Austria-Hungary

Generatorzugwagen M.16

When Skoda started working on their new generation of super-heavy guns, the 24cm M.16, the 38cm M.16 and the 42cm M.16, it was soon obvious that these new artillery pieces needed a new type of transportation. For this new tractor, the decision was made to use a so called gasoline-electric engine. A 6-cylinder 20.32 liter gasoline engine drove a generator, and the generator in it's turn drove two electrical engines, one for each back axle. The generator car did not pull the trailer, as much as gave it power: the same generator also fed eight electrical motors on a four axle trailer - which contained one of the disassembled parts of the gun.  The whole design was quite complex, perhaps overly so in modern eyes. But it worked. On good road with gentle gradients, one of these tractors could pull two trailers, to a maximum speed of 12km/h. This could be increased to 14km/h if the number of trailers were reduced to only one. With one trailer, a gradient of 26º could be negotiated, with two trailers a gradient of only 20º. All in all it was quite a handsome movement capacity, at least compared to all contemporary designs. And it was very reliable, as many systems had back-ups, and as the design was very robust. And it made the use of the above mentioned famous super-heavy Austro-Hungarian Guns possible. My model is made from MGM's 1/72 resin kit. The kit has some flaws, especially when it comes to the finish of some parts, but it is worth the effort. The crew comes from HÄT's Austrian Heavy Weapons Set. Click on the thumbnails to see more views of this model:

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