BlueBrixx's V200 Locomotive is a BlueBrixx-Specials model built from 675 blocks, around 34 cm long. Age 14+.
The instructions are a download
BlueBrixx supplies the building instructions for this set as a free download after registering on its website. There is no printed manual in the box β normal for the Specials range, and worth knowing beforehand.
Two engines, and why
The V200 has an unusual layout: two separate diesel engines, one at each end, each driving one bogie through its own transmission.
The reason was reliability. In the early 1950s a single engine large enough to haul an express train was heavy, and if it failed the train stopped. Two smaller engines meant a failure left the locomotive at half power rather than dead β enough to clear the line and reach the next station, which is the difference between a delay and a blockage.
It also let the Bundesbahn use engines that already existed, developed for ships and heavy vehicles, rather than waiting for a new design.
The locomotive of the Wirtschaftswunder
The V200 entered service in 1953 and became West Germany's first mass-produced mainline diesel. It hauled the prestige trains β including the Trans-Europ-Express services β and its rounded front end appeared on posters, in newsreels and on model railways throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
That made it something more than a locomotive. It ran on lines that had not been electrified, into a countryside still visibly recovering, in the colours of a railway announcing that things were working again. A great many Germans of a certain age recognise the shape instantly without being able to say why.
It was replaced as electrification spread, and a number survive in museums and on heritage lines.
In the BlueBrixx range
Sets 102921 (Big Boy) and 104004 (US Shunting Locomotive) are the other locomotives, and 101043, 102535 and 102788 the station buildings.
Specifications
Pieces: 675 Β· Series: BlueBrixx-Specials Β· Age: 14+ Β· Instructions as free download, no printed manual
Model length: approx. 34 cm (13.4 in)
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