Lower castle turntable

The turntable and the drive house in 2005

Location of the Unterburg turntable

The hub lower castle is a schedule no longer powered trolleybus - hub in Solingen district Burg on the Wupper . The operating company is Stadtwerke Solingen (SWS). The facility was used by the 683 line until November 15, 2009, which ended there on schedule up to that day. The turntable is a well-known curiosity of the Solingen trolleybus and is the world's last surviving facility of its kind.

description

The turning process takes 45 seconds and is remotely controlled by the driver from the outside. It is always carried out without passengers. The drive for the disc is housed in the neighboring house. In the case of the trolleybuses, the pantograph poles are removed by hand before the rotation begins. After the rotation, the rods are positioned manually with the help of so-called threading funnels.

history

The municipality of Burg an der Wupper, which was independent until 1975, was connected to the neighboring cities of Solingen and Remscheid by tram lines 3 and 4 until 1959 . A separate bridge over the Wupper connected the two tram lines. This was destroyed in World War II and not rebuilt. Instead, a dome terminal was created on the Solingen side. The tram was shut down in 1959 and replaced by a trolleybus line.

The narrow valley of the Wupper did not allow the space for a turning loop at the 40 meter long but only eight meter wide transfer terminal of the tram . The cramped location between the river and a steep slope turned out to be particularly problematic. Therefore, an automatically operated turntable with a diameter of 7.5 meters was installed as an alternative for the trolleybus line 3 at that time. This was sufficient for the trolleybus type ÜHIIIs that was only used at that time . Originally, the system was operated manually by the driver using a hand crank .

From 1968 the problem arose that the new, with 12,000 mm slightly longer car of the three-axle type Trolleybus Solingen (TS) could not be used on line 3. The long outdated ÜHIIIs wagons were used on this until December 27, 1974. Only after the turntable received an extension attachment could it also be used by the TS car. In 1985 it was completely renewed and expanded to a diameter of twelve meters.

Due to the limited diameter of the Unterburg turntable, line 683 was the only trolleybus line in the Solingen network until mid-November 2009 on which no articulated trolleybuses could be used. Therefore, the line 683 was the last line on which the obsolete solo vehicle of the type MAN SL 172 HO were used. An enlargement of the turntable would only have been possible with great technical and financial effort.

In mid-November 2009, line 683 was finally completely converted to modern Swisstrolley articulated wagons from the manufacturer Carrosserie Hess . These vehicles have a reinforced auxiliary diesel drive and run from the Burg Seilbahn stop , where they are connected or disconnected, in diesel mode through Unterburg to the former station of the Wermelskirchen-Burger Railway Company . A new bus station was built there for line 683 and other bus routes . The former Burg Brücke stop , which was located in the short cul-de-sac between Solinger Strasse and the turntable, was moved to the other side of the Wupper.

In the course of a bridge renovation on Eschbachstrasse, the lower town center has been completely closed since autumn 2017, line 683 has since ended again at the Burg Brücke stop . Since there are no longer enough solo trolleybuses available, the line is operated alternatively with diesel buses, which means that diesel buses are scheduled to be used on it for the first time in the history of the turntable. However, since there are not enough solo diesel buses available, articulated buses are also occasionally used, which, however, due to the lack of turning options in Unterburg, only drive to Krahenhöhe and turn around in the loop there. Parallel to the renovation work in Unterburg, Rubensstrasse in front of the Vohwinkel town hall will also be closed to bus traffic, which will also require the use of diesel buses.

future

The Unterburg turntable, which is no longer required, is to be used for special trips by the Obus-Museum Solingen e. V. remain permanently. Another positive factor is that it was only renovated in mid-2004 and thus still has a lifespan of ten to fifteen years. According to information from the operator SWS, a final decision about the future of the world's only remaining trolleybus turntable has not yet been made.