The 1950s Kaelble K 415 Z tractor unit and my kit that never was, with photos and drawings for scratch-builders.
The Kaelble K 415 tractor unit was as much a part of the street scene in the 1950s as the trucks from Mercedes-Benz, Magirus, MAN, Henschel and others. Well into the 1970s, showmen, hauliers, coal merchants, the post office and the railway as well as other firms used this small tractor unit for all sorts of jobs.
The 1953 Unimog 401 was my first project under my new label Lassen project. I sold almost 5,000 of this kit at the time.After the open version of the 401, the closed variant with a fixed Westfalia cab and snow plough was meant to follow. Unfortunately, nothing came of it.Model no. 3 was to be this Kaelble K 415 tractor unit. Graphic designer Albert Schneider had made these illustrations for all of the models.
Since I have plenty of pictures and drawings of this tractor unit, I thought some model builder might dare to build a perfect model of this little gem. I know a few modellers who build to perfection myself, and many of them are around on the internet, too.
And one of these skilled model builders is my longtime friend Peter Sacher from Drensteinfurt. Anyone who follows the modelling scene knows him and certainly his superb models, all of them replicas from the 1950s to the 1970s. The display cases and cabinets in which he keeps his masterpieces are “bursting at the seams”.In the mid-1990s he built a 1:24 model of this very Kaelble K 415 tractor unit, completely scratch-built. And he only had a few documents and pictures to go on at the time. Some of his many models can be seen every year at the Intermodellbau in Dortmund. When I first saw his model, it was immediately clear to me that it had to become a kit. Well …The main job of the little tractor unit was always pulling trailers, whatever the line of business.Whether for coal, sand or grain, even back then there was a respectable choice of trailer types.These included low-loaders, too. And with such loads weighing tons, the 95 hp diesel had its work cut out.Kaelble also built the K 415 as a tractor unit with a double-row cab. Customers were coal merchants, showmen, construction firms and all the other businesses that needed a lot of personnel for their work.The railway and the post office were among Kaelble’s customers as well.Behind the double cab there was still room for a small platform, see right, or a counterweight.And this is what the double cab looked like inside. Room for 5 to 6 people.
If you dare to build this little machine as a pure scratch-build, you will find plenty of pictures and drawings under the following links.
The exterior pictures of the Kaelble K 415 tractor unit are in the – Archive – and can be opened by clicking on the photo.Under this link you will find over 100 detail shots of the underside of the chassis. Together with the available drawings, nothing should stand in the way of an exact replica. Either here in the – Archive – or by clicking on the photo you will see plenty of pictures.Of course, a true-to-life replica of the interior is part of a perfectly built model as well. Naturally, that always depends on the skills of the person taking on the project. Pictures can be found in the – Archive – or by clicking on the photo.Drawings are always very helpful when building a model like this; unfortunately, for some subjects they are very hard to come by, or not available at all. Here in the – Archive – there are 38 drawings.
Of course, pictures of the engine of the Kaelble K 415 tractor unit are part of it, too. On a closer look you can see that this little engine is no witchcraft when it comes to an exact replica, no matter whether in 1:24 scale or even larger. Pictures in the – Archive.
