Johann Benda

Johann Benda (* 10. August 1919 in Vienna , † 5. August 2012 ibid) was railway - Designer for rail vehicle manufacturers Simmering-Graz-Pauker (SGP) in Vienna. His most famous works were the design of the Transalpin 4010 of the ÖBB and that of the Silver Arrow of the Vienna subway .

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Johann Benda was born in Vienna in 1919 and grew up in Vienna too. After five years of high school he did an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker (according to his own statement, he started this more by chance) before he was drafted as a soldier in World War II .

From the end of the 1950s he worked at Simmering-Graz-Pauker in Vienna - initially as a technical draftsman (without formal training, he was given the job simply by claiming to be) and then increasingly as a railway designer - until his retirement.

Benda lived and worked in Vienna all his life (with a second home in Vorarlberg ). From 1957 to 1992 Benda also worked in the Wiener Musikverein as an active member of the Singverein concert choir . He died in August 2012 at the age of 92.

Design work

Johann Benda was in charge of the following designs of rail vehicles in the exterior and interior:

• for the SGP customer Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB)

  • the diesel locomotive series 2045 (with two motors and a symmetrical structure) - his first and very successful design work, which was still working in a team of three at the time - used from 1952 to 1993, among other places, at Semmering , for this locomotive he designed an impeller that contained the letters ÖBB and which was used as the official ÖBB logo until the mid-1970s.
  • The 4010 series of multiple units (multi-part, consisting of the 4010 powered rail car, the 7x10 intermediate and dining car and the 6010 control car, for the first time for an international long-distance train) - now working alone and, according to his own statement, his masterpiece and the basis of his success as a railway designer - used from 1965 to 1977 as a city express train Transalpin (more precisely Transalpin II or Transalpin 4010 , this was the replacement of the Transalpin I and ran on the prestigious route from Vienna to Basel) and
  • the railcar-set number 4020 (in three parts, consisting of the rail car 4020, the intermediate carriage 7020 and the control carriage 6020) - employed in transportation as rapid transit, including since 1979 as a commuter train in and around Vienna , as well as

• for the SGP customer Wiener Stadtwerke Verkehrsbetriebe (since June 1999 Wiener Linien )

  • the Silberpfeil double multiple unit ( type U ) - in service since 1972 as a subway in Vienna.

Johann Benda was thus not only influential for the Transalpine in the 1970s, but also for the design of the vehicles in the high-level public transport network (S-Bahn and U-Bahn) of Vienna in the 1980s and 1990s, and in some cases also until today (2019).

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  Series 2045 diesel locomotive with a freight train

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  Class 4010 multiple unit in Basel

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  “Silberpfeil” set of the Vienna subway

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  Railcar series 4020 as Wr. Rapid transit

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ORF obituary in Ö1 in the program "Menschenbilder" on October 21, 2012.
2. ↑ Interview with Johann Benda on Bahnorama.
3. ↑ A blue miracle called Transalpine - article in the Standard on June 12, 2012.
4. ^ Obituary for Johann Benda in the Tramwayforum on August 10, 2012.

Web links

• Obituary in the Tramwayforum