AB BCe 4/4

AB ABe 4/4
Type designation:	until 1956: BCe 4/4 from 1956:  ABe 4/4
Numbering:	until 1949: 27–30 from 1949:  40–43 from 2004:  1, 2, 43	44, 45 from 1995:   8001, 8002
Manufacturer:	SIG , MFO
Construction year:	1933	1949
Retirement:	from 1985	1999
Axis formula :	B 0 'B 0 '
Gauge :	1000 mm
Length over buffers:	16,700 mm	18,000 mm
Total wheelbase:	13,000 mm	14,550 mm
Service mass:	34.2 t	35 t
Top speed:	65 km / h
Hourly output :	450 kW	506 kW
Hourly traction:	47 kN at 32.6 km / h	52 kN at 33.5 km / h
Drive wheel diameter:	900 mm
Power system:	1500 V =
Number of drive motors:	4th
Transmission ratio:	1: 5.5
1st class seats:                  2nd class:                  Total:	12 40 52	14 34 48

The BCe 4/4 of the Appenzeller Bahn (AB) were meter-gauge four - axle electric multiple units with second and third class compartments . In 1939 the AB procured the BCe 4/4 27–30 and in 1949 the BCe 4/4 44 and 45. From 1956 the railcars were designated as ABe 4/4 41–45. Through the merger of the Appenzeller Bahn with the SGA , the vehicles came to the Appenzeller Bahnen (AB) in 1988 . ABe 4/4 41 and 42 operated at times on the Bellinzona – Mesocco route of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB).

ABe 4/4 40-43

ABe 4/4 42 in 1982, Appenzell

AB BCe 4/4 30 in 2006 in Appenzell

On the occasion of the electrification, the Appenzeller Bahn (AB) procured the four BCe 4/4 27–30. The motor coaches were given a dark sprayed the car body in light steel construction , eigenventilierte Tatzlager traction motors and a direct kontroller . The upholstered class was equipped with a side aisle . When they were commissioned in 1933, the BCe 4/4 were the most powerful meter-gauge railcars in Switzerland.

In 1949 the railcars were given the new operating numbers 40–43 and at around the same time a red / cream paint job. 1953 AB replaced the Westinghouse - by a Oerlikon - Compressed air brake and built the guide tables around. From 1956 the 2nd class benches were upholstered and in 1959/60 the railcars received new bogies with torsion springs . The central buffer couplings on railcar 43 have been replaced by + GF + couplings for pulling Rollbock trains .

In 1986, the railcars from the 1930s became superfluous when the BDe 4/4 II 31–33 was put into operation on the AB. The ABe 4/4 43 now belongs to the AG2 Verein historical Appenzeller Bahnen . It received the previous red paint and the designation BCe 4/4, but kept the + GF + coupling. The ABe 4/4 41 and 42 came to the Misox.

Use in the Misox

ABe 4/4 42 when maneuvering in the Val Moesa steelworks

Already between February 1971 and May 1972 the ABe 4/4 41 was used on the Bellinzona – Mesocco route of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) because the ABDe 4/4 451 and 455 and the De 4/4 471 had to be broken off after accidents. Number 42 stayed at Misox in 1980 during the major overhaul of the BDe 4/4 491.

In 1987 the ABe 4/4 42 and in 2001 the No. 41 finally came to the southern Graubünden valley. The purchased railcar 42 was labeled with Ferrovia Retica and provided with the RhB logo. After the RhB ceased freight traffic, the two vehicles and the Misoxerbahn were taken over by the Società Esercizio Ferroviario Turistico (SEFT) at the end of 2003, which changed the RhB lettering to Ferrovia Mesolcinese and the company numbers to 1 and 2. After the museum railway operation had ceased, the ABe 4/4 2 was canceled and the railcar 1 exhibited as a memorial in Grono in 2015 .

ABe 4/4 44-45

Shuttle train with ABe 4/4 45 and reinforcement cars in 1982 between Gonten and Appenzell

After the merger with the Appenzell-Weissbad-Wasserauen-Bahn (AWW), the Appenzeller Bahn procured the BCe 4/4 44 and 45, two intermediate cars B 8 and B 9 as well as two associated control cars BDZt 60 and DZt 65. The number 45 was formally ordered by the AWW. The two railcars had a hopper control and despite the high output of over 500 kW, had dead-end drive motors. The speed-dependent door opening and closing of the entire train was new. Outwardly, the two railcars resembled the ABe 4/4 1–3 of the Chemin de fer Yverdon – Ste-Croix . Despite the existing remote control , little use was made of the formation of shuttle trains .

In 1953 the Westinghouse brake was replaced by the Oerlikon brake, and in 1961 new first-class seats were installed and the second-class seats were upholstered.

In 1995 the vehicles were superfluous after the delivery of the BDe 4/4 II 34 and 35 and were sold to Spain, where they were still in use for a few years as the 8000 series on the Línia Llobregat-Anoia by the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya .

photos

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  ABe 4/4 43 in 1983 in Wasserauen

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  ABe 4/4 42 in 2011 in Castione-Arbedo

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  Historic BCe 4/4 30, Appenzell in the background

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  ABe 4/4 45, Kronberg in the background

• 

  ABe 4/4 45 at Jakobsbad

literature

• Peter Willen: Locomotives in Switzerland 2 - narrow-gauge traction vehicles. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich, 1971, pp. 195–196

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ferrovia Elettrica Bellinzona - Mesocco. Past and present On the Rhaetian Railway website, accessed on December 20, 2018 (PDF; 20.4 MB)
2. ↑ ABe 4/4 44-45. On the website of the Appenzeller Bahnen Steam Locomotive Association, accessed on December 20, 2018 (PDF; 0.5 MB)
3. ↑ SERIES 8000 ex Appenzeler Bahnen. On web ferroviària , accessed December 20, 2018 (Spanish)