Line 18G

Ostbahnhof – Gumpendorfer Strasse
Gumpendorfer Strasse – Heiligenstadt
Legend Ostbahnhof Prinz-Eugen-Strasse Mommsengasse Arrival at Südbahnhof Favorite place Radeckgasse Kliebergasse Matzleinsdorfer Platz Oak Street Flurschützstrasse Steinbauergasse Schönbrunner Strasse Margaret Belt Gumpendorfer Strasse Gumpendorfer Strasse junction Mariahilfer Strasse-Westbahnhof Burggasse Josefstädter Strasse Alser Strasse Michelbeuern depot Kreuzgasse Schopenhauerstrasse Severingasse Währinger Strasse Volksoper Nussdorfer Strasse Heiligenstadt

The line 18G of the Vienna Public Transport (WVB), which until 1942 still under Community Vienna - urban trams (WSTB) firmierten, was about eleven kilometers long, combined tram - and railway - line in the Vienna metropolitan area. It is considered an early form of linking the two modes of transport and operated from 1925 to 1945. Line 18G connected the Viennese tram with the Viennese electric light rail , both of which were operated by the same company from 1925. Due to the change of system in the station Gumpendorferstraße were for those with light rail vehicles of type N, n and n ₁ operated line 18G a whole range of operational characteristics that resulted from the various provisions for trams or trains as well as local customs.

description

Light rail route plan from 1937, the line 18G is as Straßenbahneinschleifungslinie recorded

The line 18G, also known as the transition line , through line , tram loop or loop line for short, began at the south and east station on what was then Ghegaplatz. From there it followed the route of the tram lines 18 and 118 on the Wiedner Gürtel , the Margaretengürtel and the Gumpendorfer Gürtel westwards , initially in the public street space. At the Gumpendorfer Strasse junction , a little north of Otto Wagner's elevated railway station, it finally switched to the so-called belt line of the light rail after about four kilometers and thus a little more than a third of the route . The establishment of the link at this point was favorable because the belt line there, coming from the direction of Meidling-Hauptstrasse , changes from an elevated railway to an underground railway , and is therefore briefly at street level.

On the belt line, the 18G then drove northwards, now independent of the road and from today's Thaliastraße station again as an elevated railway on the so-called city ​​railway arches , to finally reach the terminus in Heiligenstadt after a further seven kilometers . The line designation 18G is thus a combination of the tram line number 18 and the line letter G for the belt line. The train numbers customary for the Stadtbahn were used as course names. The numbers 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59 and 61 were assigned to the - initially only eleven - regular courses on line 18G. From July 5, 1927, there were twelve courses with the numbers 61 to 72, with this block being expanded to 77 if necessary.

Overall, the eight-minute-operated clock circulating line 18G 16 stations in this way, with 14 in the tram network and seven on the light rail route were. This means that in the tram area, the mean distance between stations, at around 300 meters, was significantly less than on the light rail section, where it was around one kilometer. The stops on the tram were compulsory, while the tram network was only stopped when required . In addition, it was possible to drive faster on the signal-secured urban railway line, where 40 km / h was permitted, than when driving on sight in the tram network, where the maximum permitted speed was only 30 km / h. The travel time over the entire route was 35 minutes in 1932 and 34 minutes in 1941. Line 18G also benefited from the fact that it had largely separated tracks in the road area.

In the area of ​​the Gumpendorfer Strasse / Sechshauser Strasse traffic junction, passengers were still or already in the street area, as the threading in and out took place a little north of the tram station. In the system change area there were also two track gates that were closed at night. Although only bi-directional vehicles were used, the line 18G de facto drove even then the device operation because at both terminals Wendeschleifen were available.

history

background

As a preliminary construction work , a branch in the east was created between the tram arches 4 and 5, with the Gumpendorfer Strasse station in the background on the right. Line 18G ultimately continued east on the tram route in the foreground.

When the Viennese steam light rail was put into operation in 1898 by the Commission for Transport Systems in Vienna and the Imperial and Royal State Railways , military-strategic considerations were the focus. The improvement of inner-city traffic relations, however, played only a subordinate role at that time; the intention to run a light rail line on a viaduct over the extra wide southern belt was not carried out. Like the later line 18G, it would initially have led from Gumpendorfer Straße via Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel to Matzleinsdorf station, from there possibly on via Laaer Berg to the Ostbahn . Since the high-rise buildings on the more important routes were much more expensive than planned due to the architectural quality required by Otto Wagner, this route was no longer implemented.

It was not until the city of Vienna took over the city railroad in 1925 that it was possible to at least partially remedy this birth defect. The now practiced use of - only slightly adapted - classic tram vehicles in light rail operations also facilitated the project to better interlink the tram and light rail. From October 20, 1925, line 18G succeeded in connecting Vienna's four large terminal stations without changing trains. These were the south and east station at Ghegaplatz, the west station and the Franz-Josefs-station at the terminus in Heiligenstadt. But even though it was a very customer-friendly and technically mature solution, it was badly criticized at the time. The critics even accused the municipality of Vienna that they only set up the connection so that the “ red ” parade district of Favoriten would also benefit from the electric tram.

