Schienenzeppelin
Encyclopedia
The or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar
which resembles a zeppelin
airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg
in 1929. Propulsion was by means of a propeller
located at the rear, it accelerated the railcar to 230.2 km/h (143 mph) setting the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle
. Only a single example was ever built, which due to safety concerns remained out of service and was finally dismantled in 1939.
, an experimental Russian high-speed railcar, was also equipped with an aircraft engine and a propeller.
The railcar 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 vehicle was 25.85 metres (84.8 ft) long and had just two axles, with a wheelbase
of 19.6 m (64.3 ft). The height was 2.8 metres (9.2 ft). As originally built it had two conjoined BMW IV
6 cylinder petrol aircraft engine
s (later a single BMW VI
12 cylinder of 600 hp) driving a four-bladed (later two-bladed), fixed pitch ash
propeller. The driveshaft was raised 7 degrees above the horizontal to give the vehicle some downwards thrust. The body of the Schienenzeppelin was streamlined
, having some resemblance to the era's popular Zeppelin
airships, and it was built of aluminum in aircraft style to reduce weight. The railcar could carry up to 40 passengers; its interior was spartan and designed in Bauhaus
-style.
On 10 May 1931, the Schienenzeppelin exceeded a speed of 200 km/h (124.3 mph) for the first time. Afterwards, it was exhibited to the general public throughout Germany. On 21 June 1931, it set a new world railway speed record of 230.2 km/h (143 mph) on the Berlin–Hamburg line between Karstädt
and Dergenthin, which was not surpassed by any other rail vehicle until 1954. The railcar still holds the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle
. This high speed was attributable, amongst other things, to its low weight, which was only 20.3 tonnes (20 LT).
In 1932 Kruckensberg began a new project with the rail car involving significant modifications. It was cut 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. These changes meant that the earlier 1-1 wheel arrangement
was replaced by B-1 with the front axle
replaced by a powered bogie
.This version of the vehicle reached 180 km/h (111.8 mph) at the beginning of 1933.
Due to many problems with the Schienenzeppelin prototype, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
decided to go their own way in developing a high speed railcar, leading to the Fliegender Hamburger (Flying Hamburger) in 1933. This new design was suitable for regular service and served also as the basis for later railcar developments. However, many of the Kruckenberg ideas, based on the experiments with Schienenzeppelin and high speed rail travel, found their way into later DRG railcar designs.
At the beginning of 1934 the Schienenzeppelin was rebuilt for the last time, and a Maybach
GO 5 engine was installed. In July 1934 it was sold to Deutsche Reichsbahn
(German Imperial Railway) for 10,000 Reichsmarks. Five years later, in 1939 the rail zeppelin was finally dismantled because its material was needed by the German army.
One disadvantage of the rail zeppelin was the inherent difficulty of pulling additional wagon
s to form a train, because of its construction. Furthermore, the vehicle 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.
Safety concerns have been associated with running high-speed railcars on old track network, with the inadvisability of reversing the vehicle, and with operating a prop in close proximity to passengers.
Several versions of the Schienenzeppelin have been produced by the German model railway manufacturer Märklin
, in Z
, H0, 0 and 1 scales. One true-to-original version is the Z scale model, produced as a limited production run in 1982 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Z scale
.
Kato/Hobbytrain created an N scale
version of the Schienenzeppelin in 2005; which includes a PAL format DVD, with original footage of the prototype train.
Railcar
A railcar, in British English and Australian English, is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach , with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railways, e.g., the Great Western...
which resembles a zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg
Franz Kruckenberg
Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg was an engineer and pioneer of high speed railway systems. He designed several high speed trains. His most famous train was the Schienenzeppelin....
in 1929. Propulsion was by means of a propeller
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
located at the rear, it accelerated the railcar to 230.2 km/h (143 mph) setting the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle
Land speed record for railed vehicles
Determination of the fastest rail vehicle in the world varies depending on the definition of "rail".Official absolute world record for conventional train is held by the French TGV...
. Only a single example was ever built, which due to safety concerns remained out of service and was finally dismantled in 1939.
History
Anticipating the design of the Schienenzeppelin, the earlier AerowagonAerowagon
The Aerowagon or aeromotowagon was an experimental high-speed railcar fitted with an aircraft engine and propeller traction invented by Valerian Abakovsky, a Russian engineer and communist from Latvia...
, an experimental Russian high-speed railcar, was also equipped with an aircraft engine and a propeller.
The railcar was built at the beginning of 1930 in the Hannover-Leinhausen works of the German Imperial Railway "Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
" company. The work was completed by autumn of the same year. The vehicle was 25.85 metres (84.8 ft) long and had just two axles, with a wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
of 19.6 m (64.3 ft). The height was 2.8 metres (9.2 ft). As originally built it had two conjoined BMW IV
BMW IV
The BMW IV was a six-cylinder, water-cooled inline aircraft engine built in Germany in the 1920s. Power was in the 180 kW range. The IV was also produced under license by Junkers as the L2 which spawned the L5....
