The Schienenwolf, or “Rail Wolf,” also known as a Schwellenpflug or “Sleeper Plough,” was a German rail vehicle designed for devastating rail tracks, featuring a robust, hook-shaped plow.

Krupp factory produced these railroad plows in 1942. They mounted a colossal hook on a platform, which, driven by two locomotives at speeds of 7-10 km/h, would slide under the sleepers, wrenching the rails out of place, shattering the track’s center, and fracturing the sleepers.

Activating this track destroyer took merely 6-8 minutes, managed by a crew of 10. It could obliterate railway tracks, completely breaking 100% of the sleepers, 70-93% of the rails, and disrupting up to 30% of the track bonds.

Deployed in the Nazis’ scorched earth strategy during the Third Reich’s downfall, the Schienenwolf also ripped up bridges and signaling equipment, rendering the severely damaged rail routes into Germany unusable.

With the Soviet Union’s rail network being a different gauge and the Germans operating significantly heavier trains, the Nazi Germany had to reconstruct or alter the railway lines during their invasion. Some tracks were adjusted to standard gauge by shifting the rails.

The Germans swapped the Soviet wooden sleepers with metal ones, indicating the tracks being destroyed were likely Soviet (albeit modified), as depicted in photographs showing wooden sleepers. The heavier German trains necessitated the more robust steel sleepers for support.