Model: Each REI Military locomotive is professionally hand-painted and thus highly unique. The locomotives are professionally painted in authentic camouflage patterns, and each one is disassembled, masked, and airbrushed before being reassembled for the final touches. You'll find such features as carefully attached armor plates, which can also be easily removed, painted wheels and under frames, weathered boilers and steel Reichsbahn Eagles with authentic swastikas. For this REI Model we used a Roco BR 50 with sound. The Roco BR 50 is a highly detailed model which features interior cab details, prototypical "daylight" between boiler and chassis, finely detailed Heusinger valve gear, brake shoes between the wheels and much more. Model also has cast metal chassis, and a high quality can motor with flywheel. Model runs extremely smooth because both the locomotive and tender wheels are powered. Model is equipped with a PluX16 DCC recepticle, NEM 362 coupler pockets and illumination that changes with the direction of travel. This is a unique model that will make a great addition to any collection.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Our artist is a professional model builder and one of the world's premier commission scale model artists in North America. He is also a former US Army paratrooper and has garnered over 300 awards for his work. He has published dozens of articles in numerous scale modeling magazines and has painted box art buildups for most of the world's leading scale model companies. His work is found in private collections around the globe. This is a great opportunity to own a true piece of art by a master modeler.
Prototype: The DRB (Deutsche Reichsbahn) class 50 is a German 2-10-0 locomotive, built in 1939 as a standard locomotive (Einheitsdampflokomotive) for hauling goods trains. It had become one of the most successful designs produced for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, with one leading axle and five coupled axles. Leading up to the Second World War, this class of engine was procured as part of the German Nazi party's preparations for the war. Up to 1948, 3,164 Class 50 engines were manufactured by almost all the European locomotive factories. Towards the end of the war, these so-called provisional war locomotives (bergangskriegslokomotiven) were reclassified as 50UK. At the end of the steam locomotive era they became virtually a universal class of mixed-traffic steam engine that, thanks to their low axle load, could even be employed on branch lines with light track beds. The Deutsche Bundesbahn grouped the locomotives into Classes 050, 051, 052 and 053 from 1968, so that the numbers were computer-compatible.
In spite of wartime losses, a large number of engines survived and could still easily be found in 1945. No fewer than 2,159 working locomotives were acquired by the Deutsche Bundesbahn and for a long time together with the DRG Class 44, served as the backbone of goods traffic operations. They could also be found used for passenger services. To protect the engine crew when running in reverse, the front of the tender (a 2'2' T 26) was furnished with a protective shield. On many locomotives the Wagner smoke deflectors were replaced by the Witte deflectors after the war. On 735 of the DB machines the tender was fitted with a driver's cab, which meant that the volume of the coal bunker had to be reduced.
The last DB (Deutsche Bundesbahn) locomotives were retired from Duisburg-Wedau in 1977. Only 350 examples of Class 50 engines remained with the DR in East Germany after the war. Since only a small number of the Class 44 fleet went to East Germany, the DRB Class 52 was the predominantly a goods train locomotive in many depots. Some of the original locomotives are preserved, including 50 622 and 50 849. The No. 50 622 is currently stabled in the Nuremberg Transport Museum, however it was badly damaged by a fire in the locomotive shed on the evening of 17 October 2005. With the aid of donations, it is expected to be repaired. The No. 50 849 belongs to the Glauchau Railway Society (Eisenbahnverein Glauchau) and has a Wagner smoke deflector.
After the Second World War many examples of Class 50 engines were left in the other European countries, and some were used until the end of the steam era. For example, they were in service in Poland,(55 re-designated PKP class Ty5),in the Czech Republic (28 re-designated CSD class 555.1), and some also remained in Austria and Denmark. The BR 50 was surely one of the greatest steam locomotives ever produced.
