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A Kleinlokomotive or Kleinlok (literally: "small locomotive"; plural:Kleinlokomotiven) is a German locomotive of small size and low power for light shunting duties at railway stations and on industrial railways. Most are powered by diesel engines, but Kleinloks with steam, petrol, or electric engines were also produced.

After testing several trials locomotives, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) placed various types of such locomotives into service from 1930 onwards. Industrial lines and railway workshops generally procured engines of the same design.

In Switzerland Kleinlokomotiven were used as light rail motor tractors.


In order to speed up goods traffic and meet the challenges posed by emerging competition from road traffic, various national railways in Europe carried out trials with small diesel-powered shunters starting in 1923. Until then, all shunting movements for goods wagons at small stations and loading yards had to be carried out by the locomotive in charge of the local goods train (Nahgüterzug). This extended waiting times and reduced the average speed of the train considerably, but having a dedicated shunting engine at such stations would not have been economically viable due to the low levels of goods traffic. The development of combustion-engined locomotives offered new possibilities here: the Kleinlokomotiven were smaller, cheaper and easy to operate. It was anticipated that the resulting improvement in the speed at which goods could be moved would enable railways to compete with road transport.

The first trials - in 1923 by the French Eastern Railway, in 1925 by the Danish State Railway, in 1926 by the Dutch Railways, and in 1927 by the Reichsbahn - were very promising.

As a result, in 1930, the Deutsche Reichsbahn issued the first orders to various manufacturers for a total of 18 trials locomotives. A 1927 shunting unit delivered by the Berliner Maschinenbau AG to the Dutch State Railways served as a prototype. These vehicles were very different from one another, with varying performance. For its subsequent orders, in 1931 and 1932, the DRG specified the dimensions and divided the locomotives into two power categories – locomotives with an engine power output of up to 40 PS (29 kW) were allocated to power group I and more powerful locomotives to power group II. Based on its experience with the earlier engines, the Kleinlokomotiven were then standardised by the DRG as Einheitskleinlokomotive (standard small locomotives).