Porsche Benzine-Electric Locomotives and the Defence Train in Worl...

Porsche Benzine-Electric Locomotives and the Defence Train in World War One -

In the first decade of the 20th Century, Ferdinand Porsche designed a hybrid benzine (petrol)-electric drive for motor cars. In conjunction with an officer in the Austria-Hungary army, the concept was developed to produce a system in which a benzine-electric tractor hauled a ‘road train’ of carts which were also powered by electric motors. The Austria-Hungary army adopted the design to create a railway locomotive, with associated motorised wagons, which could operate on lightly laid track, tight radius curves and gradients as steep as 1 in 12 – the Landwehr Zug (Defence Train). This equipment was used in very challenging environments during the 1914-1918 war on two military railways in Eastern Europe – No. 1 from Dorny Völga to Borgó Tiha and No. 2 from Dutovlje-Skopo to Kostanjevica and Lipa. This book tells the story of the development of the benzine-electric system, the Landwehr Zug and the operation of those two military railways. It uses many photographs taken by the Army’s official photographer, including some from the archives of Porsche AG. It also looks at the battles involving the armies of Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany and Italy that required strategic and tactical military railways of a rare kind.

144 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper with colour laminated board covers.