Vomag Rail Truck

“Goods belong on the railroad“. This well-known advertising slogan by the German Federal Railroad (DB) was a matter of course before the Second World War. Nevertheless, the industry had already developed powerful trucks that were more than capable of transporting heavy loads. Back then, the German State Railroad Company also wanted to benefit from this cost-effective means of transport on the railroad. As a result, it purchased standard production trucks from various leading manufacturers and converted them to run on rails. Included among these were numerous examples from the catalog of Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG (VOMAG), one of the major truck manufacturers at the time. In addition to construction duties, the distinctive “long-nosed” vehicles were also intended to perform light switching duties. Buffer beams and couplers for this purpose were installed at the front and rear. Otherwise, the vehicles remained largely unchanged, which is why these vehicles only had one reverse gear. As a result, they could only negotiate a limited curve radius. Alternatively, a turntable had to be found in order to change direction. To enable more flexible operation, some rail trucks were coupled together back-to-back. And several “VOMAGs” even made it into the German Federal Railroad’s fleet. Painted a smart red, they operated construction services for the Hamburg regional management until around 1960. A vehicle like this is a real eye-catcher on a model railroad – especially with a freight car in tow.

Prototype: German Federal Railroad (DB) Vomag (Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG) rail truck 5, as it looked in era III.