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24-637: GAZ began the design process for what became the M12 in May 1948, when the Soviet government requested a six-passenger sedan for the niche between the ZIS-110 and the Pobeda , with a deadline of twenty-nine months to produce it. Due to the lack of time, head designer Andrei Lipgart was given a choice between copying an American product (a Buick) or developing an entirely new model. He chose

48-476: A device marketed in 1908 through the Sears catalogue for just US$ 5.45 (equivalent to $ 185 in 2023). There are many designs of draisine. However, certain fundamentals of railbike design must be adhered to, foremost among them the reconciliation of a bicycle's stability with adaptation to riding on a railway track : bicycles are kept upright by the rider steering in the direction of an impending fall, but this ability

72-435: Is a Soviet limousine produced by ZIL from 1946 to 1958. The 110 was developed from the reverse engineering of a 1942 Packard Super Eight during 1944. The first five prototypes were completed by August 1945. It was powered by a 6-litre, straight 8-cylinder engine, producing 140 hp (104 kW) and giving a top speed of over 140 km/h (87 mph). It was made in both sedan and convertible versions. The ZIS

96-498: Is a light auxiliary rail vehicle , driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl Drais , who invented his Laufmaschine ( German for "running machine") in 1817, which was called Draisine in German ( vélocipède or draisienne in French) by

120-505: Is arguably one of the top cars of the 1940s. These cars were often given away as gifts to foreign communist leaders such as Chinese leader Mao Zedong and North Korean premier Kim Il-sung . After Stalin, the ZIL-110B cabriolet was used as a parade car for Nikita Khrushchev and this model was also given to Enver Hoxha , the lifelong president of Albania . Ho Chi Minh , the first president of North Vietnam, also received one (most likely from

144-534: Is sacrificed when the bicycle is constrained by rails. Simply adding flanged wheels to a conventional bicycle would make it impossible to balance, so the typical approach to stabilization is to add an outrigger , with roller(s), across to the second rail from near the bicycle’s rear wheel. Even such an outrigger system is not without its complications, as tracks that are no longer perfectly parallel — common on sections of abandoned track — can result in derailment . Additional guide rollers can help alleviate this problem at

168-962: The Second World War , starting from the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany . Prior to World War II, the Japanese Empire had already made extensive use of draisines such as the Sumida M.2593 in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Sino-Japanese War . From 1952, the Wikham Armoured Trolley was used by British security forces during the Malayan Emergency . People have been putting bicycles on railroad tracks ever since there have been both bicycles and railroads. From time to time, factory-built models have been available, beginning with

192-456: The 70 PS (51 kW) in the truck), and the transmission. The ZIM's compression ratio was increased to 6.7:1, but it was still able to employ the 70 octane petrol (gasoline) common in the Soviet Union; this, plus an improved intake manifold and twin-choke (two-barrel) carburetor , was responsible for the increased power. The front suspension was by coil springs, with leaf springs at

216-585: The GAZ factory was officially named Gorkovsky avtomobilny zavod imeni V.M. Molotova , or the Vyacheslav Molotov Gorky automotive factory , in honour of the Soviet Foreign Minister. All of the models carried the prefix M instead of GAZ . However, for a car of executive class, a new catchy abbreviation was introduced, coinciding with bigger ZIS limousines. In the style of American car fashion that

240-563: The Soviet Union), which can be seen on display on the grounds of his former residence in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. Production ended in 1958, with total of 2,089 cars made. Famous owners of the ZIS-110 have included the following people, but most of them were often given away as gifts to foreign communist leaders. Draisine A draisine ( English: / d r eɪ ˈ z iː n / )

264-1118: The United States, railbike tours have operated in several states nationwide: California, Maine, Oregon, the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, and Delaware. Until 2007, Finland hosted an annual competition, Resiina-ralli ( Draisine Rally ), involving several draisine teams travelling for many days on the railways from one corner of the country to another. The military use of draisines concerned, first of all, armoured draisines. They were light armoured rail motor vehicles, intended for reconnaissance, scouting, track patrolling, and other auxiliary combat tasks, usually belonging to armoured trains . Early vehicles of this kind were built in Russia during World War I . Later, often armoured cars were used as armoured draisines, after exchanging their wheels to railroad ones, or fitting them with additional retractable railroad rollers. Some countries, however, manufactured purpose-built armoured draisines between

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288-558: The ZIM was exported only to a limited extent, including some examples to Poland , Czechoslovakia , Finland (as large-capacity taxis or sometimes even for private sale) and the GDR . In Czechoslovakia, it was intended to replace the Tatras of the pre-war period, but was not particularly popular due to the poorer driving performance and the initially not fully satisfactory build quality. In the Soviet Union, on

