History of tram vehicles in Germany

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While in the other large western European states most of the tram networks were shut down in the second half of the 20th century, in Great Britain except in a few seaside resorts, in France except in Lille , Marseille and Saint-Étienne , in Italy except in Milan , Rome and Naples , most of the major German cities kept their trams. Only a few tram networks were shut down in the GDR. That is why the fleet of a large number of tram operators in Germany has been continuously developed.

This gallery deliberately only contains a very limited selection, no more than is necessary to illustrate the development of the shape of the trams over time. Tram vehicles are usually in regular service for 30 years, some 50 years or more. Therefore, some of the cars are not shown in the livery of their era, but in a later one. In some of them, the original pantograph has been replaced by a technically more modern one. For example, the Berlin tram did not switch from pole to scissor pantographs until 1948. Single-arm pantographs have only been used on trams since around 1980.

Horse and steam propulsion

33 years after the first New York horse-drawn tram and ten years after the opening of the tramway in Paris went to Berlin in 1865, the first tram in operation in Hamburg Later, most of these tracks were in 1866. electrical equipment changed and the car as a sidecar electric railcars continue to be used . Especially in the early days, double-deck cars were used in some places . Including those with a completely open upper deck, technically correct called deck seat cars. Where long distances or a high number of passengers had to be covered, small box steam locomotives were also used on some routes , but because of the nuisance and danger (fear of horses ) to residents and other road users, they were mostly replaced when the electric drive matured. Even when the electric drive was actually already standard, horse trams were still occasionally put into operation because of the lower investment costs, for example in Bad Salzuflen in 1909 .

  • Reconstructed horse-drawn tram in Döbeln

  • Upper deck car in Dresden's first tram line (from 1872)

  • 1878 converted to steam traction: Hamburg's first horse-drawn tram, opened in 1866 with double-deck coaches of the company Lauenstein

  • The Chiemseebahn , almost its entire length in the local position on the roadside, is still operated today with a typical box locomotive.

  • Initially had many tram operations in the summer more passengers than in the winter and then translated in addition airy summer car one.

"Electric" until 1945

The first electric tram operation from Siemens in Lichterfelde with power supply via the rails still had a pronounced demonstration and test character. At the FOTG from Frankfurt to Offenbach , the two-pole slotted pipeline was built together with the tracks . From then on, many other trams also had electric drives from the start . Some of the old lines were refitted until after the First World War . The first electric tram cars, like the horse-drawn trams, had open platforms. The car dimensions were also very similar, the wheelbases were around two meters. In many cases, well-preserved horse-drawn tram cars were used as sidecars. The design of the contact line and pantograph was dependent on the manufacturer : AEG and UEG generally used pantographs based on the patents of Frank Julian Sprague (electrical equipment by UEG ), while Siemens used Lyra pantographs .

The first wagons with closed platforms were built around 1900, the last with open ones around 1910. Open platforms were often glazed afterwards. From around 1910, the vehicles in the passenger compartment received electrical lighting (previously petroleum ).

As the tram turned from a luxury to a means of mass transport, ever longer two-axle vehicles were built, which, because of the still short wheelbases and increasing speeds, had uneven running characteristics and also put a strain on the superstructure, and more and more sidecars were used. Longer wheelbases improved the run on the straight track, but they required larger arc radii. In order to improve the arcability again despite the larger wheelbase, attempts were made with single-axle bogies. However, these did not prove themselves. The radial adjustment of the single-axle bogies only worked inadequately, and because of the small installation space for the springs, they had uncomfortably hard running properties. Bogies with radially adjustable wheel sets were more successful, such as the Brill type bogies with return by pendulum or with free steering axles . These spread mainly to the tram companies in Austria-Hungary . This made it possible to control wheelbases of up to around 3.60 meters. In addition, large tram companies in particular introduced maximum bogies , each with a large drive and a small wheel set. This made it possible to equip longer cars with a classic control system and only two traction motors and still not lose half of the friction mass for the drive. Between the world wars, two-axle vehicles with central entry were also built on a trial basis. In 1928 the Great Leipzig tram procured a hundred center-entry sidecars, which were also one of the first series of low-floor cars . In the twenties, many companies replaced the pole with pantographs , which required a conversion of the contact line. Also in the 1920s, the railcars received more powerful engines (approx. 2 × 35 kW instead of 2 × 15 kW), there were also prototypes of steering three-axle vehicles .

