Review of PIKO 37850 DR 2 axle Selbstentladewagen (Self unloading wagon)

idlemarvel

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This wagon was released by PIKO last year:

20230225_160103.jpg


It's a kind of Maintenance of Way (MoW) ballast wagon (Shotterwagen). It appeals to me much more than the ridiculously small (210 mm long) 4-axle buffer-less Shüttgutwagen that PIKO have produced for years and which never existed on German railways.

This is much chunkier, longer (350 mm), and if you like that kind of thing the chutes on each side extend and you can release the load onto the track. It would look quite good as a static scenic item doing some track maintenance in this mode. It's quite fiddly trying to open the chute, it would be better if the levers operated it from the outside. There's probably scope for fitting a servo motor under the chassis if you wanted to automate the operation.

20230225_160201.jpg
It is quite a detailed model. It's all plastic so I can imagine some of the spindly (non-functioning) operating rods and levers might break in a child's hands (or clumsy adult - who me?). The length according to the writing on the model is 8.8 m which with a model length of 350 mm gives a scale of 1:25. Is there a prototype for this? Well yes there is and the model is quite a good resemblance.

dr-talbot-schotterwagen-230-661-magdeburg-649085.jpg


also
Franken_Pictures_2005_022_Talbot_hopper.jpg


But you can see the model has been stretched considerably to fit the standard PIKO goods-wagon-with-brake-platform chassis. The prototype has a length of 6.9 m not 8.8 m so that's a good 25% longer.

The UIC running number on the model is fiction but plausible:
20 (unused interchange code)
50 DR (country code, now 50 means Bosnia-Herzegovina but correct for DR in this era)
602 (special open wagon)
1916-4 (serial number with checksum)

Having said that IMO the model looks the part and runs well. If you wanted to run it as a narrow gauge model with a central buffer, the buffer beam is interchangeable, but it doesn't come shipped with an alternate buffer beam, you have to purchase it as a spare part ET37600-28. If you want to replace the plastic wheels with metals ones you need 35 mm diameter wheels. RRP is €168.

BTW the load in the picture is Playmobil "coal" 7843 which looks nothing like coal but is a good representation of ore of some kind. I suspect it is just waste extruded plastic off the factory floor of Playmobil (Geodis) which some bright spark decided they could sell!

20230225_160302.jpg

A new version of the model 37851 has just been released, exactly the same moulding but darker brown in DB era III livery.

 

dunnyrail

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If you can bear to visit Dunelm they occasionally have some black coal type product that has been mentioned here in the past, I think it is used for filling fake plant glass jars or somesuch. We did on the Ruschbahn dally with loading and unloading hopper wagons, the US ones were modified to be more European in look. But this failed as once the stone got even just slightly damp as it would not flow out of the wagons. You may get similar issues with fake plastic stone wanting to bond by surface tension of damp.
 

playmofire

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You look to have Playmobil stone there, Dave.
 

idlemarvel

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'Cos it looks like ballast :)
 

idlemarvel

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