COBI Compiègne Wagon (11 November 1918) Set 6291

COBI's Compiègne Wagon (11 November 1918) is a 1:35 model built from 1,927 blocks, 58.5 cm long. The roof lifts off to show the interior as it was arranged in November 1918, the sides use new long bricks with a wood texture, and gold printing reproduces the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits lettering, the wagon number and the legend above the windows. Doors open at the sides, at both ends and between the internal compartments. Two figures are included — Marshal Ferdinand Foch and Matthias Erzberger — along with five track sections. All markings are pad-printed; no stickers.

A restaurant car that ended a war

The vehicle was built at Saint-Denis as a dining car for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the company behind the Orient Express, and it served meals until August 1918. In October it was converted into a mobile office for Marshal Foch, the Allied supreme commander.

On 11 November 1918, in a railway siding in the forest of Compiègne, the armistice that ended the fighting on the Western Front was signed inside it. The war stopped six hours later.

What happened to the man who signed

Matthias Erzberger, the figure on the German side, was a civilian politician — a Catholic centrist who had campaigned for a negotiated peace — sent to do what no German general would put his name to.

He was blamed for it immediately. The claim that Germany's army had been undefeated and betrayed by politicians at home took hold within months, and Erzberger became its most visible target. On 26 August 1921 he was shot dead while walking in the Black Forest by two members of a nationalist paramilitary organisation. Both escaped to Hungary and were never punished.

He signed the document because someone had to, and it cost him his life.

In the COBI range

Set 6289 is the same wagon as it stood on 22 June 1940, when the roles were reversed and France signed in it.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,927 · Figures: 2, Foch and Erzberger · Scale: 1:35 · Five track sections · No stickers
Model dimensions: 58.5 × 13 cm (23.0 × 5.1 in)