Again, my work is inspired by a video (link) I saw from a big dealer for Lego® alternatives in Germany. Seeing the video, I can’t understand, why people should even consider buying something like that, with all its lacks in driving especially in passing curves. Actually, it isn’t usable on track layouts with curves from my point of view. “There has to be a better way.”, I told myself…
So, I went to my “Lego room”, closed the door and spent several hours - actually days - in the construction of my version of the Schnabel car. My orientation was the biggest Schnabel car running in Germany, the Uaai 839. This monster has 32 axles, and I wanted the same for my Lego model. Several versions were built and disassembled again. In between the results were so bad that I thought about creating just a display model. But my stubbornness didn't give up until I found a more than just acceptable way. Now, the total train with all three cars has a length of over 200 cm and has an excellent driving behaviour.
I will not go in details of the original Schnabel car. If you are interested, you can visit the following pages:
English: Schnabel car - Wikipedia
German: Tragschnabelwagen – Wikipedia
Uaai 839 pictures: Schnabel car - Wikipedia
Features of my MOC:
- it comes with the Schnabel car itself, with an equipment car and a caboose for the crew
- the Schnabel car has 32 axles (8 bogies on each end connected with a complex span bolster arrangement)
- fully suitable for curves down to R56 and turnouts down to R40
- a special connection (I call it snake mechanism) between load and the beak-like beams helps to avoid a huge overhang in the curves and turnouts, the Schnabel car clings perfectly in the curves
- the load (transformer) can be unloaded, and the two car halves can be connected to one car
- the accompanying caboose (Lü-Begleitwagen) can extend side panels which simulate the extra width of the load. These panels help to see whether the Schnabel car behind the caboose can pass the passage or not and a viewing window for the person who observes the rail surrounding while driving can also be pulled out
To not further extend the length of the train, I decided to reduce the length of caboose and equipment car. You can remove the load and exchange it by any other load you want. The snake mechanism will still work. The only requirement is, you use the same anchor points for your load as I did for the transformer.
There is a video, I made to show the work of the “snake” mechanism. You can see it here.
MOC stats:
Schnabel Car Equipment Car Caboose Total
Length: 179.9 studs 31.2 studs 51.2 studs 262.1 studs
Width: 10.8 studs 8.9 studs 8.9 studs 10.8 studs
Height: 13.8 studs 13.6 studs 13.8 studs 13.8 studs
Weight: 2900 grams 400 grams 800 grams 4000 grams
Parts: approx. 3500 approx. 400 approx. 900 approx. 4800
I provide a detailed step-by-step building instruction. At the end of it, you find an overview of all needed parts.
A print-ready sticker sheet is available too (in case the model contains stickers). I provide it in the widely used PDF-format in high-resolution and print-ready.
Furthermore, I provide the parts list in Excel format. This makes it easy to filter out needed parts and create order lists.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damages or injury on parts and humans happen while following my instructions. Everything you do is your responsibility and under your personal risk.
Link to the instruction and sticker files:
Link to more pictures of the model:
Link to a video about driveability of the model:
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