page_title: 17 cm SK L/40 i.R.L. auf Eisenbahnwagen
section_title: Design and history
hierarchical_section_title: 17 cm SK L/40 i.R.L. auf Eisenbahnwagen / Design and history
caption_attribution_description: English: Rear view of a 17 cm SK L/40 "Samuel" showing the traversing rail
context_page_description: The 17 cm SK L/40 i.R.L. auf Eisenbahnwagen "Samuel" was a German railroad gun used in World War I.
context_section_description: These guns, the 17 cm SK L/40 gun, were designed as the secondary armament of the Braunschweig- and Deutschland-class pre-dreadnoughts, but they were transferred to the Army from the Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) when those ships began to be relegated to training duties in 1916. It was first adapted for land use by mounting it on an improvised carriage as the 17 cm SK L/40 i.R.L., but it proved to be extremely heavy, often too heavy to be moved by horse, even after being broken down into three loads.
  The solution was to mount the guns, still on their carriages, on rail cars to increase their strategic mobility. The gun's firing platform (Bettungslafette) was used as a model for the mount on the rail car. A metal ring was fixed to the surface of the car on which the wheels rested. At the center of this ring was a large pivot pin from which tension rods extended to the carriage's trail which rested against a circular section of rail. The gun was traversed by means of a gear that engaged pins on the outside of the rail. The trail rested on two spring-supported rollers, which would compress during firing and allow the shock of recoil to be transmitted to the floor of the car. To prevent damage to the trucks during firing cast-steel wedges were placed on the railroad ties under matching wedges on the car and the car was moved up on them. Some sources quote its maximum elevation as 47.5°, but Miller says that the sight on the gun itself was only calibrated to 45°. If more traverse was needed the gun's original firing platform was carried on a separate car and the gun could be dismounted to use it.
caption: rear view of a damaged gun showing the traversing rail
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