Tram cars with fully-fledged bogies were not very common in German-speaking countries before the middle of the 20th century, with some prominent exceptions. The power of the traction motors reached 60 in the 1940s kW, in some cases a little more.

  • 1910-built railcars with maximum bogies , one of spätesten Berlin car with open platforms

  • These 1907 Berlin railcars originally looked the same, they were given closed platforms in 1925.

  • The Great Pike was from 1929 to 1954 for the Dresden tram built

  • Duisburg 1926: the world's first articulated tram car with a Jakobs bogie

  • The tram Munich continued soon after the start of electrification entirely on maximum four-axle, here Series F (1929-30)

  • Leipzig tram , center entry railcar 1043, type 29. This type, delivered between 1929 and 1931, was the last before the Second World War

  • Hamburg , type V3 (1937–1940): proportion of four-axle vehicles up to 1945 between 10 and 20%; Pantographs there until the end of operation in 1978.

First years after 1945

Pre- war vehicles , war tramcars , modernized vehicles and "superstructures" after the Second World War:

  • typical two-axle train from the 1920s in Karl-Marx-Stadt ( Chemnitz) 1979.

  • In the Federal Republic of widespread until the 1960s, in the GDR until the 1970s: biaxial instinctual with two side-car from the 1920s.

  • Hanover : Pre-war two-axle vehicles were fitted with new car bodies in the west until the mid-1950s, and even longer in the east, mostly on floor frames or bogies from wagons destroyed in the war (called "body wagons" in the west)

  • Dreiwagenzug in Magdeburg , created in Gotha structure cart 1950 (railcars) to 1957

  • Hardly distinguishable from bodybuilders car: the first new wagons type dressing trolley , here as a type K in Frankfurt (Main)

Development in the Federal Republic

1950s and 1960s

In the western part of Germany, four-axle open- plan cars have been used since the early 1950s (from 1951) and six-axle articulated cars (from 1956) in many cities as one-way cars. DUEWAG was the market leader . Stuttgart , Freiburg and Ulm used wagons from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen , which were identical in construction in Rastatt. The first generation of Bremen articulated wagons and the identical Munich P wagons were supplied by Hansa Waggonbau in Bremen.

1970s

After DUEWAG had been supplying the Düsseldorf Rheinbahn with three-part articulated wagons with four bogies (GT8) since 1958 , from around 1970 onwards, a number of six-axle vehicles were extended to eight-axle vehicles with two Jakobs bogies by adding another segment. In some places, the extension made it possible to retire old two-axle sidecars that had previously been attached to articulated cars. In Düsseldorf and Cologne , eight-axle vehicles with large sidecars drove. The slightly modified DUEWAG articulated wagons, built from 1970 onwards, are known as the Mannheim type. The eight-axle Freiburg type was built for Freiburg from 1971 , the two inner bogies of which were arranged completely under the middle segment. The "Bremer" short articulated trolleys were further developed by Wegmann & Co. in Kassel; the control of the buckling in the joint was no longer carried out via rods, but hydraulically.

1980s

The first light rail vehicles were developed in Germany in the 1970s . In some cases, tried and tested tram types were changed so that they were also suitable for elevated platforms, and in some cases completely new types were created. While long articulated trams were built for Frankfurt and Hanover with tram-like cornering, the Stuttgart Stadtbahn took the opposite route, although several Stuttgart lines are sometimes run as conventional trams. The first versions of the new Stuttgart double multiple units for passengers consisted of two four-axle single wagons without transition and their pivot spacing is significantly greater than that of classic open-plan tram cars.

