Minimal PODs for Barbarossa to succeed taking Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov and holding the cities through winter

[Naval Aviation Fan]

Outer flanges are not possible, it makes it impossible for trains to cross switches.

Railroad switch - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Switches are also one of the reasons why derailments occur when the German wheel is made wider to be used on a Russian track. The flanges would hit the frogs or guardrails. This would also occur at railroad crossings.

And that finally puts paid to my "wide wheels" idea, because even if you could build in a way to get around this, in your own territory, you wouldn't have that in enemy territory, so you would still end up with problems at every switch.

 

[Reggieperrin]

I think that we are once again in need of a reminder that the German economy, when in Nazi hands, was NOT run in a competent manner and could not produce vast numbers of trucks, train engines and tanks without running aground on the rocks of reality.

The Anglos on this site love to dunk on their Air Ministry but they don’t know how lucky they were to miss out on this kind of Teutonic efficiency (From USSBS)

The weakness of the leadership of the Air Ministry on production matters is illustrated vividly by the experience of the Henschel plant at Schoenefeld. In 1940-41 that plant was engaged in the production of Ju 88 airplanes. The Air Ministry authorized it to change to the Hs 129. When production tooling was about 50 percent completed the project was cancelled. The company was then directed to tool up for the production of the Ju 188. This was 100 percent completed, but before production started the project was cancelled in order to make a place for production of Me 410s at a rate of 400 per month. This was only 80 percent tooled up at heavy cost when the project was cancelled and Henschel was directed to produce the Ju 388. Altogether some 300,000 to 400,000 man-hours had been expended on tooling for this project when the bomber program was cancelled, and the company ended the war making wings for the Ju 88 as a night-fighter.

Göring’s special children were a specially bad case, but I don’t think they were desperately unusual in Hitlers magical murderland. A few sprinkles of such organisational fairy dust and any hyper-optimised alt-Barbarossa is going to be a bit off the rails.

 

[marathag]

And that finally puts paid to my "wide wheels" idea, because even if you could build in a way to get around this, in your own territory, you wouldn't have that in enemy territory, so you would still end up with problems at every switch.

some railroads did try a compromise wheel set size in the early 1880's, but it did not work well.

 

[Cymraeg]

The Anglos on this site love to dunk on their Air Ministry but they don’t know how lucky they were to miss out on this kind of Teutonic efficiency (From USSBS)

Göring’s special children were a specially bad case, but I don’t think they were desperately unusual in Hitlers magical murderland. A few sprinkles of such organisational fairy dust and any hyper-optimised alt-Barbarossa is going to be a bit off the rails.

That's a perfect example of the complete and utter dog's breakfast that was the Nazi economy. Insane decisions made sometimes at a whim.

 

[Naval Aviation Fan]

Ok, so I tried to come up with a way to help with the OP objectives, and what I can up with couldn't have been done/worked. Thanks to @Post for helping me to understand why.

I'm now trying to come up with a way to get better supplies (moved by rail), deeper into the USSR, by another means.

In reading up on this railroad stuff, I'm starting to realize that there is so much I don't know, I'm probably better off asking questions rather than trying to come up with half baked ideas.

Next, I read up a bit on this article, and while the idea in this article isn't about Barbarossa, and never even got built, it did impress me as something that we alt-history buffs might just be able to use, as it was one of "Hitler's bright ideas", and concerned bigger/better railroads, in Germany and beyond.

I would not have ever gone looking for something like this on my own, but this site always has interesting threads, and these get me thinking, and then I look things up and learn stuff.

So my next question for getting a better performance by the German logistical railroads is, what if, instead of wasting time on a post-war fantastical RR project, Hitler had ordered something else to be done in the meantime, that could actually help with an invasion of the USSR, rather than just a plan for after they had won such a war.

Still trying for a minimal POD, and trying to marry such a thing with the OTL desire for bigger/better railroads.

How hard is it to change out longer axles on existing trains?

 

[Lucius Verus]

Was enough rails, but you need railyards to build up the consists, then you need good signaling and communications to run multiple trains on one right of way, safely.
USSR didn't have CTC control like in the USA.
Hell, the Germans didn't have that, either.
But that's not sexy like huge tanks or cannons

There's also the Soviet scorched earth, ripping up railroads with these fellas plus the occasional booby traps.

Meant that at the best case, the Nazis will have to pause to restore and convert the lines for a month or two every 400-500km.

 

[marathag]

How hard is it to change out longer axles on existing trains?

Not bad, provided the truck frame itself is wide enough for a wider wheelset
If the trucks are too narrow, then the entire truck must be swapped out

Jack up or crane lift the car, roll out trucks, replace with wider units, rehook brake lines and other bits

 

[Naval Aviation Fan]

So from the above videos, I learned that the trains are not attached to the 'trucks', but rather just sit atop them?