Rail zeppelin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The rail zeppelin is a railcar which resembles a zeppelin airship in appearance. It was developed by the German engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929. Propulsion was by means of an airplane propeller located at the rear, and only a single example was ever built.
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[edit] History
The train was built at the beginning of 1930 in the Hannover-Leinhausen works of the German Imperial Railway "Deutsche Reichsbahn" company. The work was completed by autumn of the same year. The train was 25.85 m long and had just two axles, with a wheelbase of 19.6m. As originally built it had a BMW VI 12 cylinder aircraft engine of 600 horse power driving a four bladed fixed pitch wooden propeller. The drive shaft was raised 7 degrees above the horizontal to give the vehicle some downwards thrust.
On May 10th 1931 the train exceeded a velocity of 200 km/h for the first time. Afterwards it was exhibited to the general public throughout Germany. In June 21th 1931 the train set up a new world railway speed record of 230 km/h on its way from Hamburg to Berlin which was not surpassed by any other train for 24 years. This high speed was attributable, amongst other things, to its low weight, which was only 20.3t.
In 1932 Kruckensberg began a new project with the rail car involving significant modifications. It was cut in two just behind the forward wheels and received a complete new front end with a two-axle bogie, resembling the later 137 155 railcar. The rear single axle remained as it was. The modifications were completed by November 1932. The aircraft engine was still used, however, the power transmission was hydraulic through two Fottinger- Fluid drives for both directions of travel, these were fitted on the forward bogie. A pointed fairing was installed in place of the propeller. This version of the vehicle reached 180km/h at the beginning of 1933.
At the beginning of 1934 the train was rebuilt for the last time, and a Maybach GO 5 engine was installed. In July 1934 it was sold to the "Deutsche Reichsbahn" (German Imperial Railway) company for 10,000 Reichsmarks. Five years later the rail zeppelin was finally dismantled because its material was needed by the German army.
[edit] Limitations
One disadavantage of the rail zeppelin was the inherent difficulty of pulling additional wagons to form a train, because of its construction. Furthermore, the train could not use its propeller to climb steep gradients, as the flow would separate when full power was applied. Thus an additional means of propulsion was needed for such circumstances.
[edit] Model railway
A model of the rail zeppelin was produced by the "Märklin" company. It was powered by an electric motor driving the wheels rather than by the propeller, but the propeller is spun up before the train is set in motion to give some semblance of realism.
