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Modeller Build Logs
Scratch-building the PP 2 Armoured Train |
| By Pawel Kowalski | | Started: | Oct 31, 2006 | | Updated: | Nov 10, 2006 |
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This is a blog describing my attempt to scratch-build the Polish PP 2 "Smialy" armored train. I had for a long time wanted to build an armoured train. There is simply something about the sheer size, the fortress / battleship like appearance that appeals to me.
I choose the Smialy train, because, being one of the first dedicated armoured trains in Polish service, and having a notable history, it has received quite a bit of exposure in the eyes of the contemporary media and the historians of today. Meaning, there are plenty of resources regarding the train.
I hope that this blog may help other modelers by showing how not to do a specific task, and the same time the modelers reading the blog may help me with encouragement and technique. |
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| A Short History of the Smialy Train - Part 1 | Oct 12, 2006 |
Originally I wanted to write a short history of the Smialy train, but when I started, I didn't know when to finish, so this the first part of the history, with the second part in the next BLog part...
In the beginning of November 1918 as Poland had just regained its freedom. trouble immediately arose. Ukraine was invading eastern Poland and was already laying siege to the city of Lwow. In Krakow the defense for that city was organized by volunteers, often with no, or just the most basic, military training. One of the pieces of equipment left by the Austrian army (and commandeered by the Poles) there, was the Nr. VIII armored train. It consisted of two tank locomotives, two artillery wagons, and two assault wagons. It was quickly manned, and, commanded by Lt. Stanislaw Malagowski, was dispatched towards the city of Lwow, together with a train with soldiers and military supplies. While the crew of the train was military, the locomotive's crew was civilian railway employees, and this led to the tradition that, while the fighting crew of Polish armored trains was military, the crew responsible for the actual running of the train was civilian railroad workers. The armored locomotives were also officially the property of the polish railroad service (not the army)
Having arrived in the besieged Lwow on the 21 of November, the train was broken up into two trains, each with one engine, one artillery wagon, and one assault wagon. The trains were also officially named; PP 1 "Pilsudczyk" and PP 2 "Smialy" The trains were tasked with patrolling the area around Lwow, and also to keep the corridor from Premysl Lwow open. The railway line from Premysl to Lwow was the lifeline in the defense of Lwow and the surrounding area. Lwow was cut of from the rest of Poland by 70 km, in all apart from the railroad line. Smialy and Pilsudczyk defended the area around the railroad tracks many times. The common practice was to hide in forested areas, then when the enemy was in range move out into the open, and begin shooting.
Smialy patrolled the area from November to December and again from January 1919 to March 1919. During that time the train was strengthened several times, first with additional wagons, first unarmored (used to carry extra supplies) then with additional armored artillery and assault wagons. The armor at that time consisted of concrete sandwiched in between wooden planks. There was simply not enough steel to go around.
later (in April 1919) the train had its locomotive replaced for a more powerful, and was tasked with defending the Belorussian front from Bolsheviks. By this time the train was a mishmash of different wagons and guns. One of the wagons, improvised at the front was a flatbed carriage, fitted with a field gun on a revolving plate, and protected with sandbags.
During the later Soviet offensive, in August 1920, the train defended the retreating Polish troops in the withdraw, losing all of its three guns in the process, and being only able to defend the troops, and itself, with machine guns. The train was then sent behind the front lines to be repaired, and so sat out the rest of the Polish-Soviet War (The battle for Warsaw).
The picture below shows the locomotive of the complete train that entered Lwow in 1918, then carrying the name "Odsiecz" (The "Relief") This particular locomotive was used on PP 1"Pilsudzcyk" but Smialy's was identical. The picture below shows the artillery wagon as it appeared in march 1919 when the train was repaired in Krakow. |
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