WIKING 042905 – MB LP 333 Flatbed road-train

WIKING has erected a model maker’s monument for the Pullman generation – spearheaded by the Mercedes-Benz LP 333 with twin front axle. In the logistics world, the “Millipede” from Mercedes-Benz marks the start of appreciation of front wheel drive lorries, which at the time were much less favoured than bonnet trucks. The traditional model makers had made a decision as early as the sixties to only miniaturise the Pullman tractor unit with the short cab. WIKING revisited the Pullmans in 2019 and miniaturised the “Millipede” with long distance cab based on historic prototypes designed by legendary master model maker Alfred Kedzierski. Because of the Seebohm laws at the end of the 1950s, the unusual lorry, with its double front axle, was built by Mercedes-Benz as an emergency solution. Only because of the third axle was it possible to build a lorry with a permissible gross weight of 16 tons. In 1960 the permissible gross weight for two-axle lorries was then again increased from 12 to 16 t. The LP 333 therefore rolled off the line only between 1958 and 1961. Altogether 1833 vehicles were built, 354 of which were in the final year of production.