Development in the GDR

1950s and 1960s

In the GDR , VEB Waggonbau Gotha continued to build mainly two-axle vehicles and derived four-axle articulated wagons with a floating middle section, a design that was seldom used in Western countries. In the first half of the 1960s, the personnel situation in local transport companies led to the almost nationwide introduction of conductorless operation. The wagons had to be converted for this purpose, they received optical and acoustic departure signals , magnetic rail and breakaway brakes as well as emergency signal buttons and a low-voltage system for the operation of these facilities. In addition, many companies introduced the standard tram coupling , a modified Scharfenberg coupling that can be equipped with a contact attachment for the automatic coupling of electrical connections between the cars. This meant that the line connections between the wagons of a train that were required up until then could be omitted. The articulated wagons continued to be built after the conductors-less operation was introduced. VEB Waggonbau Gotha took over the production of uniform wagons for all tram operators in the GDR in 1952 from Waggonfabrik Werdau , where the LOWA ET50 was developed in 1950 , which was built in Gotha until 1956, last changed slightly as ET54. From around 1960, only one-way trolleys were manufactured in Gotha . Many companies also converted their existing vehicles into one-way vehicles in their own workshops. Contemporary large-capacity bogie cars were only made in small numbers, they were delivered to the tram companies in Berlin, Dresden and Magdeburg.

1970s and 1980s

From 1967 four-axle open- plan cars from the Czechoslovak manufacturer ČKD Tatra were used in some of the major cities of the GDR . In this context, the Gotha large capacity wagons from Dresden and Magdeburg were given to Berlin for type adjustment. In the 1980s, the fleet of both large and many smaller tram operators in the GDR was modernized with the new Tatra KT4D short articulated trolleys with two bogies (technically comparable to the "Bremer" type). Towards the end of the 1980s, the first Tatra T6A2 open- plan cars with car bodies based on the model of the KT4D and a modern control system appeared. LOWA ET50, used Gotha and the last pre-war cars were taken out of service.

1990s

In the 1990s, high-pressure low-floor trains were developed. In some cases, considerable "teething problems" made themselves felt after large numbers were already in use. Some older articulated vehicles were also improved with a low-floor segment after 1990. In order to avoid problems with the low-floor technology, there are also new designs that are not completely low-floor, for example the Flexity Swift , which has been produced for Cologne since 1995 and whose running gear arrangement with two sets of idler wheels under a short middle segment has been further developed from a conventional articulated wagon type of the Zurich tram whose middle segment, however, has an outer door. The Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe avoided the procurement of rigid-axle multi- articulated wagons , the middle parts of the articulated wagons NGT8D, LVB type 36, derived from the MGT6D type, run on small-wheel bogies instead of loose wheel sets. Karlsruhe was and is a pioneer in the development of Regiotram (see below) .

  • Siemens Combino hooked short boxes on fixed Losradlaufgestellen, long segments:

  • Adtranz low-floor wagons, each with a bogie under the middle of each segment: This “Bremer” principle causes extreme wear on the tires of the small low-floor wheels in these wagons.

  • DUEWAG-Niederflurwagen in Heidelberg : bogies to the carriage ends, midsection on guided individual axes in some problems have caused

  • Older type articulated tram with a subsequently added low-floor section in Mannheim

  • Flexity Swift K4000 in Cologne with two motor bogies at the ends of the car, the short middle section runs on two loose wheel sets

  • No share in the low-floor development has been Bielefeld . Parts of all moBiel lines have been Germany's only meter-gauge light rail system since 1991, and elevated platforms are also used above ground. M8D series train (1994–1998)

  • 1992 started in Karlsruhe with the use of dual-system trains operated in the cities and on their own DC lines, the mainline system with alternating current.

  • LVB type 36 with small wheel bogies under the middle section

From around 2000

Since 2000 it has been increasingly possible to remedy the teething problems of low-floor technology. The market leader Bombardier has been producing eight-axle three-part vehicles with real bogies instead of six-axle vehicles with single axles since 1999. As the successor to the Adtranz articulated trolley, he developed the Flexity Berlin type . Particularly long low-floor articulated trains were built for the Dresden and Leipzig transport companies . At a time when, on the one hand, low-floor technology is almost standard, and on the other hand, the trains as RegioTrams also travel on railway lines, tram vehicles (increasingly called light rail vehicles) have to meet contradicting requirements.

inside rooms

  • Interior of a tram from the 1920s with a bell cord and divided platforms.

  • Interior of a Gotha car (construction from 1957)

  • Interior of a tram with Durofol seating from around 1960; the original conductor's seat by the rear door is missing here.

  • Interior of a Combino

  • Interior of a Cologne K4000.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Europe's first tram was the Montbrison – Montrond regional tram
  2. ↑ Type pure Leipzig »Pullman suit« from type 22 (built in 1926) and 56 with car bodies in wooden construction, here in regular service in 1964 after the introduction of the conductorless operation

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