"Lux - Torpeda" - the Polish passenger motor railbus

In 1933 PKP rented a prototype of a high-speed motorized passenger railbus from the Austrian company "Austro-Daimler-Puch". It has been tested on the routes Krakow - Warsaw, Krakow - Zakopane and Krakow - Katowice. During the tests the wagon reached a speed of 100 km/h and was the fastest motor wagon on Polish railways. It was popularly called "Luх - Torpeda" and this name was soon applied to all motorcars, faster than 40 km/h. The wagon, after successful tests, was further leased and stayed in Krakow. After a year of operation, it was purchased by PKP and there it received the designation SAx 90 080. After gaining experience using a foreign wagon, it was decided to produce 5 test wagons of a similar design. In 1935 the Designers Office of the “First Polish Locomotive Factory” in Czanowo, having received the documentation of the improved wagon from Austria, began the work of changing the structure, adapting the "Lux - Torpeda" to the needs of PKP. The new Polish wagons differed in appearance from the Austrian ones. The new Polish “Lux – Torpeda” wagons entered PKP service as the SAx series and received numbers from 90 081 to 90 085. They carried passengers on the Krakow - Warsaw and Krakow - Zakopane lines. At the beginning of the war 4 wagons did not escape the German bombs, the two, that survived during the war, were used to transport German soldiers. In 1945 they were taken over by the Red Army and returned to Krakow, but very complete and no longer used for passenger transportation. Scrapped in 1954.

Due to the complex shapes, both models are more difficult to glue, than other models of railway machinery from the Extra Model publishing house, but still "bite" for beginning modelers. Especially since there is a "light" version. And this is where the advice of a more experienced modeler will come in handy.