Product Features and Details
THE FIRST AUSTRIAN CROCODILE PRODUCED IN 1-GAUGE
Model: The new Spur 1 Austrian Crocodile is a museum quality handmade model. Model is constructed completely of brass in very small limited quantities. Model is equipped with two Maxon brushless ironless high efficiency motors, ESU XL sound decoder, warm LED lights and a maintenance free kardan shaft drive. Model has a tremendous amount of detail including a full cab interior, under carriage detail and external detail. The running performance of the Crocodile is amazing with its two powerful motors and incredible weight of 14 pounds it will be able to haul a very long train. Spur1's new Austrian crocodile will be delivered in Fall of 2012, Spur1 will produce 11 different versions in different colors and eras. For more information please feel free to contact us 1-888-762-6872
Prototype: The original "Crocodiles" were the series SBB Ce 6/8 II and SBB Ce 6/8 III locomotives of the SBB, Swiss Federal Railways, built between 1919 and 1927. These locomotives were developed for pulling heavy goods trains on the steep tracks of the Gotthardbahn from Lucerne to Chiasso, including the Gotthard Tunnel.
The electric motors available at the time were large and had to be body-mounted, but flexibility was required to negotiate the tight curves on the Alpine routes and tunnels. An articulated design, with two powered nose units bridged with a pivoting center section containing cabs and the heavy transformer, met both requirements and gave excellent visibility from driving cabs mounted safely away from any collision. These locomotives, sometimes called the 'Swiss Crocodile' or 'SBB Crocodile', were highly successful and served until the 1980s. Several are still in operation as preserved historical locomotives.
Very similar locomotives were used in Austria as Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahn) classes ÖBB 1089 and ÖBB 1189, and are often known as 'Austrian Crocodiles'.
After the Swiss and Austrian standard gauge Crocodiles, the best known are the Rhaetian Railway (RhB)'s meter gauge locomotives of class Ge 6/6 I, the Rhaetian Crocodile. Several of these still run on passenger trains on special occasions. They are also used on freight trains in busy periods. The Bernina Railway (later merged with the RhB) also built a single Crocodile type, the Ge 4/4, nicknamed the 'Bernina Crocodile'. This locomotive survived and is being restored to operating condition.
Two Swiss narrow-gauge railways also have locomotive nicknamed Crocodiles; the BVZ Zermatt-Bahn (BVZ) (which merged with the Furka-Oberalp-Bahn (FO) in 2003 to form the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn) uses series HGe 4/4 I, known as the Zermatt crocodile, while the Chemin de Fer Yverdon-Ste. Croix owns a solitary class Ge 4/4 #21. Neither of these locomotive types have an articulated body, which leads some railfans to nickname them "false crocodiles".
The German classes E 93 and E 94, also used by the ÖBB as series 1020, are sometimes called 'German crocodiles'. They are sometimes nicknamed "Alligators", instead, because of their broader, shorter snouts.
The French DC 25 kV CC locomotives of series 14000 and 14100 of the SNCF, used mainly for iron ore trains on the Thionville-Valencienne line, were also nicknamed "crocodile".
Crocodile locomotives were also used in India. These locomotives, of series WCG1, were used from 1928 between Bombay and Pune, and were all built to the Indian broad gauge of 5 ft 6 in. The first 10 locomotives were built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works. Vulcan Foundry of Great Britain constructed a further 31 examples for this line.
