Depot R-3 Mokotów
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The depot R-3 Mokotów ( Polish Zakład Eksploatacji Tramwajów R-3 Mokotów ) is one of four depots of the Warsaw tram . It is located in the Mokotów district of Warsaw and was opened on September 10, 1955. Today Mokotów is home to more than 220 Konstal 105Na , PESA 120N and PESA 120Na vehicles ; 550 employees work in operations, maintenance and administration.
history
Planning and construction
Already after the First World War there was a need for a large depot in the south of Warsaw. The existing depots that covered this area had become too small; there was a lack of space. The tram company therefore acquired a suitable field in the 1930s, but the outbreak of World War II and the extent of the destruction during the Warsaw Uprising prevented the plans from being implemented quickly. Planning for the depot was not resumed until 1950, and in July 1952 the decision was made to build the depot on the property acquired in the prewar period. The foundation stone was laid in the same year.
On September 10, 1955 the opening of the depot and the entry of the first tram took place. In the same month, many trams moved to Mokotów.
16 tracks were housed in a large maintenance hall, plus 10 sidings outside the hall. Three more tracks outside the hall were reserved for checks and minor repairs. The hall and sidings had a combined capacity of 250 vehicles, and the depot was designed to permanently accommodate 150 to 200 trams. Although the construction time was around three years, the media reported a construction time of one year and the Mokotów depot was dubbed the fastest-built depot in Poland.
Start-up difficulties and first years of operation
While the depot was widely praised by the workforce in the first few days after it was put into operation, disillusionment spread during the first winter. Various construction defects and inadequacies have been handed down about the depot and in particular the hall: the hall and barracks were leaky, building materials fell from the ceiling, the heating was inadequate, the hot water supply was interrupted, the hall doors could not be locked and tools were missing. The outside area was unlit at night and sidewalks to the area outside the city at that time were only gradually being built.
In 1957 an administration building was put into operation. This was generously dimensioned, so that in the first few years unneeded rooms were made available to the military , which they used for drafting . On the other hand, the operational facilities are different: with 280 vehicles in December 1958, the depot was overcrowded. This made maneuvering difficult, as vehicles were parked, and led to many repairs being carried out on the open-air site, which caused quality to suffer, especially in winter.
Operation and expansion from 1960 to 1990
In the early days, there was a large variety of vehicles at the Mokotów depot. Many different pre-war designs were at home here. From 1958 these vehicles were gradually taken out of service and replaced by Konstal 13N wagons . In 1961 the first 14 wagons reached Mokotów, followed by the next delivery in 1962. At the end of 1968 the depot's vehicle fleet consisted exclusively of Konstal 13N. In 1977 there were 267 cars.
In 1967 there was a building boom in Warsaw, the open field area of the Mokotów depot was converted within a short time with residential complexes and a Telewizja Polska broadcasting building. The depot could not be used during the construction work. Also in 1967 a restructuring of the tram company was carried out, during which a number was assigned to each depot. Since then, the Mokotów depot has had the addition R-3.
A continuous modernization of the depot began in the late 1960s. Electrically operated cranes were installed in the maintenance hall to lift car bodies from the bogies . Diagnostic tools for inverters and traction motors were purchased. Two storage buildings, including one for oils and lubricants , were built. In view of the threat of a nuclear strike as part of the Cold War , a decontamination area was also created for the tram vehicles. There was a separate vulcanization workshop for components made of rubber . In the meantime, this workshop has received an order from the manufacturer Konstal to manufacture rubber covers for gas and brake pedals for new Konstal vehicles.
Development after 1990
From 1991 the Konstal 13N were retired and replaced by Konstal 105Na from other depots . In 1998 Mokotów still had 72 13N cars.
At the end of the 1990s, tourist traffic with historic vehicles was set up. The restoration of these vehicles took place in the Mokotów depot, which is also where the vehicles are located.
In 1998 the Mokotów depot was the first tram depot in Poland to receive an underfloor lathe . With this machine, the wheel sets of a vehicle can be turned without having to dismantle the bogies. Until another of these systems was installed in the R-4 Zoliborz depot, all the vehicles on the Warsaw tram came to Mokotów to turn off.
| Employee of the Mokotów depot on April 1st, 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| activity | Women | Men | total |
| Operations service | 86 | 272 | 358 |
| maintenance | 9 | 151 | 160 |
| administration | 9 | 23 | 32 |
| total | 104 | 446 | 550 |
From 1999 to 2007 Mokotów had 15 Konstal 116Na trams . These were handed over to the R-2 Praga depot in the second half of 2007. As a result, Mokotów received 15 PESA 120N vehicles, the first PESA vehicles for the Warsaw tram. From 2010 to 2013, 60 of the 186 new articulated multiple units of the PESA 120Na type were stationed in Mokotów. With the modern low-floor trams, structural changes to the depot were necessary, for example railings were installed in order to be able to carry out work on the roof equipment of the trams.
On April 1, 2015, 550 employees were employed in the transport service, vehicle maintenance and administration at the Mokotów depot. At that time, Mokotów had 222 trams. In addition, there are the historic wagons, which are also used by volunteer staff for special trips through the city.
Every year the depot can be visited on an open day at the days of public transport ( Dni Transportu Publicznego in Polish ) that have been held in Warsaw since 2002 . This event usually takes place on the second weekend in September.
literature
- Tramwaje Warszawskie Sp. Z oo (ed.) : 60 lat historii zajezdni tramwajowej na Mokotowie 1955 r. - 2015 r. ProPrint Usługi Poligraficzne, Warsaw 2015.
