Gothawagen
Gothawagen is the name given to the standardized tram cars of the GDR that were designed and produced by VEB Waggonbau Gotha (formerly Waggonfabrik Gotha) from 1957 to 1967 .
history
The construction and design are based on vehicles for Erfurt from 1936 and the two-axle standard tram cars planned in the late 1930s . In some cases, components from the LOWA type ET 54 wagons from the Werdau wagon factory were also used. These were also manufactured in Gotha from 1954.
The series ranged from the T 57 to the types T2-62 and G-4-65 - articulated trolleys . The latter was built based on a model of similar cars from Credé in Kassel . The vehicles were given unit travel switch arranged later under the floor, and two 60 kW motors in series / parallel circuit with shunt, rail brakes with fresh current relay , ratchet hand brake , a low voltage system (24 V) with converters and typically Scharfenberg couplings . Despite the more restless running compared to four-axle bogie vehicles and the clearly audible "cornering noises", the vehicles were popular with staff and passengers because of their robustness and ease of use.
From 1966 new trams were not allowed to be built in the GDR , but had to be imported from what was then Czechoslovakia . Since initially no vehicles could be made available for use in the GDR, ČKD Tatra continued to produce the Gothawagen under the designation T2D / B2D . Since the quantities supplied were insufficient and bidirectional cars were also needed, the reko cars developed for Berlin by the Reichsbahn repair shop in Berlin-Schöneweide were also delivered to other tram operators in the GDR.
Gothawagen were in use in the GDR and the Soviet Union . In some of the successor states they still are, but have also been resold. In the GDR, the vehicles were phased out from 1975 in favor of Tatra trams . The last use in the regular service of large tram companies was in 2003. In Germany, Gothawagen are still in daily use on the Kirnitzschtalbahn in Bad Schandau , the Woltersdorfer tram (near Berlin) and the Naumburg tram . In Evpatoria ( Ukraine ), on the T3 line in Istanbul and in Bursa ( Turkey ) the cars are still in operation today.
