BR52 - Model by Bruce McKinney
Under construction/modification by DErik (talk) 17:06, 27 August 2023 (PDT)
History
The first BR52 was produced in 1942 and was known as an "AUSTERITY CLASS" locomotive. Austerity means "extreme plainness and simplicity of style or appearance". This was not the only AUSTERITY CLASS locomotive in Germany - as most war time locomotives fell into the Austerity Class - meaning "simplified".
Hitler had mandated the new class of locomotive would replace the over complex BR50 - then the main "goods" locomotive in Germany. The demand was placed on the Armaments and Munitions Division with the demand to reduce man hours to build, use less and simplified materials, and all 13 production factories located in the occupied territories would not deviate from design or function.
In doing so, complex machining was reduced, simplified builds were done to use untrained labor, "frilly" items were deleted (such as front head lamp, railings, bell and smoke deflectors). The BR52 design accomplished these goals as the new design reduced build time by 6000 (yes, 6000 hours) over the BR50. Damaged locomotives were easily repaired as parts were produced identically in all factories. The BR52 was THE MOST produced steam locomotive produced by any nation at any time. War time production totaled 6300 - but total production reached 7,794 units. After the war, BR52's were distributed throughout Europe - the Russians re-numbering there's with a TE notation - meaning "war booty".
The crew of the BR52 were expected to work long hours - doing so, the locomotives were equipped with arm chairs for the engineer and fireman, as well as a cab hammock to give breaks to the crew. The cab was enclosed to keep the crew warm with a concertina cloth passage from the back of the locomotive cab to the coal doors on the tender. This locomotive saw much service on the Eastern Front - with those units being "winterized". All plumbing with fluids were plumbed under the outer skin with heavy insulation and the Knorr Compressor and water control valves were enclosed in insulated boxes. All to keep items from freezing.
Building the Model
My build inspiration was a locomotive currently displayed in Nürnberg (#52-6666) and still operates as the only "un-modernized war time correct" BR52. She runs specials and excursions throughout Germany today.
I started with a kit from Trumpeter (search for “B52” on the Trumpeter web site) – the Kriegslokomotive BR52 00210 is a 1:35 scale model. This Trumpeter kit was phenomenal. Trumpeter did an excellent job of capturing the major details and the overall build was pretty straight forward and trouble free. However, I opted to buy several after market details as they were just so much superior to the kit parts. Mainly the Knorr Compressor on the engineers side, whistle and the water control valves on the fireman's side. These were LZ Models items produced in Europe and are resin cast. I also replaced the kit provided smoke deflectors with brass deflectors from Voyager. These represented the after war add on's on this locomotive as war time locomotives had these "frilly" items omitted.
The Trumpeter kit has the original rigid frame tender.
This tender was quickly replaced as its faults were quickly apparent. The rigid frame did not allow the wheels to follow the curve of the track and resulted in many de-railment's and tearing up track. The water delivery system to the boiler was also slow on delivery. This style of tender was quickly replaced with a bathtub design tender with standard freight bogies.
The end of track bumper was scratch built using internet searches for vintage European RR bumpers.
Ground work is all various grass mats and bushes from Scenic Express. The two figures are from Mini Art and are period German RR workers. I felt it necessary to add these figures to give scale to just how big this locomotive was - both are 1/35th scale.