+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Vogelfluglinie (German) or Fugleflugtslinjen (Danish) (“bird flight line”) is a transport corridor between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany. As the Danish and German names (literally: bird flight line) imply, the corridor is also an important bird migration route between arctic Scandinavia and Central Europe.
Proposals for a more direct "bird flight line" between Germany and Denmark date back from the 1920s. Construction was started on the Danish side in 1941 after the Nazi occupation force pushed the matter, but work was halted again in 1946. After World War II, Warnemünde (near Rostock) was included in the territory of East Germany, and political divisions made traffic between Denmark and West Germany via Warnemünde inconvenient.
Construction of the "bird flight line" was restarted in 1949, and from 1951 to 1963 a ferry line from Gedser to Großenbrode operated as a temporary solution. In addition, traffic between Copenhagen and Hamburg would either be directed over the Great Belt ferry, Funen and Jutland or the Gedser-Warnemünde ferry.
The Vogelfluglinie connection was eventually completed in 1963, and its core was the 19-kilometre (12 mi) ferry link between Rødby (Denmark) and Puttgarden (Germany). The three ferries ‘Deutschland’, ‘Theodor Heuss’ and ‘Kong Frederik IX’ started ferry operations in 1963 with a total of 18 double trips per day, a crossing taking between 45 and 60 minutes. Since the three ferries were not sufficient due to the constant increase in passenger and freight traffic, the fleet was expanded and modernized accordingly. The maximum utilization was reached in the 1990s during the validity of the summer ferry schedules, when six ferries operated the line every 30 minutes with a total of 48 double trips (i.e. a total of 96 belt crossings) daily.
The inauguration of the Fehmarnsund Bridge, an essential building of the Vogelfluglinie that bundled train and vehicle traffic and directly connected Fehmarn island with the German mainland, as well as the ferry connection across the Fehmarnbelt took place on May 14, 1963 in the presence of the German Federal President Heinrich Lübke and the Danish King Frederik IX - it took a century from the first plan in 1863 to the inauguration in 1963.
The Vogelfluglinie enabled a direct rail and motorway connection between the two cities of Copenhagen and Hamburg. Lorries (and until 2019 also trains) used the ferries’ lowest deck for loading and unloading, while lighter cars and caravans used the decks above. There were several ramps and lanes in the ports, so that all decks could be fully loaded and unloaded within only 15 minutes.
In 1974, Danske Statsbaner (DSB) started hourly InterCity services, which partly replaced the border-crossing TEE (Trams-Europ-Express) trains and introduced a direct connection between Copenhagen and Stuttgart via Hamburg, with the TEE 34/35 ‘Merkur’. Since the Vogelfluglinie and most parts of the Danish railway system had not been electrified yet, the trains that left Hamburg northward had to be powered with diesel locomotives. From DSB side, the Class MY was available, but since the trains were supposed to cross the Belt as a whole unit without change of locomotion because of logistic reasons, the GM-built diesel-electric machines were ruled out due to their weight, which risked safe ferry operations. The resulting high ground pressure and stress was furthermore too much for the rather light railway systems in Schleswig-Holstein.
As an alternative and to simplify operations, the Deutsche Bundesbahn suggested the mutual operation of the DB’s Class V200 (also known as Class 220 or BR 220), tailored to the new IC connection’s technical requirements on both sides of the German-Danish border. The MY’s gross weight was 101.60 t, with a maximum speed of 133 km/h (83 mph), while the German V200 weighed only ca. 80.0 t and achieved a top speed of 140km/h (87 mph).
The DB Class V 200 was the first series production diesel-hydraulic express locomotive of the German Deutsche Bundesbahn. The V 200 was powered by two fast-running (1500 RPM) V12 diesel engines, Maybach (type MD650), Mercedes-Benz (type MB820Bb) and MAN (type L 12 V 18/21) engines were used. The transmission was hydraulic, each engine drove one bogie set via a hydraulic torque converter. The hydraulic transmissions fitted to the locomotives were supplied by Maybach (type Mekydro K104U) and Voith (type LT306r/rb). Although differing in several ways – for example the Mekydro K104 transmission had a single torque converter and four mechanical gear stages while the Voith L306 had three different-sized torque converters – the engines and transmissions were designed so that the various types were completely interchangeable, also with other DB diesel-hydraulic locomotives of that era. It was not uncommon to find a single locomotive with one Mercedes engine and one Maybach unit running together. The MAN engines were only fitted to five early locomotives, though. To reduce weight, the locomotives had unusual inside framed bogies. Combined with the high driving position and rounded body, this gave the V 200 a very distinctive appearance.
Five prototypes were built by Krauss-Maffei in 1953/1954, and these were put through extensive testing, the aim being to ensure the production locomotives would be as reliable as the technology and maintenance standards of the 1950s allowed. In 1955 one locomotive travelled under its own power through Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, partly as a test and partly to demonstrate the locomotive's capability to potential customers in those countries.
