COBI DR BR 03 Steam Locomotive & Water Crane - Executive Edition Set 6286

COBI's DR BR 03 Executive Edition is a 1:35 model built from 2,721 blocks, 78 cm long with its tender. Gears in the frame drive the coupled wheels and connecting rods as on the original, the cab is fitted out with firebox, throttle and controls, the smokebox opens, and the tender's coal load lifts out. Three figures are included — a driver, a stationmaster in a red cap and a stoker with a shovel — along with a brick display base showing an embankment, a nameplate and a water crane. All markings are pad-printed; no stickers.

Why there is a water crane in the box

The crane is not scenery. It is the reason steam railways looked the way they did.

A BR 03's tender held 32 cubic metres of water and ten tonnes of coal, and the water went first — a large express locomotive working hard consumed its tank in something like 150 kilometres. Coal lasted several times longer.

That single ratio dictated everything. Water cranes stood at every station of consequence, water towers had to be built and heated so they did not freeze, and timetables were written around the stops. A journey was planned not around where passengers wanted to go but around where the locomotive could drink.

Diesel and electric traction did not replace steam because they were faster. They replaced it because they did not need to stop.

The BR 03

Built between 1930 and 1938 by Borsig, Krupp, Henschel and Schwartzkopff, 298 of them, for express trains on routes where the axle load was limited to 18 tonnes — lighter track than the BR 01 could use, which is the whole point of the class. They ran at 120 km/h on the most prestigious services. The model is BR 03 273.

In the COBI range

Set 6288 is the same locomotive in the standard edition with 2,564 pieces, one figure, track sections and no water crane.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,721 · Figures: 3 · Scale: 1:35 · Water crane and display base included · No stickers
Model dimensions: 78 × 15.5 cm (30.7 × 6.1 in)