312-429: The car literature disproved. The database includes, in addition to some pictures of commissars with Packards, a registry of existing cars and information about all ZIS versions, but particularly a point to point comparison between the products of Packard and ZIS. Therefore more likely that the top commissars, including Joseph Stalin , owned several Packards and wanted their first effort at a luxury car to be based on what

336-543: The latter, despite high level support for simply badge engineering a Buick , although the styling on the production vehicle still resembles a 1948 Buick Super . The M12 used a lengthened Pobeda monocoque chassis (with a 3,200 mm (130 in) wheelbase ), and about half the drivetrain components of the GAZ-51 and GAZ-63 trucks, including an improved version of the 3,485 cc (212.7 cu in) inline six engine (producing 95 PS (70 kW), rather than

360-534: The other hand, the car was widespread and continued to see many years of use even after the end of production. It was also used by the militia , with these vehicles painted dark blue with red side stripes and a red flashing light on the roof. In 1960, production of all three versions of the GAZ-12 ZIM ended after a total of 21,527 units. The GAZ-12 was replaced by the GAZ-13 Chaika . ZIS-110 The ZIS-110

384-452: The press. It is the first reliable claim for a practically used precursor to the bicycle , basically the first commercially successful two-wheeled, steerable, human-propelled machine, nicknamed hobby-horse or dandy horse . Later, the name draisine came to be applied only to the invention used on rails and was extended to similar vehicles, even when not human-powered. Because of their low weight and small size, they can be put on and taken off

408-1146: The rails at any place, allowing trains to pass. In the United States, motor-powered draisines are known as speeders while human-powered ones are referred as handcars . Vehicles that can be driven on both the highway and the rail line are called road–rail vehicles , or (after a trademark) Hy-Rails. "Draisines", called dressin in Swedish , dresin in Norwegian , dræsine in Danish , and resiina in Finnish , refers to pedal-powered rail-cycles which were used by railroad maintenance workers in Finland, Sweden, and Norway until about 1950, as handcars were elsewhere. Draisines nowadays are used for recreation on several unused railway lines in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Poland, some other European countries and South Korea. Several companies rent draisines in Sweden. In

432-632: The rear tread (track), at 1,560 mm (61 in), was wider than the front by 100 mm (3.9 in), to ensure the rear seat would accommodate three passengers. The result was an Oldsmobile -like "bulge". It was also the first GAZ to feature the leaping gazelle hood ornament . The first car was built in October 1950, and was notionally available to average citizens; its 40,000 ruble price made purchase unlikely (comparing to 16,000 for mid-class Pobeda). The ZIM abbreviation stands for Zavod imeni Molotova ( Russian : Завод имени Молотова ). Prior to 1957,

456-592: The rear, and hydraulic shock absorbers . It had drum brakes at all four corners. Despite lacking power steering, the 18.2:1 ratio steering box made turning fairly easy. It offered a standard three-band AM radio , at a time when radios were not standard on most American cars, even the most expensive ones. The car weighed 1,940 kg (4,280 lb), was capable of getting 19 L/100 km (12 mpg ‑US ; 15 mpg ‑imp ), of reaching 78 mph (126 km/h), and of accelerating 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in 37 seconds. It had one unusual feature:

480-446: The vehicle was inspired by, the ZIM was used extensively to decorate the car: the hubcaps, the bonnet, the radiator grille, even the horn button on the steering wheel. However, Molotov's career abruptly ended in May 1957, when he lost a political fallout with Nikita Khrushchev . Thereafter, the USSR rapidly renamed cities, streets, ships and factories that had been named after him. ZIM, which

504-420: The wars, such as the USSR and Czechoslovakia. Peculiar vehicles were Polish armoured draisines - they were tanks or tankettes fitted with special rail chassis, able to be used on rails or on the ground, leaving the rail chassis on the rails. Some countries developed railtrack armoured draisines, with retractable railroad wheels; they were not widely used, however. Different armoured draisines were used during

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528-412: Was also overweight for the engine. An ambulance GAZ-12B was also built in 1951–1960, with folding seats for medics and basically same body; stretchers were loaded through the trunk. There was also a taxi variant GAZ-12A, used mainly as a marshrutka in state-owned inter-city communication, and a draisine designed and built on the ZIM basis for the use on narrow-gauge railways . Due to the high price,

552-470: Was in production, from the summer of 1957 was hurriedly renamed GAZ-12 , and all of the badges and adornments replaced by the new abbreviation. Moreover, right up until the perestroika the car was officially named labelled only as the GAZ-12, whilst unofficially it was almost exclusively referred to as the ZIM. A prototype four-door cabriolet was built in 1949, but not produced, due to problems with rigidity. It

576-575: Was rumored to use machinery from the Packard 180 assembly line which was sent to the USSR after American production ended. However, according to The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company , there is no evidence whatsoever in the Packard archives of such a transfer. Moreover, as one of the main results of the collection of information and material of Bert Hein, there can be many current opinions within

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