COBI DR BR 52 Steam Locomotive Set 6282

COBI's DR BR 52 Steam Locomotive is a 1:35 model built from 2,505 blocks, 69 cm long. The engine room roof lifts off to show the controls and the firebox with burning coal printed inside, the tender is detailed within and couples to further wagons, and gears connect the wheels so that pushing the model drives the whole running gear. Five track sections totalling around 65 cm are included, along with a German railwayman figure. All markings are pad-printed; no stickers.

Built to last five years, and still running fifty later

The BR 52 was designed as a disposable machine. Cheap materials, simplified castings, minimal copper, and a service life nobody expected to exceed the war.

It outlived almost everything built alongside it. After 1945 the locomotives were scattered across Europe by the redrawing of borders and the movement of rolling stock, and the countries that inherited them found they had a large fleet of reliable freight engines that cost nothing to acquire.

Poland took over 1,200 and designated them Ty2. The Soviet Union regauged hundreds to five-foot track. East Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and others ran them for decades. The last examples in commercial service were working into the 1980s, and a number survive in museums and on heritage lines today — including several still in steam.

A locomotive built to be thrown away in 1943 was still hauling freight when the men who designed it were retired.

In the COBI range

Set 6281 is the same locomotive in Eastern Front grey military finish, and 6283 the 2-in-1 with both German and Polish markings. Set 6284 is the SSYS flat wagon, which couples behind it and carries a 1:35 tank.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,505 · Figures: 1 · Scale: 1:35 · Five track sections, about 65 cm · No stickers
Model dimensions: 69 × 9.5 × 14 cm (27.2 × 3.7 × 5.5 in)