M-train
The M-Bahn ( magnetic train ) in Berlin was a track-bound traffic system on its own route, which was used in trial operation from 1984 and in passenger operation from 1989 to 1991.
Working principle
The M-Bahn used a linear motor in long stator design as the drive . On the one hand, the guideway provided the driving lane and, on the other hand, it was also part of the drive system. The box-shaped double cabins had neither motors nor braking systems: strong permanent magnets under the cab carried 85% of the vehicle's weight. The M-Bahn was guided both horizontally and vertically by small wheels. Windings laid between the rails acted as the motor. They generated a wandering magnetic field that pulled the cabins forward as if on an invisible cushion and also slowed it down.
The weight and driving forces of the M-Bahn were transmitted magnetically, the executives mechanically. The predominantly magnetic support led to a flat and therefore very favorable load introduction into the route.
The fully automatic Berlin maglev train was quiet, energy-efficient (it used 20 percent less than an underground train ) and had almost no staff (which usually makes up 70 percent of the costs in local public transport). It carried a total of three million passengers and in July 1991 was the world's first commercial maglev train in urban passenger traffic (after the Birmingham Maglev as an airport shuttle). However, the M-Bahn did not save its track record because after German reunification it had to give way to the reconstruction of the U2 underground line , on whose tracks the route lay partially.
history
In 1975, the Technical University of Braunschweig built a test track for a magnetic train in Braunschweig , the drive principle of which was based on the “traveling field technology with permanent magnetic excitation” developed in 1973 by the physicist Götz Heidelberg . It consisted of two closed loops connected by switches, which had inclines and descents. The road was partly elevated, partly at ground level. The type 01 vehicles were 6.3 m long, 2.1 m wide and 2.1 m high. They had 16 seats and 24 standing places, the maximum speed was 50 km / h.
In 1978 the company AEG-Telefunken took a share in Heidelberg's Citybahn GmbH, which was then renamed Magnetbahn GmbH (based in Starnberg ). Her experience with rail automation and energy supply soon proved to be essential and valuable. The M-Bahn was developed and planned in close cooperation between the AEG, the Technical University of Braunschweig and the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). In 1982 the M-Bahn company received the order for a demonstration system in West Berlin . In the spring of 1983, the Federal Ministry of Research issued the final approval notice . Of the planned costs for the operational testing of 50 million marks , 75% were raised by the federal government, the rest by the Berlin Senate . The plan was to start trial operation at the end of 1984 on a 600 m long section of the 1558 m long route. A two-year trial run should then take place.
The construction work for the Berlin M-Bahn began in December 1983, the trial operation - still without passengers - on June 28, 1984. The vehicles initially available were a type 70/2 railcar with the number 706 and the maintenance vehicle 05 with diesel drive. For regular traffic, four 80/2 vehicles were ordered from Waggon Union , with drive technology from AEG rail technology and Magnetbahn GmbH. They were 11.72 m long, 2.30 m wide and 2.14 m high.
The topping-out ceremony for the Kemperplatz and Bernburger Strasse stations was celebrated on September 26, 1986. The Kemperplatz terminus received two side platforms, around 30 m long and 6 m wide . A final transverse platform was dispensed with in order to be able to extend the route if necessary. The entire structure was around 45 m long and 18 m wide with a ridge height of 12 m. The platform area was enclosed by a glazed steel structure, the roof was made of wood with a bitumen seal. The lower floors were clad, the ground floor accommodated the control center and a mezzanine floor accommodated the technical rooms. Fixed stairs and escalators each led to the two platforms .
The approximately 35 m long, 22 m wide and 21 m high hall of the Bernburger Straße station was completely glazed all around, and the roof surfaces, with the exception of the covered track area, were also designed as steel and glass constructions. Fixed stairs and escalators also led to the two 30 m long side platforms. The steel structure was painted in the same silver tone as the route elements, non-glazed outer walls such as the gable sides above the driveway were painted green.
The start of regular operations was delayed by an arson attack in the Gleisdreieck terminus on April 18, 1987, in which two cars were destroyed, as well as by an accident on December 19, 1988: a test train was on that day during a test drive at an inappropriate speed Kemperplatz terminus and had broken through the glazed outer wall. The driving computers had been switched off for this trip in order to be able to drive the train manually for a test at a higher speed than was intended by the system. In this accident, one car fell on the concrete floor of the driveway and was destroyed, the second hung at a height of six meters for several days until it was removed by a low-loader after being recovered.
The trial operation was therefore only released for free passenger transport on August 28, 1989 ("extended trial operation with passenger transport") after the 100,000 km required by the supervisory authority had been completed without passengers. Initially, only vehicle 04 could be used, which had 24 seats and a total of 80 passengers. It ran every ten minutes between the endpoints at a top speed of 55 km / h.