6 cylinder petrol aircraft engine
Aircraft engine
An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...
s (later a single BMW VI
BMW VI
|-See also:- External links :...
12 cylinder of 600 hp) driving a four-bladed (later two-bladed), fixed pitch ash
Ash tree
Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...
propeller. The driveshaft was raised 7 degrees above the horizontal to give the vehicle some downwards thrust. The body of the Schienenzeppelin was streamlined
Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
, having some resemblance to the era's popular Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
airships, and it was built of aluminum in aircraft style to reduce weight. The railcar could carry up to 40 passengers; its interior was spartan and designed in Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
-style.
On 10 May 1931, the Schienenzeppelin exceeded a speed of 200 km/h (124.3 mph) for the first time. Afterwards, it was exhibited to the general public throughout Germany. On 21 June 1931, it set a new world railway speed record of 230.2 km/h (143 mph) on the Berlin–Hamburg line between Karstädt
Karstädt
Karstädt is a municipality in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany....
and Dergenthin, which was not surpassed by any other rail vehicle until 1954. The railcar still holds the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle
Land speed record for railed vehicles
Determination of the fastest rail vehicle in the world varies depending on the definition of "rail".Official absolute world record for conventional train is held by the French TGV...
. This high speed was attributable, amongst other things, to its low weight, which was only 20.3 tonnes (20 LT).
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
, resembling the later 137 155
DRG Class SVT 137
The DRG Class SVT 137 was a class of streamlined diesel train sets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft and later of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn...
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. These changes meant that the earlier 1-1 wheel arrangement
Wheel arrangement
In rail transport, a wheel arrangement is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed beneath a locomotive.. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and connections, with the adopted notations varying by country...
was replaced by B-1 with the front axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...
replaced by a powered bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
.This version of the vehicle reached 180 km/h (111.8 mph) at the beginning of 1933.
Due to many problems with the Schienenzeppelin prototype, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Reichsbahn – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual states of the German Empire following the end of World War I....
decided to go their own way in developing a high speed railcar, leading to the Fliegender Hamburger (Flying Hamburger) in 1933. This new design was suitable for regular service and served also as the basis for later railcar developments. However, many of the Kruckenberg ideas, based on the experiments with Schienenzeppelin and high speed rail travel, found their way into later DRG railcar designs.
At the beginning of 1934 the Schienenzeppelin was rebuilt for the last time, and a Maybach
Maybach
Maybach-Motorenbau GmbH is a German luxury car manufacturer. It was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son. The company was originally a subsidiary of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH and was itself known as Luftfahrzeug-Motorenbau GmbH until 1912.Today, the ultra-luxury car brand is owned by...
GO 5 engine was installed. In July 1934 it was sold to Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
(German Imperial Railway) for 10,000 Reichsmarks. Five years later, in 1939 the rail zeppelin was finally dismantled because its material was needed by the German army.
Criticism
The failure of Schienenzeppelin has been attributed to everything from the dangers of using an open propeller in crowded railway stations to fierce competition between Kruckenberg's company and the Deutsche Reichsbahn's separate efforts to build highspeed railcars.One disadvantage of the rail zeppelin was the inherent difficulty of pulling additional wagon
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
s to form a train, because of its construction. Furthermore, the vehicle 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.
Safety concerns have been associated with running high-speed railcars on old track network, with the inadvisability of reversing the vehicle, and with operating a prop in close proximity to passengers.
Model railway
Märklin
Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Wurttemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accessories, today it is best known for model railways and technical toys...
, in Z
Z scale
Z scale is one of the smallest commercially available model railway scales with a track gauge of . Z scale trains operate on 0-10 volts direct current and offer the same operating characteristics as all other two-rail, direct-current, analog model railways...
, H0, 0 and 1 scales. One true-to-original version is the Z scale model, produced as a limited production run in 1982 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Z scale
Z scale
Z scale is one of the smallest commercially available model railway scales with a track gauge of . Z scale trains operate on 0-10 volts direct current and offer the same operating characteristics as all other two-rail, direct-current, analog model railways...
.
Kato/Hobbytrain created an N scale
N scale
N scale is a popular model railway scale/track gauge. Depending upon the manufacturer , the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. In all cases, the gauge is . The term N gauge refers to the track dimensions, but in the UK in particular N gauge refers to a 1:148 scale with track gauge modelling...
version of the Schienenzeppelin in 2005; which includes a PAL format DVD, with original footage of the prototype train.
See also
- Bennie RailplaneBennie RailplaneThe Bennie Railplane was a form of rail transport invented by George Bennie , which moved along an overhead rail by way of propellers. Despite superficial appearances, it was not a monorail, as it used both an overhead running rail and a guide rail below...
- AérotrainAérotrainThe Aérotrain was a Hovertrain developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance...
, a French hovercraft train using ducted fanDucted fanA ducted fan is a propulsion arrangement whereby a fan, which is a type of propeller, is mounted within a cylindrical shroud or duct. The duct reduces losses in thrust from the tip vortices of the fan, and varying the cross-section of the duct allows the designer to advantageously affect the...
s and jet engines