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Type 2595 Rail Car / Type 95 So-Ki

The early years of mechanized warfare produced a variety of vehicle types that are not easily fitted into the neat taxonomies that had become established by the trial by fire by the late 20th Century. A distinctive feature of some early Japanese armored vehicles was the ability to replace road wheels (tires) with rail "wheels" with flanges. Despite the apparent weakness of the weapons, these huge and heavy machines played an important role both in the Manchurian incident and in the subsequent events of the second Sino-Chinese war. The So-Ki was a light tankette which could function either on tracks or rail. It carried an internal device which allowed it to be raised and lowered from track to ground in minutes. They served as security vehicles and were used to protect vulnerable stretches of lines between garrisons in China, Manchuria and Burma.

Imperial Japanese plans for extensive expansion to the eastern part of China and Siberia provided for the creation of mobile army units capable of quickly transferring to remote parts of the occupied territories. One of such means of delivery was armored tires, but in a “pure” form, the area of their use was limited to railways only. Thus, the need arose for a multi-purpose vehicle and the experience of the past war suggested that an armored car might well be the base case.

The answer to this demand was the appearance of an armored car-rail "type 2595", also known as "So-Ki". Having abandoned the established practice of using only the wheeled chassis, Japanese designers proposed a more original design.

The chassis of "type 2595" consisted of two main components. The first included a conventional chassis with cast wheels of a railway type and driven to the rear axle. The second component was more difficult - it was a crawler chassis, consisting (applied to one side) of 8 dual support rollers of small diameter interconnected in pairs in 4 trucks, 2 supporting rollers, front driving and rear guide wheels. The suspension included semi-elliptical springs (two on board) with a balance beam, at the ends of which the carts were hinged. It is noteworthy that the driving and guiding wheels were equipped with rims and had a pinching engagement. Lifting and lowering of mobile elements of the tracked undercarriage was carried out with the help of jacks. In fact, the Japanese managed to create a good wheeled-tracked tank, but with a narrow specialization.

Change of course, compared with the wheel models, significantly accelerated. Now it took only 3 minutes to go from the tracks to the wheels, and in the reverse order, it was much faster - 1 minute. For the same “type 2593” it took about 10 minutes.

Trolley body was assembled from sheets of rolled armor with bolts and rivets. Due to the peculiarities of the design, the layout of the car remained as in an ordinary armored car. The 84 hp engine, transmission, cooling system and fuel tanks were located in front. The engine compartment was protected by an armored box with a strongly sloped upper armor sheet with a thickness of 8 mm. Behind them was located the fighting compartment, where the driver’s seat was also located. For landing and disembarking served the door in the left side and the stern of the hull. Despite the small size, the railcar crew consisted of 6 people, although it was often smaller. The armament included only one 7.7-mm machine gun “type 91” in a conical turret mounted on the roof of the combat compartment. The thickness of the walls of the turret was 8 mm, the roof - 6 mm. Above there was a turret hatch.

Tests of the “type 2595” took place in 1935 and ended quite successfully. Mass production was established in 1936, and the gasoline engine was replaced with a diesel engine. During the next war in China, most of these machines were sent to the continent. At the initial stage, their main task was to support infantry units, although in 1937 they were transferred to patrolling and guarding communications. There were very few cases of using armored rubber in battles with Chinese troops, since they acted mainly in the rear. Often the type 2595 was used to transport equipment and ammunition, for which a towing trailer was provided. In some cases, armored rubber coupled 2-3 units, forming a kind of "armored train".

Towards the end of the war, the few “type 2595” attempted to engage in battles in Burma, where in 1943 British Commonwealth forces launched a counter-offensive. The last cars of this type were seized by the Allies in September 1945 and subsequently sent for scrapping.