Prototype: Type WR4ü, used on the German Railroad, Inc. (DB AG) in restored condition as it looked in 1996. Use: Museum trains.
Model: The car has type Görlitz trucks. It also has NEM coupler pockets with a close coupler mechanism. A brochure about the prototype is included. Length over the buffers 165 mm / 6-1/2".
Highlights: Information brochure about the prototype.
One-time series!
Historic Dining Car for the Anniversary "100 Years of MITROPA" At the end of the Thirties, the German State Railroad (DRG) also purchased skirted MITROPA dining cars similar to the skirted passenger cars. A first series of 40 type WR4ü-39 (car numbers 1148-1187) were delivered in 1939 in equal parts by Wumag in Görlitz and LHW in Breslau. Compared to the day coaches, here the skirting formed part of the load-bearing design of the 23,500 mm / 77 foot long dining cars. They had two large areas (smoking/non-smoking) with 42 seats. Sycamore wood was used for the interior sheathing of the walls. The seating was benches in a 2+1 arrangement and was upholstered in green artificial leather. The exterior paint scheme in Bordeaux Red was the same as the customary Mitropa scheme. With a weight of 51 metric tons, the type WR4ü-39 cars were quite heavy. To achieve good riding comfort a fourth spring had to be installed on the type "Görlitz III heavy" trucks. In the next year, a series of 30 cars (car numbers 1188-1217) followed, which Wumag delivered in 1940. Of the third order with 40 more cars (planned as car numbers 1218-1257), only five slightly altered cars were delivered. After that production not critical to the war had to be halted and dining car routes were done away with due to the war. After the end of World War II, the newly established German Sleeping and Dining Car Company (DSG) in the area of the German Federal Railroad (DB) rostered 30 type WR4ü-39 skirted dining cars by 1949. The cars were slightly updated and provided with new galley equipment. They were used chiefly in the DB's new long-distance express train network and with several important express trains. Between 1958 and 1964, the older design diaphragms were replaced by rubber tube designs. At the start of the Sixties, they were equipped with air conditioning and between 1958 and 1964 there were new type Minden-Deutz MD 34 trucks for 160 km/h / 100 mph. The last units were taken out of service by 1984. As a result of the reunification, on January 1, 1994 the East German MITROPA and the West German DSG merged under the old company name MITROPA. To celebrate its 80th anniversary, in 1996 MITROPA had the repair facility in Munich-Neuaubing restore an "historic dining car" as much as possible to its original condition. The former type WR4ü 1189, used by the DSG since 1980 as a training car, was available for this purpose. Since then this skirted dining car has been resplendent in almost the condition in which it was delivered originally.