Corail wagon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Corail open- plan car (B 10 rtu) with folding doors

As Corail cars are 1975-1984 procured air-conditioned coaches of the French National Railways (SNCF) for the domestic and international express train traffic referred.

The new generation of cars

Interior view of a modernized Corail open-plan car in Intercités design
Second class compartment in a Corail half baggage car (B 6 Dux)
Corail half baggage car, converted into a protection car for double-decker trains

The Corail coaches put into service from 1975 onwards were the first coaches in the UIC standard length of 26,400 millimeters in France . For the first time, all areas were air-conditioned, including the second class (exception: B 6 Dd 2 half- baggage car ). They correspond to the UIC specification of the type Z. It was open seating car and compartment cars procured. A striking feature of the first series of these vehicles are the hinged folding doors (to the longitudinal axis of the car); in the last series, swing-sliding doors were installed instead. The cars are approved for 160 or 200 km / h; the power supply is designed either for 1500 volts direct or alternating current (domestic cars) or for all four European power systems (cars for international traffic).

Upon delivery, the wagons were painted in shades of gray; the doors were set off in orange. The coral color of the doors (fr .: corail ) was one of the interpretations of the name Corail , which was otherwise derived from Co nfort sur Rail . The areas of the first class had a yellow stripe between the roof edge and the window strip, the second one in green. The bar compartment was given an orange stripe.

Some wagons for the Paris – Brussels – Amsterdam traffic still had the orange-light-gray Eurofima C1 paint on delivery , in order to ensure a uniform appearance with the Eurofima wagons also used on this route .

VTU series

The open-plan cars were added to the SNCF fleet as VTU (Voiture tourisme universelle), the first versions as ten-window open-plan cars of the types B 10 tu and B 11 tu (35 in Eurofima orange) and A 5 B 5 tu (the numbers refer to the fictitious compartments) and A 10 tu as well as bistro car B 5 rtux. The entrances of the VTU are slightly offset from the end of the car towards the middle of the car; the toilets are in the corners of the car. Some of the first-class open- plan cars were built with a minibar base and designated as A 10 rtu.

VU series

In the same year, some compartment cars of the types B 6 Dux half-luggage compartment wagons and A 4 B 6 u and A 9 u compartment cars (eleven half-pack wagons and ten mixed-class wagons of this series, but in Eurofima orange), which differ from the The only difference between the Eurofima wagons is the roof beading up to the edge of the roof and the inwardly set entrance doors in the fold-and-turn design. From 1976 B 11 u (nine cars in Eurofima orange) of the VU (Voiture universelle) series and A 11 u in Corail design were added. The doors of the VU cars are at the ends of the cars.

The B 11 u series had eight-seat compartments (some also in Eurofima orange) and the 70 type A 11 u cars had eleven six-seat compartments. These cars were assigned to second class in 1982; the six-person compartment remained. As a replacement, 100 copies of the A 9 u wagons were put into circulation, which were similar in dimensions to the Eurofima wagons, but had typical Corail attributes such as the beaded roof and the doors that were offset inward to the longitudinal axis of the wagon. Type B 10 c 10 u couchette cars with midnight blue instead of gray ribbon windows and without air conditioning (but with UIC translating windows ) were delivered from 1978. In addition, some A 10 u compartment cars were also procured. A small series of the B 6 Drtux control cars was also ordered; a larger series followed in 1984.

Together with the Corail wagons, type MC 76 luggage wagons and 100 original A 9 VSE Eurofima wagons (Voiture standard européenne) were purchased in 1976 and the color of the Corail wagons was adjusted (up to eight VSE in Eurofima orange).

In 1978, further B 11 u and half-bag wagons were purchased. But couchette Types A 9 c 9 were supplied to SNCF.

The 1980s

Up until then, all Corail cars had folding doors. From 1982, sliding and sliding doors became compulsory for the open-plan car types. The couchette coaches delivered from 1984 onwards were now built as a universal type AcBc, in which the compartments were filled with four first or six second class couches depending on the ticket, despite their year of construction with inwardly relocated folding folding doors.

From 1984 even B 12 U-cars with eight seats per compartment and other vehicles of other types followed.

New color design

The latest color variant of the Corail car in Paris-Austerlitz
Corail car (A 5 B 5 tu) with pivoting sliding doors in Intercités design

In the mid-1990s, the paintwork of the Corail fleet changed. Following the example of the color scheme introduced for the first time in France by the TGV Atlantique and the TGV PSE, which was no longer orange, a two-tone coat of paint was now applied in silver and gray, with the window strip being painted dark just like the TGV. As with the TGV, the ribbon window was now surrounded by a narrow white stripe and separated from the rest of the metallic silver. As with the TGV, the different classes are now differentiated by red doors (first class), yellow doors (bistro, restaurant) and turquoise doors (second class). In contrast to the TGV with a blue ribbon window, the Corail trains have a dark gray ribbon window. The doors were initially two-tone with color coding only in the window band; this was soon simplified and the doors were painted in full color in the class identification color. A coincidental resemblance was thus given to the EC carriages of the SBB and the earlier Swiss TEE trains of the type RAe , which also had a light gray-dark gray exterior after the conversion in 1989/1990.

