Trix 15777 - Express Train Passenger Car; 1st class

Prototype: Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) skirted express train passenger car, 1st class, in the so-called blood orange "Jaffa" paint scheme. The car looks as it did around 1984. 

Model: The car has a close coupler mechanism. Length over the buffers 133 mm / 5-1/4". 

One-time series. 

T15777 – ÖBB Skirted Express Train Passenger Car, 1st Class In the second half of the Thirties, the DRG purchased new passenger cars especially to decrease air resistance and to the increase the speed of normal D-Zug express trains to 150 km/h / 94 mph. The result was the so-called "Schürzenwagen" / "Skirted Cars" with entry doors mounted flush on the car bodies, skirting on the side sills, and up to 150 millimeters / 5-7/8" wrapped around the buffer ends making the car walls rounded at the ends. After the end of World War II, various skirted cars remained in the Austrian area. After the exit of Soviet reparations and the return of cars used since that time by the American occupiers, the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) had by 1955 forty-three skirted cars on its roster. Among them were six type AB4ü-38 passenger cars that were only a few years old and that were therefore viewed as very modern. They were now quickly placed into service again as purely 1st class cars, chiefly in international service. Over the course of time, the ÖBB did several conversions in order to satisfy growing requirements. Among these changes were equipping the cars with type "Wegmann 15" trucks with a maximum speed of 140 km/h / 88 mph. The interiors were also updated in line with the spirit of the time, but the division of space in the cars remained the same. Due to the axle generators now present on the trucks, the skirting had to be shortened in this area. Another critical improvement was the replacement of the accordion diaphragms on the ends of the cars with rubber diaphragms. The lengthening of the transitions on the ends of the cars with metal shapes allowed the mounting of the rubber diaphragms. The appearance of the cars experienced a striking change with the installation of sliding windows. The skirted express train passenger cars were among the most comfortable cars in service until the purchase of new passenger cars by the ÖBB. They were RIC capable until 1979 and ran in high quality, international trains. They were then used exclusively in domestic trains thus putting them in second rank, yet at least two cars are proved to have made it into the blood orange Jaffa paint scheme. Four of these skirted cars were overhauled for the historic trains during the anniversary "150 Years of Railroads in Austria" in 1987 and they were repainted in fir green. They then took their place in nostalgia service, but by 2008 at the latest all were put into storage. 

66616 LED lighting kit.