DR series VT 18.16

DR class VT 18.16 DB class 675
VT 18.16 in Berlin-Lichtenberg train station
Numbering:	DR VT 18.16 01-08 DR 175 001-019 DB AG 675 014-019
Number:	10 multiple units
Manufacturer:	VEB Waggonbau Görlitz
Year of construction (s):	1963 (prototype) 1965–1968 (series)
Retirement:	2003
Axis formula :	B'2 '+ 2'2' + 2'2 '+ 2'B'
Length:	98 060 mm (four parts) 121 580 mm (five parts) 145 100 mm (six parts)
Empty mass:	214.4 t (four-part) 255.2 t (five-part) 296.0 t (six-part)
Wheel set mass :	19.8 t
Top speed:	160 km / h (four and five parts) 140 km / h (six parts)
Indexed performance :	2 × 736 kW
Number of traction motors:	2
Drive:	diesel-hydraulic
Brake:	KE-R-Mg (with prototype Hikss)
Train control :	Sifa , I60
Train heating:	Water / air
Seats:	140 + 23 (four parts)

The VT 18.16 (from 1970: Class 175 , "Type Görlitz") is a diesel-hydraulic express train (SVT) of the former Deutsche Reichsbahn .

history

Class 175 multiple unit at the end of the 1970s as Vindobona on the Elbe Valley Railway in Bad Schandau

The VT 18.16 were high-quality trains that were intended in particular for international use. The routes in question were not fully electrified; in addition, four traction current systems had emerged in the European network and operational multi-system vehicles were only just beginning to be developed. Like many other railway administrations at the same time, the Deutsche Reichsbahn therefore decided to procure diesel multiple units. They were built by VEB Waggonbau Görlitz from 1963 . The prototype unit was equipped with two 900 hp engines and approved for 160 km / h; hence the designation VT (for combustion railcars), 18 (for 1800 hp) and 16 (for 160 km / h). The series railcars received engines with 1000 hp. The prototype train could not be coupled with the other trains and was retired in 1977. In addition to eight multiple units, six additional vehicles (VMe) and two reserve railcars (VTa 09 and 10, later 175 017 and 019) were built.

Great importance was attached to the equipment and condition, the hospitality on the train was significantly better than in other DR trains.

commitment

The vehicles were used in international traffic to Scandinavia , Austria and Czechoslovakia . The train route was known as Vindobona via Prague to Vienna.

At the end of the 1970s, the space capacity was no longer sufficient for many train routes driven with VT 18.16, so that most of these trains were converted to locomotive-hauled sets. As Vindobona , the VT 18.16 last operated to Vienna in 1979 - here the compensation payments from the ÖBB were the reason, as they no longer had suitable railcars for regular use for this connection. The last international assignments were made in the early 1980s as Karlex and Karola to Karlsbad .

The last operational areas of the trains were the connection Berlin Zoologischer Garten station - Leipzig main station to the Leipziger Messe and the express trains Berlin - Bautzen in the mid-1980s. The trains were then gradually phased out. A train set was so badly damaged in the Schweinsburg-Culten railway accident in 1972 that it had to be taken out of service.

VT 18.16.01 in Děčín

The SVT 18.16 operated on the following routes:

Berlinaren : Berlin - Malmö (with the Sassnitz – Trelleborg sea route )
Karlex : Berlin - Karlsbad
Karola : Leipzig - Karlsbad
Neptune : Berlin - Copenhagen (with the Warnemünde – Gedser sea route )
Vindobona : Berlin - Prague - Vienna
Berlin - Bautzen, the so-called "Sorb Express"

Whereabouts

Set parked in Berlin-Lichtenberg (175 015-016)