Similar to Germany, where long-distance traffic has received the color scheme of the ICE, long-distance traffic with Corailplus trains (comparable to the German InterCity) should benefit from the image of the TGV due to the visual similarity. However, after surveys of customers by the SNCF, it was soon found that the update was perceived as as dreary as gray tubes. A new concept based on the surveys is therefore the colorful design of the Téoz trains, which are used on a network of long-distance express train connections (TGN, Trains de génération nouvelle, comparable to the former InterRegio trains of the DB). Corail wagons of the B 6 Du, B 11 tu and A 10 u modules were converted for this purpose.

The SNCF logo also changed with the version currently used on the wagon.

Calls

Corail control car in TER service
Many Corail wagons are in TER service today, here a B7uh half-luggage wagon painted in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

The Corail wagons were used in almost all long-distance trains in France, but also on many routes abroad ( Benelux , Switzerland , Austria , Germany ). From 1987 the new Eurocity trains were also equipped with it. At the beginning of the 1990s, EC trains came with these cars to the new federal states as far as Leipzig and Dresden . Occasionally, these cars could also be seen on the Paris - Cologne route via Aachen . Corail cars drove to Stuttgart (- Munich ) in Germany until the summer of 2007 , and also had Vienna as their destination. Alternatively, Corail cars also ended up in Frankfurt am Main via Strasbourg or Saarbrücken in EC trains, and to Vienna in EN and D trains . Until 1994, Corail couchette coaches also operated with a bogie change in Hendaye continuously from Paris-Austerlitz to Madrid and Lisbon .

Due to the elimination of these relations, Corail wagons are now almost exclusively in the French TER traffic, which correspond to the Regional Express in Germany. For this they have received paintwork from the respective regional authorities. These trains can reach speeds of up to 200 km / h on suitable routes (e.g. Metralsace in Alsace). Many compartment cars were converted into open-plan cars for this purpose. Another area of ​​application is the inner-French express train service, which will continue to exist.

Technical specifications

Renfe couchette car Bc10x-9628, CAF license construction

The cars, made from extruded steel grade St 52, are all 26,400 millimeters long and 2,825 millimeters wide (MC 76s are 20,000 mm long and 3,000 mm wide). They have rubber bead transitions. They belong to the UIC type Z. The vehicles running on type SNCF Y 32 bogies (only VSE on FIAT bogies) have a bogie distance of 19 meters (MC 76: 13 meters). The maximum permissible speed is 160, 180 or 200 km / h, depending on the type. The roof has beads that extend over the wash edge area to the roof edge, except for the VSE type. The cars, which are divided into three sub-series VU / VTU 75, VU / VTU 78 and VU / VTU 84, were produced from 1975 to 1988. All cars are air-conditioned. However, some couchette cars have translating windows that can be opened. Suppliers were Alstom and Anglo-Franco-Belge . A noticeable feature of all Corail wagons are the extra-wide buffer plates, which were necessary for traffic in the Iberian broad-gauge network to compensate for the buffer spacing of 1950 millimeters that was customary there until the 1990s. They are still there, although very few Corail wagons have been used across borders to Spain and Portugal. Mainly it concerned couchette cars for the trains "Puerta del Sol" and " Sud-Express "; In addition, Renfe had rented French Corail cars for a long time in the 1980s. The extra-wide buffer plates are also available at the licensed buildings for the CP and Renfe.

Corail wagons from other countries

Portuguese Corail wagon

Corail-type wagons also operate in Morocco , Spain , Romania and Portugal . In Portugal they were built under license by SOREFAME from 1985 and, unlike the other types, have car bodies made of stainless steel with corrugated side walls based on patents of the American Budd Company . There are types B10, A10 and A5R (Bar), which are used in the Intercity service ( Intercidades ). Renfe had its Corail cars built under license by CAF ; They can be recognized in the interior design by parts typical for this manufacturer, such as rounded toilet door handles and additional signal lamps for the triple-light final signal that was still common at the Renfe at the time. In Spain there were also compartment cars with sliding doors.

16 Corail cars were owned by the Luxembourg State Railways CFL . These come from a compensation contract with the SNCF until 2008 and were then used on both national and international connections. In 2011 they were sold to Morocco.

Individual evidence

  1. Forum rail.lu 2013

Web links

Commons : Corail Cart  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files