COBI Kriegslokomotive Baureihe 52 Set 6281

COBI's Kriegslokomotive Baureihe 52 is a 1:35 model built from 2,476 blocks, 69 cm long, in the grey finish used on German military locomotives on the Eastern Front. The engine room roof lifts off to show the controls and the firebox with burning coal printed inside. Gears connect the wheels so that pushing the model drives the whole running gear, and five track sections totalling around 65 cm are included, along with a German military railwayman figure and a nameplate. All markings are pad-printed; no stickers.

A locomotive designed to be thrown away

Kriegslokomotive means war locomotive, and the Baureihe 52 was built to a brief almost no engineer would accept in peacetime: make it as cheap as possible, use as little copper, brass and tin as possible, and do not worry about how long it lasts.

The result cut around 6,000 working hours per engine compared with the locomotive it replaced. Every component that could be simplified was simplified, castings replaced machined parts, and the expected service life was a few years — long enough to win the war with.

Between 1942 and 1945 more than 6,700 were built across factories in Germany, Austria, Poland, Belgium, France and the occupied Czech lands, which makes it one of the most-produced steam locomotives in history.

What it was for

The Eastern Front ran on rail. The distances were too great and the roads too poor for lorries, and every shell, every tank and every man moving east did so behind a locomotive like this one. The grey paint on this model marks it as a military machine rather than a civilian one.

In the COBI range

Set 6282 is the same locomotive in standard black, and 6283 the 2-in-1 with German and Polish markings. Set 6284 is the SSYS flat wagon, which couples behind it and carries a 1:35 tank.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,476 · 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)