Product Features and Details
Prototype: Swiss Federal Railways (SBB/CFF/FFS) class RABe four system electric powered rail car train. 6-car unit with 1 cab control car, 1st class, 1 open seating car, 1st class, 1 motor car with galley, 1 bar car with a 2nd class open seating area, 1 open seating car, 2nd class, and 1 cab control car, 2nd class. Rebuilt version in the typical SBB light and dark gray EC paint scheme. The train looks as it did when delivered in 19993 as Euro City train 154 "Killesberg".
Model: The power car is behind the 1st class open seating car in the 6-car train. It has an mfx digital decoder and a sound effects generator. It also has a 5-pole skewed armature motor with a flywheel, centrally mounted. 4 axles powered through cardan shafts. Traction tires. The headlights (they change over with the direction of travel) and interior lights are maintenance-free, warm white LEDs; the marker lights are maintenance-free red LEDs. The lights will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally. The train has four different pantographs in an offset arrangement and detailed roof equipment. The train also has separately applied metal grab irons. The engineer's cabs and the passenger areas have interior details. There is a special close coupled mechanical and electrical connection between the cars. Both end cars have pickup shoes, and the power pickup switches automatically to the pickup shoe at the front of the train. The ends of the train have a representation of the Scharfenberg coupler (non-working). Minimum radius for operation 360 mm / 14-3/16". Train length approximately 161.0 cm / 63-3/8".
Highlights:
- 6-car unit.
- Prototypical changes to the bodies and interiors.
- mfx decoder and sound generator.
- 5-pole skewed armature motor with a flywheel.
The EC RABe - A Gray Mouse in Cheese Land. After the end of TEE service and the beginning of Eurocity connections in 1987, the 5 class RAe powered rail car trains now operating as 6-car trains were rebuilt. Second class seating was installed, the class designation was therefore changed to RABe, these powered rail car trains were given a light gray / dark gray paint scheme in keeping with the EC look, but one that was rather monotone compared to the elegant TEE paint scheme. These trains were run on the routes Zürich-Milan and Zürich-Stuttgart and were soon known as "Gray Mice". The trains' age however became increasingly noticeable, and when transformer damage and axle breaks mounted up, they were reduced to TGV feeder service between Bern and Frasne and were retired by 1999. One of the trains was overhauled and restored in 2003 to the original TEE paint scheme; it is now an historic, operational train belonging to the group "SBB Historic".
