Thanks for your input. I was referring to the History Channel because some here had made references to it.
We live in a world where there is blur btw the made up and reality. Just look at our reality TV shows and history made into movies that are written for entertainment.
Mine was a similar remark.
Even innocently stock footage or convenient footage is used and I can’t blame them. Sometimes footage simply doesn’t exist for certain things and its not too big a stretch to use “typical” footage as a stand in. I’m pretty sure that shot of a freighter exploding with its shockwave going out over the water has been destroyed in every battle in the pacific, as has that twin engined bomber with one burning edge crashing into the ocean while sailors cheer.
Keep in mind the cars - if they were built by Pullman - may have been done before Hitler’s time in office. He may have just had the cars changed and armored etc. out of standard Reichsbahn sleeping cars. But I don’t know if they were really “Pullman” cars in the sense of being Pullman built, they could have just been using “Pullman” as a generic term for a sleeping car - like “kleenex” or “thermos” is used today.
p.s. The fact that Hitler was Time’s “Man of the Year” doesn’t necessarily mean they approved of him. They’ve chosen the man they felt had the most impact - good or bad - on the world in the past year.
There is an awful lot of uninformed speculation on this thread…
Lilliput, originally an Austrian company and now Bachmann’s German brand ,build HO models of these cars…
Here is an extract from the prototype notes to their model of the dining car from the “Amerika” train:
“Das Vorbild dieses Modells hat ein bewegtes Vorleben: Es war auf Wunsch der Reichsregierung als Geschenk für die italienische Regierung vorgeshen. Mit all den gewünschten Sondereinrichtungen wurde der Wagen aber so schwer, daß dreiachsige Drehgestelle nötig wurden. Eine Übergabe an Italien fand jedoch nicht statt. Der Wagen wurde in Sonderzug der Reichsregierung „Amerika“ eingestellt. Nach Kriegsende beschlagnahmte ihn die US-Army und gab ihn erst im Dezember 1951 an die DB zurück. Von dort gelangte er zur DSG, die ihn zunächst mietweise als SdrWR 6ü 10245 Ffm einsetzte, später dann kaufte und als WR 6ü 1227 betrieb. Im Juni 1973 wurde der Wagen ausgemustert.”
Summarising (my German isn’t that good), this car was built for Mussolini but not delivered. It was heavy due to the special fittings and needed three axle trucks. It was used in the “Amerika” government train. It was taken over by the US Army in 1945 and was transferred to the DSG via the DB in 1951, being withdrawn in 1973.
A photo of the model appears at:
Many of the vehicles including two versions of the anti-aircraft gun car are available.
No American built Pullman cars were used on the train or in Germany during this time.
The name “Pullman” was used in Europe to describe luxury day cars equivalent to USA “parlor” cars. The earliest of these built in the 1880s were
I would suspect that even if the train was armored, it would still be a sitting duck. And if the train was not destroyed, the track certainly would be. I would think that as paranoid as Hitler was, he would not have felt comfortable in a train on the battlefront.
As an aside, my mother grew up in during WWII. She would ride the train to school. Mom remembers vividly one day the train stopping out in the middle of nowhere and the people on board told to get off the train and seek shelter on the ground nearby as they were being attacked. My mother remembers being shot at by a fighter plane as it flew overhead. To this day, she thinks that most assuredly the pilot would have known that the people on the train were civilians and perhaps children. If mom could see the pilot from the ground, the pilot should have seen her. War is a terrible thing even if it is fought for the right reasons. Mom’s dad was in the Kriegs Marine and deserted and went to but not without loading the boat with folks that seeked refuge. My grandfather was given a letter of appreciation from an American General for his act that involved crossing the . My mother’s family was not Jewish but during the war the authorities came and took my grandfather’s sister away t
Not a still picture but a video of a double headed train referred to as Hitler’s Special Train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxeakfgEpi0
“Hitler Leaves Munich on his Personal Train after the state visit by Admiral Horthy to Germany in August 1938. Amateur Agfacolor 16mm film.”
There is additonal information on the train makeup also. Once on this page there are other videos too, such as the German Railway Gun “GUSTAV”.
On the Smithsonian channel, Combat Trains. They said Hitler named it Amerika because he loved and hated the country. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the train was renamed.
There is a new doc on Netflix called, “Hitler’s Steel Beast.” It was made either in France or the French part of Canada. Either way the audio is mostly in French with English subtitles. According to the video Hitler’s train Amerika was inspired by Mussolini’s train. It had two locomotives at the front but only used one at a time. The other one was used in case the other broke down. The locos were switched out with replacement locomotives every so many miles so the train could keep traveling without having to wait for the locos to be serviced and refueled. While stopped the engine was always hot and ready to leave in an instant. When stopped it was usually kept very close to a tunnel or bunker in case of enemy attack. There was always a decoy train which ran ahead of it to clear the tracks. The cars were all made in Europe. If anyone said they were Pullman it might have just been the generic word for luxury passenger cars. Hitler’s personal car was destroyed at the end of the war but the other cars were used by the allies for decades. Lots of other good details in this video so it’s worth watching if you are a WW2 history buff or a railroad history buff.
1/8/18 I just saw the first hour of a 2-part story on the National Geographic’s show, “Nazi Megastructures,” about "Hitler’s Railroads. The Nazi hierarchy, headed by Dere Fuerer himself, realized already in the '30s that in order for them to conquer Europe and Russia, they would have to build a massive railway system to move troops, equipment, and supplies.
Hitler didn’t like flying; he suffered from acrophobia, didn’t even feel comfortable at the Eagle’s Nest, plus he would be out of touch with his forces (he micromanaged everything). He traveled and lived in a special train, with a flak car at each end, pulled by two of the huge Decapods built especially for army service. The name, “Amerika,” was mentioned several times, but I’ve forgotten if it referred to the whole train–but I think it’s more possible that it was a particular car. The second hour was devoted to the hundreds of trains that transported people, mostly Jews, to the Death Camps. If you didn’t know, these lunatic monsters kept the trains and camps running right up until the Russians tore their way into Berlin, even giving the death trains priority over troop and materiel movements.
I’m going to search YouTube to see if these programs are now included, as I’ve found other “Nazi Megastructure” programs in the past year.
Deano
I saw the program the other day.
“Amerika” referred to the train, and was named after the trench Cpl. Hitler served in during WWI.
There was even a special shelter built for it to provide protection from attack while travelling. It could pull in and stay put in a safe location. They also used tunnels for that purpose.
Prior to that train, he would have had access to the state owned train used for the Chancellor or other officials. It wasn’t armoured as it was just a regular trainset, but outfitted for official use.
There may not be many pictures as it is possible it was considered a state secret, not to mention lots of fanatical SS guards (Führerbegleitkommando) would be surrounding it. So only official pictures or propoganda newsreels may exist of it.