Exhibit description

Covered wagon Ok 470 843

German product

The car was created in 1942 at the Steinfurt plant in the German Königsberg, now the Russian Kaliningrad. It was delivered to the USSR as a war trophy or as part of reparations supplies. Soviet railway workers adapted it for work on the USSR railways with a track gauge of 1,524 mm.

Why «Oppeln»

The wagon was named after the German city of Oppeln, now Opole in Poland. From 1921 onwards, German freight wagon types were named after cities. This system made it easier to identify a wagon’s purpose and design features.

Serial production of Oppeln covered freight wagons began in 1937, with welded construction introduced in 1938. By 1945, around 28,100 short-type wagons, known as kurzer Oppeln, had been built. Approximately 6,150 were equipped with hand brakes and a brakeman’s cab.

Conversion to Broad Gauge

The European railway gauge was narrower than the Soviet gauge, so the wagon could not be used without modification. To adapt it to the 1,524 mm gauge, railway workers modified the axle-box assemblies and the mountings of the spring suspension. Traces of this conversion still reveal the wagon’s European origin.

Smoothness and speed

Oppeln type covered cars with a carrying capacity of 15 tons were built for German railways from 1934 About a quarter of them were equipped with hand brakes. The rest had only air brakes or were produced without brakes.