Soviet Armored Trains

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by McCoy

I think the whole idea with armoured trains is a moot point 'cos it's so easy to take ot the tracks...

Track is relatively easy to repair. Bridges are, of course, another matter. But roads had bridges as well.

German (and most other European) trains ran on a narrower gauge than did Soviet trains. That meant that pretty much all track needed to be relaid as they advanced, and much of it was as trains were what was used for supplying the front line troops.

The same held true for the Soviets as they recaptured their territory and advanced in Poland and Hungary, except in reverse.

See Deutsche Reichsbahn - The German State Railway in WWII for an excellent review.

[cyberia]

Good point, Jim. I noticed that in my Reichsbahn photos the deeper east they seem to go the Soviet trains that were in use by the Wehrmacht. No doubt for the reasons you cited.


Great link too.

[TRDG]

I always loved this topic, I don't have much to add here, but I love the pics!!
Are there any battle reports on some of the trains actions somewhere?
And (for now), who "came up" with the concept of this in WW II, I know there were other trains "in combat" before I think, but for putting so much firepowere into these trains, a pretty wild armour build up (race?) on both sides it seems.

Cheers, thanks cyberia!!

Tom

[Jim O]

Actually they were around in the early days of armor during World War I.

The Russians were using them during their civil war. This is a photo of a "White" armored train from 1918:
1918-RussianArmoredTrain.jpg


This is a Hungarian model from 1915:
TRAIN7.JPG


This last one is a USA model from 1916:
usa_armored-train_1916.jpg

[TRDG]

Thanks Jim, I saw some other pictures some years ago, that did'nt quite fit with WW II trains, now I know what should have been captioned under them!!


Cheers

Tom

[cyberia]

OK guys, a few others I was able to dig up...

I believe this one was named "Kotovski"



The "Moscow"



The BP43 "Metro"

[Wolster]

Ok, not going to be picky this time!

Kotovski was a deserter from the Imperial army and resisted Tsarist rule.

Details from Wiki HERE

Cough, Muskovite, i.e somebody from Moscow, cough!

[cyberia]

Like I said before, Russian is Greek to me.

[Wolster]

Originally Posted by cyberia

Like I said before, Russian is Greek to me.

me too, but the wife speaks it like a native. She knew who Kotovski was which i thought was interesting (Kotovski, not that she knew).

[cyberia]

Just when I think I have run out of photos of these things I find more...

An Armored engine and tender, no clue what is lettered across it

Another armored engine, type unknown

Apparently, Soviet armored flatbed cars could also double as stages