At the beginning of the 1990s there was only one operational train (175 019, 313, 413, 014 and two VMe), which from then on served as a museum train for the DR. This was given the new series number 675 in 1992 and was still used for the DB nostalgia program until 2003; in April 2003 the last still operational unit went on a “farewell tour” through Germany and neighboring European countries. When the deadline expired in June 2003, it was turned off and added to the inventory of the DB Museum in Nuremberg . The unit was parked in the depot in Berlin-Rummelsburg for years until July 30, 2014 . Then it was implemented for the association “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Osthavelländische Kreisbahnen” at the Ketzin train station , where it was to be gradually processed. In the spring of 2018 the train came to Nuremberg, where it was exhibited on the open-air site of the DB Museum in a special exhibition next to the West German VT 11.5 ( TEE ). On March 23, 2019, the six-part unit, which had meanwhile been completed in Lichtenfels, was transferred to Dresden on the initiative of SVT Görlitz gGmbH, which was founded in 2019, and stored in a hall protected from the weather. In the medium term, the operational refurbishment of the train is planned and a fundraising campaign started in September 2019.

At the Berlin-Lichtenberg train station , the second train in Berlin is the 175 015-016, which is not operational and is being kept stationary by a Foundation Bahn-Sozialwerk- Freizeitgruppe. The train 175 005–006 (the youth club train “Ernst Thälmann” of the “central youth facility for the electrification of railway lines”) is on permanent loan in the Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf Railway Museum . The train 175 009-010 and VMd 175 407 were in Velten from around 1995 with broken windows and severe rust damage (whereabouts not known here). There is no information about the whereabouts of the multiple unit (175 011-012).

Power cars	Whereabouts
175 003-004	Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf (disassembled), used for processing from 005–006
175 005-006	Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf, loan from Solaris
175 009-010	Velten railcar hangar , from 1995
175 011-012	Railway depot Berlin-Rummelsburg
175 014 + 019	DB Museum Nürnberg , refurbishment in Dresden-Altstadt, previously on loan from Ketzin station , OHKB e. V.
175 015-016	Berlin-Lichtenberg, BSW Group, loan from the DB Museum

technology

Machine bogie of a VT 18.16 with diesel engine and gearbox

The basic concept of the multiple units is based on the Kruckenberg design DR 137 155 , but without Jakobs bogies. This means that the number of cars is variable; one unit could run with four to six cars. The mechanical equipment is distributed between one end car and one adjacent middle car, the latter including the components for the compressed air supply. The end cars each received one of the V 180 series proven engines of the type 12 KVD 18/21 ( twelve-cylinder , short - stroke, four-stroke diesel engine ) from VEB Motorenwerk Johannisthal in Berlin . Initially the engines had an output of 900 HP, later the output was increased to 1000 HP (736 kW). A L 306 RT three-converter flow transmission from Voith St. Pölten is used to transmit the power and is installed directly in the machine bogie together with the diesel engine . Both wheel sets in this bogie are driven via cardan shafts and axle drives. The installation of the entire drive system in the end bogies necessitated their large wheelbase of four meters; due to the mass distribution, the support on the secondary suspension is asymmetrical. The diesel engine is located in the engine room behind the driver's cab, between this and the entry area for the passengers there is a small service or post compartment with its own double-winged outer doors. By using the machine bogies, the car body of the end car is completely decoupled from the drive, which ensures good driving comfort in these.

The passenger compartments in the end cars are large rooms in the second class with double seats that can be rotated in the direction of travel. One of the intermediate cars is equipped as a first class compartment car, the second contains three second class compartments and the dining room with kitchen. Additional unit were to operate as five and Sechswagenzug medium dare VMe procured as a compartment car the second grade. In four and five parts, the trains reached a speed of 160 km / h, with six cars 140 km / h were possible. The running bogies were derived from the Görlitz V type. All wheel sets are roller-mounted and block-braked, the type of Knorr air brake with unitary effect is KE-R-Mg, a change of train type is not planned. The carriages of a unit are connected to each other with socket couplings with damping buffers and additional line couplings, the service couplings at the ends of the units are Scharfenberg couplings with contact attachments. These couplings also couple the compressed air lines. The units received PZB vehicle devices of the type I60.

The entrance doors are folding doors , while the prototype unit had pocket sliding doors. As with the modernization cars, three quarters of the windows are fixed, the upper quarter can be opened upwards with a crank mechanism.