory in 1810 at Kassel. His son Carl Anton Henschel founded another factory in 1837. In 1848, the company began manufacturing locomotives. The factory became the largest locomotive manufacturer in Germany by the 20th century. Henschel built 10 articulated steam trucks, using Doble steam designs, for Deutsche Reichsbahn railways as delivery trucks. Several cars were built as well, one of which became Hermann Göring's staff car. In 1935 Henschel was able to upgrade its various steam locomotives to a high-speed Streamliner type with a maximum speeds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph) by the addition of a removable shell over the old steam locomotive.[1]

World War II

Henschel built (1941) 4-6-4 VR Class Pr2 steam locomotive (no. 1800) at Haapamäki Steam Locomotive Museum in Keuruu, Finland
A Tiger I is loaded onto a special rail car at the Henschel plant
The Henschel Hs 129B ground attack aircraft

Early in 1935, Henschel began manufacturing Panzer I tanks. During World War II, the firm was responsible for license production of the Dornier Do 17Z medium bomber, and in 1939–1940 it began large-scale production of the Panzer III. Henschel was the sole manufacturer of the Tiger I and Tiger II. In 1945, the company had 8000 workers working in two shifts each of 12 hours, and forced labour was used extensively. The company's factories were among the most important bomber targets and were nearly completely destroyed, although throughout the war they did manufacture narrow gauge locomotives.

Aviation

Henschel Flugzeugwerke aircraft and missiles included:

Post-war business

1951 restored pony engine.

Manufacturing began again in 1948. In 1964, the company took over Rheinische Stahlwerke and became Rheinstahl Henschel AG, in 1976 Thyssen-Henschel, and 1990 ABB Henschel AG. In 1996, the company became ABB Daimler Benz Transportation Adtranz. The company was subsequently acquired by Bombardier (Canada) around 2002. The Kassel facility still exists and is one of the world's largest manufacturers of locomotives.

Types of Henschel locomotives

Private, mining and industry railways

Generation 1
Generation 2
Generation 3
Henschel nameplate on Sri Lanka Railways Class M6 locomotive
Generation 4
Generation 5
Generation 6
Esslinger
Bundesbahn
Export

Notable Employees

References

  1. ↑ "Locomotive with Streamline Shell is Designed for Speed" Popular Mechanics October 1935 bottom of page 541
  2. ↑ http://24coaches.com/indian-railways-wdm-series/
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