Full production began in 1956, with 61 engines being built by Krauss-Maffei and 20 by MaK. Initially the V 200 hauled express trains on all German main lines, replacing the DRG Class 05, 03 and 01 steam passenger locomotives. Following the electrification of many main lines the V 200 was used increasingly for commuter trains and freight trains, but the Hamburg-Westerland, Hamburg-Lübeck-Copenhagen and Munich-Lindau lines still saw the V 200 hauling express trains. From 1962, the V 200.0 was followed by the more powerful but also heavier DB Class V 200.1, later Class 221.
While the V 200 was in 1974 not technical state-of-the-art anymore, it was a fast and still suitable for light express trains like the TEE 34/35 ‘Merkur’, which, due to the ferry section, only consisted of three passenger wagons - one of the most compact international trains in Europe! However, the V200’s maximum speed of 140 km/h (87 mph) could only be attained on the German railroad network, the Danish part of the route only allowed 120 km/h (75 mph) top speed due to an even lighter railway construction and tighter curve ratings. Another positive asset was the V200’s proven and reliable twin engine. Especially the latter made it a perfect match for the IC duties between Hamburg and Copenhagen,
For the shared service, the Deutsche Bundesbahn allocated a total of eight V 200s to the ferry connection with Denmark, and the batch was shared between the countries. The four machines in DB service received a “5” prefix to their serial (which remained otherwise the same), the rest of the batch was leased to the DSB, locally renamed Class MD (with serials 1051-4) and carried respective colors and markings. Maintenance and overhauls were still performed in Germany, though, at the DB’s Hamburg-Altona Bahnbetriebswerk (depot). All eight machines were revamped and received new generators for electric train heating instead of the former steam heating system. A small 22 hp (16 kW) diesel engine with an additional 300 l fuel supply was added to generate electric energy for the train and to load the locomotive’s batteries when the main engines were not running. With the boiler and the water supply removed the V 200.5 became almost 5 tons lighter, what positively affected axle load for the operation on the lighter DSB railway network, acceleration, and handling on board of the ferries. All eight machines were upgraded with Danish train security measures so that they could freely operate in both countries and across the Vogelfluglinie. This also had the operational benefit that no maintenance infrastructure had to be added at the ferry ports.
MD and V 200.5 locomotives took up their international duties on the ‘Merkur’ connection in early 1975. From 1977, all remaining German V 200s were concentrated in northern German depots to optimize maintenance and keep their operations limited to northern German regions. This was a cost-driven measure: the two-engine V 200 locomotives were more expensive to operate than the newer single-engine locomotives like the newer DB Class V 160, while offering only a slightly higher performance. A further disadvantage was the DB V 200s’ steam heating system for carriages which was more and more replaced by electric train heating, so that the V 200s could only operate on passenger trains during summer or with outdated rolling stock material in wintertime, which was secluded to secondary routes.
A heating system upgrade, as it had been done to the MD/V 200.5, was considered but not executed because the V 200 became more and more obsolete. In consequence, and also after wear and tear had taken their toll on the locomotives, the last V 200/BR 220 went out of service with the DB in 1984, and with them the small binational MD/V 200.5 fleet. The stronger V 200.1/BR 221 followed only four years later.
The end of international MD/V 200.5 also came at a time when the TEE connection with Denmark changed, too. It was now fully taken over by the DSB and the international TEE service was replaced with so-called InterCity trains, operated by the Lyntog (Blitz trains) that were formed from railcar sets of the MA series and later with MB and MS diesel-powered multiple units. Over the years the hourly InterCity connections were extended north to Aalborg and Frederikshavn. With the introduction of the InterCity trains, two additional railway ferries were used on the Great Belt, which, together with the old ferries, handled traffic until 1980/81.
Then three new and larger ferries were built, which were called InterCity Ferries, and these new ships enabled a significant increase in traffic volume. In 1990/91 the IC3 diesel multiple units of the MF series went into operation. These replaced all locomotive-hauled trains and made it possible to establish direct connections to different destinations, since the trains from Copenhagen were divided on the way and ran on different parts of the route. In 1997, the ER series IR4 electric multiple units replaced the IC3 trains on the route to Sønderborg, which now operate as InterCityLyn.
After the end of the border-crossing MD/V 200.5 service, the trains that crossed the Fehmarnbelt were loaded by uncoupling the locomotive in the harbor and pushing the wagons onto the ferry by another locomotive. In the port of destination, another locomotive pulled the wagons from the ship's deck to continue the journey. This practice was kept until 1003, and with the introduction of the diesel-electric IC3 trains, shunting was no longer necessary.
Beyond passenger trains, the Vogelfluglinie also saw a brisk freight train service. For example, 190,757 freight cars were routed in 1994 alone. The four ferries, which ran every half hour, transported 0.28 million trucks, 1.6 million cars and 6.4 million passengers in 2003, and in 2010 even 0.35 million trucks, 1.6 million cars and 6.2 million passengers. However, the trajectory of freight and passenger coaches was discontinued with the switch to double-ended ferries in 1997 and since then only diesel multiple units (ICE-TD, IC3) transported via the ferry route; this also ended in December 2019. Since December 15, 2019, there has been no scheduled transport of railway vehicles on the ferries.