The 1.6 kilometer long route for the maglev train, which was then designed as a new local transport system, lay partly on the small-profile route from Gleisdreieck to Potsdamer Platz , which was used by the subway until the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961 , but then swung over the Bernburger stop Street to Kemperplatz at the Philharmonie . On July 18, 1991, the final approval as a new passenger transport system by the technical supervisory authority took place. This officially ended the trial operation and scheduled traffic (at the usual BVG tariff) began.
Due to the successful trial run on the Berlin facility, which was visited by traffic experts from many countries, German and other cities planned the construction of M-Bahn routes, so the city of Frankfurt am Main as a feeder to the airport. In Las Vegas , construction began in 1989 on a two-kilometer route that was to contain four stations. A subsidiary of AEG was founded specifically for this purpose .
Already on July 31, 1991, the M-train operation was set to the path for the by the fall of the wall allowed on 9 November 1989 by the reconstruction of the building of the wall interrupted distance piece of the subway line U2 to free. The dismantling of the line began on September 17, 1991 and was completed by the end of February 1992. Originally, a reconstruction as a feeder to Berlin-Schönefeld Airport was planned. However, this intention was later dropped and the stored track parts were scrapped. Maglev vehicle No. 06 was on view in the Nuremberg Transport Museum on a piece of the original route before it was brought to the Lichtenfels location of the DB Museum in September 2009 . The vehicle has been in the exhibition of the Oldtimer Museum Rügen since spring 2012 .
vehicles
Cars 401, 402 and 704 were used in Braunschweig , all others in Berlin. The number of type 01 cars built (Braunschweig) is not known.
| number | Type | Construction year | Car body | First test drives | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 401 | 01 | 1978 | Linke-Hofmann-Busch , AEG | since 1987 in the German Museum of Technology Berlin (Monument Hall) | |
| 402 | Magnetbahn GmbH | ||||
| 704 | M70 / 2 | Magnetbahn GmbH | exhibited at the Hanover Fair in April 1984 | ||
| 706 | M70 / 2 | 1983 | Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm | June 1984 | in October 1986 to Magnetbahn GmbH in Starnberg |
| 01 | M80 / 2 | 1985/1986 | Waggon Union | March 1987 | burned out, scrapped at the end of 1987 |
| 02 | M80 / 2 | 1985/1986 | Waggon Union | March 1987 | damaged in fire, rebuilt without function |
| 03 | M80 / 2 | 1986/1987 | Waggon Union | May 1987 | Total loss after an accident at Kemperplatz |
| 04 | M80 / 2 | 1986 | Waggon Union | May 1987 | Damage after an accident at Kemperplatz, in use again from July 1989 |
| 05 | 1983 | Magnetbahn GmbH | April 1984 | Maintenance vehicle on castors with diesel drive | |
| 06 | M80 / 2 | 1988/1989 | Waggon Union | May 1991 | Replacement for car 02, available from the Oldtimer Museum Rügen |
| 07 | M80 / 2 | 1988/1989 | Waggon Union | October 1989 | Replacement for car 01, used in Braunschweig from 1995 |
Some technical data
- Type designation of a car: M 80
- Dead weight of a car: 10 tons
- Number of passengers per car: 80
- Maximum speed for use in Berlin: 80 km / h
- driverless operation
- Kilometers driven on the Berlin test track: more than 100,000 km by the end of 1989
Others
In the film Der Himmel über Berlin by Wim Wenders , the section of the M-Bahn between the Kemperplatz terminus (near Potsdamer Platz ) and the old section of the former subway to the Gleisdreieck can be seen in the background - and also, as on the Driveway people walk.
In the ZDF television series The Specialists (episode 1, episode 1), the maglev is a theme and its course is shown on a city map from 1990 (from minute 22).
literature
- Flyer M-Bahn - New Dimension in Local Public Transport . Magnetbahn GmbH, Berlin project, 1989
- Peter Neumann: Berlin's Mini-Transrapid got into the scrap press . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 5, 1996
Web links
- The M-Bahn in Berlin - a technology with a long history at: Berliner Verkehrsseiten, with numerous photos
- The Berlin M-Bahn ( Memento from September 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at dghubl
Video documents:
Individual evidence
- ↑ Birmingham Airport's old Maglev carriage to be sold at bbc.com, accessed December 30, 2016
- ↑ a b The M-Bahn in Berlin - A technology with a long history. At: berliner-verkehrsseiten.de , accessed on March 31, 2019
- ↑ a b New maglev system presented in: Stadtverkehr 1/1979, p. 25.
- ↑ a b c d Topping- out ceremony at the M-Bahn Berlin in: Stadtverkehr 2/87, p. 10 f.
- ↑ Green light for the M-Bahn . In: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau , 32, issue 9/1983
- ^ Berlin: Start of operations at the M-Bahn in: Stadtverkehr 10/1989, p. 31 f.
- ↑ Flyer M-Bahn - New Dimension in Local Public Transport . Magnetbahn GmbH, Berlin project, 1989
- ↑ The BVG hovers over things. (PDF) New series: For the 90th anniversary of the BVG, Axel Mauruszat presents finds from the archive. www.bvg.de, March 22, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2019 (page 36 [PDF page 19]).