ST44-935 "Gagarin" – the Soviet/ Polish diesel locomotive

In the mid-1960s the USSR began to produce diesel locomotives, intended for supply to other countries of the socialist world. The first of them became the M62 light locomotive for freight and passenger trains, made in "European" gauges and designed to work on 1432 mm gauge railways. The atypical designation of the locomotive M62 for those times was determined by the requirement of the main customer - the railways of the People's Republic of Hungary: M62 (Hungarian: motormozdony — locomotive, locomotive, 6 axles, type 2). Since 1970 M62 with bogies with a gauge width of 1524 mm began to be produced and used in the railways of the USSR, the dimensions of the body and the name of the series remained unchanged. As already written, in Hungary the locomotives are designated M62, this designation was adopted by the USSR Railways, instead of the planned TE112, which was very atypical for Soviet railways. The locomotives were produced at the Lugansk locomotive factory and were initially supplied only to socialist countries. In Poland they are marked ST44, German DR - initially marked V 200, later BR 120 and BR 220 due to a change in the classification system, Czechoslovakia - T679.1 - later 781, Korean PDR - K62, Cuba - 61.6. The locomotives were also supplied to the PR of Mongolia only in a two-section modification, which had its index 2M62M. In Poland these locomotives received the nickname "Gagarin". After the collapse of the USSR a considerable fleet of these locomotives remained in Lituania and were used by the “Lituanian Railways" (You can still see them now).

The model, presented in this publication, can also be made "Lituanian", but this will require changing the design of the trolleys - a larger track width. True, in reality that difference in 1:25 scale is only 3.6 mm, so it can be left, as it is in the publication. A complex and highly detailed model with full interior detailing: not only the cockpit, but also the engine compartment.