Assistance please

[Guest]

Does anyone know the process of how they used to load heavy armored vehicles i.e. tanks onto flatbed railway wagons during the war?

scott:shaving:

[Guest]

The only thing I can add here for you is from pictures I have seen in my Tiger books. From what I can gather they had a couple of ramps at the back of the train and the tank drove up the ramps then along the full length of the train from one flat bed trailer to another. Subsequent tanks would follow until the train was filled up. The interesting things with the Tiger of course was the fact that they had to have transport tracks fitted as the normal tracks were too wide for the railway ftal trailers.

Not a lot of help but I'll have a look through my books again and see if there is anything more there.

[tr1ckey66]

Take a look at Trumpeter's soon to be released Schwerer plattform ssyms 80

Coming Soon From Trumpeter Schwere Plattformwagen Type SSyms 80 | Military Models

This shows the ramp which apparently spans over rail buffers that was described by Richard. Might be a case of simply waiting for this kit (might be a while though).

Transport tracks would be required for both Tiger 1s and 2s.

Cheers

Paul

[Guest]

I've has a look through my Tiger books and can only find pictures of the tanks on the railway flat trucks not actually in the process of loading or unloading. I'll keep looking though but it looks like Paul has got just the thing there.

[spanner570]

Regarding the Tiger 1 tracks, there are photos of these tanks on flatbeds with their combat tracks fitted. Although a rare occurance it did happen, particularly where rapid deployment of armour was required.

One method used for loading was to back the whole train up to a suitable platform/ loading area the same height as the flatbed and simply drive the tank on and along the length of the train to the front. This method did away with the need for ramps which frequently bent and twisted under the weight of the armour.

Cranes were also used but mostly at the maintenance / repair depots.

Cheers all,

Ron

[Guest]

The only thing I can add here for you is from pictures I have seen in my Tiger books. From what I can gather they had a couple of ramps at the back of the train and the tank drove up the ramps then along the full length of the train from one flat bed trailer to another. Subsequent tanks would follow until the train was filled up. The interesting things with the Tiger of course was the fact that they had to have transport tracks fitted as the normal tracks were too wide for the railway ftal trailers.Not a lot of help but I'll have a look through my books again and see if there is anything more there.

I have only seen pictures on the Miltary Channel and History channels where as quoted above the tanks rolled along the train unitl it filled up from the rear of the train. I must admit I have not seen many pictures of tanks being loaded onto a train. Sorry I cannot help anymore with this one

Andy

[PJP]

As described above, tanks were driven onto the train up ramps or from loading docks, and then the full length of the train. For the unload, the locomotive was disconnected and the train then pushed up to the loading dock or ramps fitted, so the tanks could drive off forwards.

Incidentally, the same system as is used at the Channel Tunnel to this very day.

Isn't progress a wonderful thing?

P

[Guest]

Thanks for the info guys, paul outstanding i've got the dragon one with panzerIII but the ramp is new, cheers to all of you.

scott