Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) class SVT 04 powered express rail car. German State Railroad class SVT 137 "Hamburg". Two-unit design with a Jakobs truck. Version as "Montan Express" FT 231 from 1954. Model: The rail car has an mfx digital decoder and extensive sound functions. The rail car can be run on AC power, DC power, Märklin Digital, and DCC. It has controlled high-efficiency propulsion with a powerful motor in the Jacobs truck. 2 axles powered. The rail car has continuous side skirting with covers with side play over the wheel cutouts. It has a coupling with a guide mechanism and a diaphragm between the car halves. Maintenance-free LEDs are used for the lighting. The headlights / marker lights change over with the direction of travel. They and the engineer's cab lighting will work in conventional operation and can be controlled digitally. The roof parts have separately applied details. The rail car has reproductions (non-working) of Scharfenberg couplers at the ends. Minimum radius for operation 1,020 mm / 40-3/16". Length over the couplers 140.4 cm / 55-1/4". Control Unit Mobile Station Mobile Station 2 Central Station 1/2 Central Station 3/2 Headlight(s) X X X X X Interior lights X X X X X Diesel locomotive op. sounds X X X X X Horn X X X X X Direct control X X X X X Station Announcements X X X X Conductor's Whistle X X X X Warning Sound X X X X Doors Closing X X X Sound of squealing brakes off X X X Rail Joints X X X Brake Compressor X X X Prelubrication X X X Highlights: Prototypical tooling changes. Model based on the famous powered rail cars from the period of the "Flying Trains". mfx decoder for AC power, DC power, Märklin Digital, and DCC. Sophisticated sound circuit with 2 speakers for reproducing two separated systems as in the prototype. Prototypical drive gear on the central Jakobs truck. Detailed interior details and interior lighting built in. One-time series. Hamburg - Frankfurt - Luxembourg. The path was set in 1952 for the European economic miracle with the Montanunion, the European Community for Coal and Steel. A demand for commercial travel between the economic centers developed out of the European integration of heavy industry and the rebuilding of the infrastructure. The DB placed the F-Zug express trains into service as "Business Class" for this network. The banking centers of Frankfurt and Luxembourg were linked with trains F231/F232, which were given the descriptive name of "Montan Express". This train was in the schedules until 1956; the goals of European integration had spread much further by then. This route was served by the "Hamburg" design diesel powered express rail car train - in a thoroughly modernized version. The diesel electric drive in the Jakobs truck was replaced by two diesel hydraulic drives on the outer trucks. This made the train run quieter, easier and more economically. The former SVT 137 thereby became the VT 04.5 in a crimson paint scheme, the new look at that time for DB diesel locomotives and powered rail cars.
