The class E 44 is a type of electric mixed-traffic locomotives built for Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG) from 1930. There are two technical different subclasses, the E 44.0 and the E 44.5.

E 44.0

One prototype numbered as E 44 001 was built in 1930 and further 175 units with the numbers E 44 002 to 175 and E 44 178 were built until the end of the Second World War. Eleven locomotives were ordered by Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and delivered between 1950 and 1955 as E 44 176 and 177 and E 44 179 to 187. Two were rebuilt from E 244 prototype locomotives in 1963 and 1965 as E 44 188 and 189. Now DB had 125 units in service. Until 1960 Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) repaired 46 locomotives they got back from the Soviet Union. In 1968 DB reclassified its E 44 locomotives to 144 and E 44W locomotives, equipped with rheostatic braking, to 145. In 1970 DR reclassified them to 244. The last locomotives were retired by DR in 1991. Nineteen locomotives with the numbers E 44 001, 002, 044, 045, 046, 049, 051, 084, 103, 108, 119, 131, 137, 139, 143, 146, 148, 150 and 170W have been preserved.

E 44.5

One prototype and another eight E 44.5 locomotives were put into service between 1931 and 1935 as E 44 101 to 109 and renumbered E 44 501 to 509 from 1938. They were technical different from the E 44.0 and were intended for the Bad Reichenhall to Berchtesgaden railway line and mainly used their until its withdrawal by DB in 1983. Two locomotives with the numbers E 44 502 and 508 have been preserved.

  • E 44 136 at Leipzig Hbf, May 1958
  • E 44 077 at München Ost, 1967
  • 144 505 at Freilassing depot, April 1979