Informations about the Company   

AT modellbau (AT RC Snow Cats) was founded in 2007 to sell the kit and later also accessories for the PB600 model. In mid 2008 the company moved to the USA, and is now located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado.

The first radio controlled snow groomer, a Kässbohrer PistenBully 36.120, was built by the founder as a teenager in 1975. Due to the limited resources at this time the chassis and tracks were not very solid. Although the model did move, it was clear after the first tests that improvements were necessary. These somehow did never get finished, and therefore the plan still exists to build a new and more solid chassis for this model.

In the early 1980s the German modeling company Graupner released a model of the PistenBully (actually made by Kyosho), which was of course purchased and is in use ever since.

In 2006 the body of the Graupner PistenBully was already quite out-dated, so the decision was made to build the body of the brand new PB600. With already four snow groomer models in the family which should all be updated, the work intensive method of vacuum forming was chosen.

This opened up the opportunity to make the body available to other interested modelers. After closing a license agreement with Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG also the legal part was covered, and meanwhile several kits have been sent to customers in different countries. 

 

PistenBully PB 36.120 from the Seventies (1:8)

With this everything started! First run on March 29, 1975.

The body and chassis tub were built out of ply wood and balsa wood. For the gear box a couple of different variants were tried, but at the end a worm drive from Fischer Technik remained. In the mid seventies there was almost nothing available for RC vehicles. The batteries were lead batteries with liquid acid, not sealed, so they had to be handled with care. The RC units were costing a fortune back then, there were fast clips for the servos available to enable a quick transfer from one model to another. Therefore every part of this model was scratch built, partly with simple methods and often without knowing the actual forces. Planning of the model started in fall 1974, the first trial run was on March 29, 1975. It was in full action in the winter of 1975/76. From the companies Kässbohrer, Hämmerle and Ratrac, who were asked back then for brochures, only one still exists. By the way Kässbohrer sent the best material, a splendid brochure with 3-view drawings, which was perfect for a modeler. I plan to built a new chassis and drive train for this model for the winter 2009/10. Recent measurements showed that the model was built in 1:8 and not in 1:10 as I thought.

Letter from Kässbohrer 1974

Rarity: Videoclip of a PB120-Modell from 1975 Just in time for the 40-year anniversary of Kässbohrer I could find a short video clip of trial runs with my PB120 model in 1:8, recorded in summer 1975. Actually I was looking for a clip done in snow (winter 1975/76) of which existence I knew. I still haven't found it. This is probably the first clip ever of a moving model snow cat, and one of the first snow cat models, f not the first at all. In the 70s also Wolfgang Löper started with snow cat models.   PB120 Model 1:8 Trial Runs in Summer 1975 View/Download Videoclip Windows WMF-Format Download Videoclip Apple iTunes MPG-Format Filmed with Super8 camera, digitized in 2009 Filmed in summer 1975 in Kleinwalsertal, Austria. Duration: 39 sec Format: 4:3 DVD-Quality Size: 15 MB

 

 

Snow Cat Model Building already in 1974.