Different Numbering Schemes Prior To 1924
The fast growing number of locomotives made a numbering scheme inevitable. Most of the various state-owned German railway companies (called Länderbahnen in German) developed their own schemes, e. g. the Prussian state railways (preußische Staatseisenbahnen sometimes erroneously referred to as the Königlich Preussische Eisenbahn-Verwaltung or KPEV) introduced P for passenger train locomotives (the P 8 was one of the most important locomotive types with a total of over 3,000 units built), S for Schnellzug (express train) locomotives (e. g. the famous S 10), G for Güterzug (freight train) locomotives and T for Tenderlokomotive (tank locomotive). Basically the numbers were used continuously. As the Prussians also standardised technical standards, some of the smaller companies also used the Prussian numbering scheme or a similar one.
Bavaria's state-owned railway chose a different way: They also used P, S, or G to indicate the train type, but combined with the numbers of driving axles and of the axles in total, separated by a slash (similar to the Swiss system). E. g., the famous S 3/6 was a 2'C1' or 4-6-2 Pacific, meaning that of a total of 6 axles, 3 were driving axles.
These various state-owned companies and thus their numbering schemes were retained after German unification in 1871 and kept until well after World War I.
Read more about this topic: German Locomotive Classification
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