The projected Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, an undersea tunnel, will replace the ferries altogether. Danish-German negotiations on 29 June 2007 culminated in an agreement to complete the link by 2028, essentially on the basis of Danish funding.
General characteristics:
Gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) standard gauge
UIC axle arrangement: B´B´
Overall length: 18.53 m (60 ft 9½ in)
Pivot distance: 11,5 m (37 ft 8 in)
Bogie distance: 3,2 m (10 ft 5¾ in)
Wheel diameter (when new): 950 mm (3 ft 1½ in)
Fuel capacity: 3.000 l
Service weight: 75 t
Axle load: ca 18,7 t
Engine:
Two fast-running (1500 RPM) Maybach Type MD650 or Mercedes-Benz Type MB820Bb
V12 diesel engines with a continuous total output of 1,618 kW (2,170 hp)
Transmission:
Hydraulic
Performance:
Maximum speed: 140 km/h (87 mph); limited to 120 km/h (75 mph) on the DSB network
Torque: 235 kN starting tractive effort
177 kN continuous traction effort
The model and its assembly:
A model of a fictional German V 200 diesel-hydraulic locomotive in DSB colors to pull the international Merkur TEE train had been on my agenda for a while, but I never found the nerve to tackle it – especially as a fully functional H0 scale model railroad item. In this case the whif was based on a late Märklin 3021 which I had bought 2nd hand via ev!lbay.
My idea was that these DSB locomotives would have been leased from Germany for a mutual/shared TEE service between Hamburg and Copenhagen via the Vogelfluglinie ferry service, and with this ancestry and small number there would have hardly been any major hardware changes – effectively, this what-if model is just a fictional livery variant, at least in theory.
However, just repainting the 3021 would not have been enough, at least for me. The “problem”: the locomotive model has an all-metal body, made from zinc diecasting, and a metal chassis, too. While the chassis with the analogue motor, directional switch and wirings could be taken “as is”, the upper body required some mods and offered space for upgrades.
The most serious issue were DB markings and serial numbers molded into the metal body. These had to be grinded/sanded/PSRed away, mostly with the help of an electric engraving tool and various grinding heads – noisy affair. And since the new DSB livery would be less flashy than the early DB design, I also decided to get rid of the aluminum cheatlines along the upper and lower hull, which were also molded into the metal hull. Took a while and several heads to complete, but changed the look considerably and made the new livery more plausible.
Beyond this mandatory change I also decided to upgrade the model’s windows. The original Märklin 3021 just has opaque foil inserts for the engine room and the drivers’ stands, while the louvred engine room windows right next to the doors are molded dummies with no glazing at all. White the latter were not changed (I considered this to be too much work, and with dubious chance for success) I decided to replace the opaque foil pieces with single transparent windowpanes, a total of sixteen hand-crafted and tailored bits of plastic in three strengths that just fit into the openings. This was a tedious job, but improved the overall look of the locomotive model considerably.
Since the body was, except for the directional switch, more or less empty and would allow to see through the engine compartment I furthermore scratched engine dummies – actually simple printouts mounted on flat styrene sheets, which were combined and stabilized with styrene profile bits so that they stay in their intended place but to not hinter the bogies’ movement or the directional switch between them. From the outside this solution works very well, even better than on some V 200 models that feature 3D plastic dummies behind the windows but lack proper depth to simulate the walkways around the engines.
Painting and markings:
The modern DSB livery is not too complicated, even boring: an all-black body and running gear with dark red driver stands at both ends. I used the DSB’s Litra MX/MY locomotives as benchmark, the only option was to extend the red all the way down, but I decided against this because a black headstock was the more common variant and would visually stretch the V 200, too.
The metal hull received a coat with grey acrylic primer, the inside was painted matt black with a rattle can.
Externally the cabin sections were painted with a 1:1 mix of Revell 330 and 331, the black is actually a very dark grey (Revell 06, Tar Black).
The markings are decals, puzzled together from various sources. The DSB logos come from Andreas Nothaft (modellbahndecals.de), as well as the V 200 stencils around the lower hull. The locomotive’s serial numbers were created with single white 2mm and 3mm letters from TL-Modellbau, plus some other generic markings that make the model look more realistic and interesting.
For a more realistic look I weathered the parts. The roof was dry-brushed with acrylic dark grey, and this lighter shade was also vertically extended on the flanks, as if dirt and dust had been washed down by rain. Burnt umbra was added on the roof and around the roof rails and the window frames to simulate dirt washes. The running gear and the lower hull were treated with burnt sienna – actually, simple watercolors.
The upper body was sealed with matt acrylic varnish from a rattle can (Gunze Sangyo, after a first attempt with Humbrol’s acrylic varnish ended in total disaster and required ALL paint and decals to be stripped and built up again from zero!); the running gear was sealed by brush, though, with matt acrylic Italeri varnish.
As a final step some finishing touches were made and the windowpanes inserted and fixed into position with Humbrol’s Clearfix, applied to the inside.
