COBI DR BR 52/TY2 Steam Locomotive Set 6283

COBI's DR BR 52 / Ty2 is a 1:35 model built from 1,723 blocks, 41 cm long, and it builds two different locomotives: the German DR BR 52 of the Second World War, or the Polish Ty2 of the post-war state railway. Separate bricks carry each set of markings and numbers, the Polish version gets its own larger front and rear lamps, and two interchangeable nameplates are included. Two figures are supplied — a German wartime driver and a Polish PKP driver. Five track sections totalling around 65 cm are included, and all markings are pad-printed.

Look at the eagle on the Polish driver

The Polish figure wears the state emblem of the People's Republic: a white eagle, without a crown.

The crown had been on the Polish eagle for centuries. The communist authorities removed it in 1944, on the reasoning that a crown was a monarchist and clerical symbol with no place in a workers' state. Nobody was consulted, and the change was never popular.

It was restored on 31 December 1989, at the moment the country's name reverted from the People's Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland. The crowned eagle came back within weeks of the government that had removed it.

COBI has printed the uncrowned version because that is what a PKP driver wore. It is a small detail on a figure two centimetres tall, and it is the most political thing in the box.

One locomotive, two countries

The BR 52 was built between 1942 and 1945 in factories across occupied Europe, deliberately cheap and expected to last only a few years. Poland inherited over 1,200 after the war and ran them as the Ty2 for decades — the same machine, a different flag on the smokebox, and no acknowledgement in either country's telling of where it came from.

In the COBI range

Sets 6281 and 6282 are the larger 69 cm versions of this locomotive with tender. Set 6284 is the SSYS flat wagon.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,723 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:35 · Builds German or Polish version · Five track sections · No stickers
Model dimensions: 41 × 9.5 × 14 cm (16.1 × 3.7 × 5.5 in)