Gambrinus (train)
Gambrinus was a train of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), which from 1951 established a long-distance connection between northern and southern Germany via the Rhine rail .
Surname
The name is derived from the legendary Dutch king Gambrinus , to whom the invention of beer is ascribed.
history
Pre-traffic
The train ran as a long-distance express train from the summer timetable , initially from Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof via Cologne Hauptbahnhof to Dortmund Hauptbahnhof . In this direction of travel he carried the train number F 33, in the opposite direction the number F 24. The unpaired train numbers were based on a connection with the previous train of the Schwabenpfeil long-distance express train in Mainz Hauptbahnhof , which carried train numbers F 23/34. However, this connection was abandoned after a year because the traffic times of the Schwabenpfeil were too unfavorable for the Stuttgart area. As usual with long-distance express trains, the Gambrinus only carried (old) 2nd class cars and a dining car .
Gambrinus as a long-distance express train
With the 1952 summer timetable, the Gambrinus now drove independently of a link with the Swabian Arrow , but instead on an extended route from and to Munich main station via Treuchtlingen . With the 1953 summer timetable, the route at the northern end was also extended: via Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof , Bremen Hauptbahnhof and Hamburg Hauptbahnhof to Kiel Hauptbahnhof . The Gambrinus was so with 1,201 km path and a journey time of about 15½ hours of the F-train with the longest path and longest drive.
After the class reform of 1956, the train only ran the (new) 1st class. From 1957 the train (apart from the section Kiel – Hamburg, which was abandoned in 1959) was exclusively with electric locomotives (in the south of Frankfurt E18 and north of it: E 10 ) and - as far as the lines were not electrified - with locomotives of the V series 200 stringed. From 1959 the train also ran via Nuremberg Central Station . A special feature was that the F 33 (traveling north) ran via Mainz Hauptbahnhof and Lünen Hauptbahnhof , the F 34 via Hamm Hauptbahnhof and Wiesbaden Ost . From the winter timetable 1965/66, locomotives of the E 03 series were also used for the first time . The train carried through cars to Kiel at the end of the 1960s . Now that his entire route was electrified , he mastered the main route Munich - Hamburg-Altona in around 11 hours.
A special feature arose in the winter timetable 1967/68: Since sleeping cars were parked without function during the day, the DB tried to offer sleeping car compartments in the Gambrinus in the daytime position as meeting and retreat areas. There were also sleeping cars on the train between Frankfurt and Hamburg. The compartments - also double compartments with a folding partition - could be ordered for an extra charge. The attempt failed.
In 1971 the train numbers used for many years changed to F 122 (north direction) and F 123 (south direction). In September 1971 the Gambrinus was upgraded to Intercity with train numbers IC 112/117. Together with five other pairs of intercity trains, it connected Hamburg with Munich via the Ruhr area.
Trans-Europ-Express
For the 1978 summer timetable, the Deutsche Bundesbahn introduced the second class of car on a trial basis as part of the IC 79 concept in the intercity trains between Hamburg and Munich. The IC Gambrinus was the only one of the six pairs of trains to remain first class and was therefore upgraded to a Trans-Europ-Express with the train numbers TEE 14/15 in the 1978 summer timetable . This made it the first purely domestic TEE of the Deutsche Bundesbahn since the TEE Rheinpfeil was discontinued in 1971 and served mainly as a relief train for the two-class intercity trains. The TEE Gambrinus covered the 1092 km long route from Hamburg-Altona to Munich in nine and a half hours. With the 1979 summer timetable, the Gambrinus , now called TEE 18/19, was routed between Münster and Essen without stopping via Recklinghausen and Gelsenkirchen instead of via Dortmund as before. As a replacement for the discontinued stop in Dortmund, the DB set up an additional stop in Gelsenkirchen main station from June 1, 1980 with a connection to express trains to Dortmund.
Due to the declining number of passengers, the DB shortened the route of the train from the 1980/81 winter timetable to the Bremen – Stuttgart section. For the 1981 summer timetable, the Gambrinus in the north was shortened again and only ran from Münster to Stuttgart during the week. From Friday to Monday, the train route was extended to Hamburg-Altona for six months, but was also shortened to Münster for the 1981/82 winter timetable. In order to increase the number of passengers, the DB moved the northern terminus of the train from Münster to Dortmund in the 1982 summer timetable. Since this measure was not sufficient either, the TEE Gambrinus was discontinued on May 29, 1983.
The train was hauled by a class 103 locomotive and initially consisted of ten TEE / IC cars , including six Avmz compartment cars , three Apmz open seating cars and a WRmz dining car . Of these, two compartment cars and one open-plan car only ran to Stuttgart. From the summer of 1979, the train was shortened to eight cars, but they all ran the entire route. There were now five Avmz compartment cars and one Apmz open seating car, one WRmz dining car and one ARDmh bar car . In the following years the train was further shortened and from the 1980/81 winter timetable still consisted of three Avmz, one Apmz and one half dining car of the type ARmh. After the disappearance of another Avmz in the summer of 1981, the TEE Gambrinus still operated with four cars until it was discontinued.
After the discontinuation, the train name Gambrinus was used for an Intercity from Westerland (Sylt) to Stuttgart.
literature
- Peter Goette: Light F-Trains of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88255-729-9 .
- Jörg Hajt, Jürgen Franzke: The big TEE book. 50 years of Trans-Europ-Express . Heel, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-305-2 .
Remarks
- ↑ Gotte, p. 80, describes the station as "Wiesbaden Süd", a name that never existed. However, Wiesbaden Ost is in the south of Wiesbaden .