COBI Schwerer Plattformwagen Type SSYS Set 6284

COBI's Schwerer Plattformwagen Type SSYS is a 1:35 model built from 424 blocks, 39.5 cm long — a German four-axle heavy flat wagon rated for loads up to 50 tonnes. The wheels roll, it couples to COBI's locomotives, and it is sized to carry the 1:35 tanks in the range. A German railway guard figure with a miniature lamp and three track sections totalling 39 cm are included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Tanks went to war by train

This is the wagon that makes the rest of a tank collection make sense.

A heavy tank of the period could not drive to the front. A Tiger's final drives and tracks wore out over a few hundred kilometres, fuel consumption over open country was ruinous, and a column of them on a road tore the road apart. So armour moved by rail almost everywhere, and only the last stretch was driven.

That constraint shaped the tanks themselves. A Tiger was too wide for the German loading gauge on its normal tracks, so it carried a second, narrower set of transport tracks: the crew jacked the vehicle up, removed the outer road wheels and changed the tracks before loading, and reversed the process on arrival. Hours of work, every single move, because the railway would not widen its tunnels for a tank.

An SSYS could take a Panzer IV or a Panther directly. Anything heavier needed a six-axle wagon.

In the COBI range

The wagon couples behind the BR 52 locomotives (6281, 6282, 6283) and is built to carry COBI's 1:35 armour — the Panzer IV, the Sherman, the T-34 and the rest of the range at that scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 424 · Figures: 1 railway guard with lamp · Scale: 1:35 · Three track sections, 39 cm · No stickers
Model dimensions: 39.5 × 8 cm (15.6 × 3.1 in)