Because the Prussian P 6 steam locomotive, manufactured since 1902, was regarded as unsatisfactory, the railway engineer Robert Garbe designed another one, the Prussian Class P 8, a 4-6-0 locomotive, which will prove a success. Because Garbe was an advocate of the simplest possible designs, a straightforward, superheated steam, two-cylinder driving gear was envisaged. The P 8 benefited from superheated steam technology, which had just been developed by Wilhelm Schmidt (nicknamed 'hot steam Schmidt'), that led to outstanding performance for those times.
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