Saturday, December 22, 2012

1953 Krupp Titan "Südwerke" bus of the Deutsche Bundesbahn

A bus operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (West German Federal Railway).

The Krupp company moved its truck production from Essen to Kulmbach in southern Germany during WW2 to escape Allied bombing. Truck production restarted in 1946 in Kulmbach, but initially only modified pre-war designs were built. As the Krupp name had a negative image due to its large scale arms production in WW2, these post-war trucks only bore the name "Südwerke".

The first Titan trucks were built in Kulmbach also and marketed as Südwerke Titan. Only when production started again in Essen in 1951 was the traditional three ring emblem restored. Until truck production ended in 1968 all trucks bore the name Krupp.

The Krupp Titan was the most powerful truck available, delivering 190 hp, increased to 210 hp in 1951. A notable feature of the Titan is that it was powered by a combination of two independent 3 cylinder engines; only the crankshafts are connected. But there were many problems in synchronizing these two engines. As a result production of the Titan ceased at about 1,000 units built. Its successor called Tiger delivered only 185 hp but its 5 cylinder engine was much more reliable.

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