Ultimately, the 18G remained the only combination line, a second system change that was planned at times in the area of ​​the Hietzing tram station  - from where the tram tracks were supposed to continue to Mödling in Lower Austria - no longer came about. Irrespective of the 18G line, light rail vehicles were occasionally used in pure tram operation as early as 1926.

Operational peculiarities

As line 18G, train number 67, a signposted tram three-car train on Schwarzenbergplatz, corner of Lothringerstraße, on the occasion of a special trip in 1978

The former connection with the tram network on Gumpendorfer Straße, taken in 1981: on the left in the picture line 18G changed to the public street area, on the right edge of the picture you can see the gleistor at the end of the access ramp, which was still there at the time

Detailed view of the access ramp on Gumpendorfer Straße, the track was already removed in 1981

Driver's cab of a light rail vehicle with the driver's seat removed

Since the tram was handled in a stationary manner by local staff and platform closures, the tram conductors in the direction of Heiligenstadt got off early at Burggasse. There, they then switched to a return, as Expedit them served the building of the former block post 8 G on the platform 1. Alternatively, rose already at the stop Gumpendorferstraße a light rail train attendants and towards south and east stations there in accordance off.

Furthermore, the collecting basket , which is mandatory in the street area, had to be firmly locked in the tram area in order to avoid damage. In the beginning, this was done quite laboriously by lifting overhead. As of March 31, 1926, it was fixed with a transversely movable bolt that held the trigger bar of the grass catcher. A handle on the left front step was used to operate the latch. A rectangular white board was visible to indicate the lock. From October 29, 1926, there were also railcars in which the collecting basket position could be operated from the driver's cab with an attachable reversing lever. The handbrake was also only needed in the tram area.

Furthermore, line 18G ran on the light rail line with a voltage of 750 volts direct current , while it was only 550 volts on the tram section at that time - which resulted in a correspondingly reduced engine output. In addition, the doors on the light rail route had to remain closed during the journey, while this was not yet mandatory in tram traffic. This was indicated by special signs with the following text:

“Close doors on the tram! Do not open before the car has stopped! "

In the beginning, the Viennese tram network also had a different gauge of 1,440 millimeters, that is, five millimeters more than the standard gauge of the railway and thus also the light rail. In order to avoid problems, the size of the tram was adjusted to the standard gauge in two stages as a result of the mixed operation - initially to a transitional 1438 millimeters, then in 1941/1942 to the final dimension of 1435 millimeters.

From January 17, 1933, the train drivers on the Stadtbahn also had simple saddle-shaped plug-in seats. Seated locomotive drivers had long been common in the driver's cabs of many other electric railroad vehicles. In contrast to this, however, in accordance with the regulations at the time, trams had to be driven in standing position for a few years longer. The pure tram cars in Vienna only received driver seats from 1941. For this reason, the train attendant disembarking on line 18G on Gumpendorfer Strasse - where the train driver nominally became a tram driver - took the removable driver's seat with him for a number of years for safety reasons.

For the operation of the line 18G, some of the light rail vehicles were also located outside the two - from 1927 three - light rail depots. This initially affected 20 N + n + n three-car trains that were stationed from December 22, 1925 in the Meidling Aßmayergasse tram station , which was closed in 1932 . Otherwise, the tram depots in Heiligenstadt and Michelbeuern provided the vehicles on the line.

Furthermore, the light rail cars were not equipped with the chest wall panels under the windshield that are common in Viennese tram traffic ; this also applied to line 18G. Similar to the pure light rail trains, the railcars on line 18G also had train number boards on the side, and a sign with the words Smoker hung on the first sidecar . In addition, the cars used on line 18G could be distinguished from the red and white tram cars from afar by their red light rail paint scheme, which was introduced in April 1929.

Another innovation in the tram network was the pantographs of the light rail vehicles , while the pure tram cars were only operated with lyre bars until after the Second World War . Dogs were allowed to be taken on the light rail from September 6, 1926, while this was forbidden on the tram until 1931. It is not known whether there was a special regulation for line 18G in this regard. Last but not least, the railcars had to carry switch irons for the tram section .

The introduction of the new city-wide zone and sector tariff also led to a tariff peculiarity on line 18G from December 1, 1933. Because the short-haul tariff of 20 groschen introduced at the same time was generally not applicable on the Stadtbahn, on Line 18G it was therefore only valid in the tram section. On this, the discounted tickets could be used either on the Gumpendorfer Straße – Matzleinsdorfer Platz section or on the Matzleinsdorfer Platz – Süd- and Ostbahnhof section.

Capacity problems on Sundays and public holidays due to the limited train length

A negative consequence of the mixed operation was the limited train length on line 18G. While the pure light rail lines comparatively long trains of up to nine cars - including up to three railcars in multiple traction - drove, the line could 18G due to the shorter platforms only operate with a maximum of three cars and other practices in the tram network. In the beginning, there was one N-railcar and two N- trailer cars , the latter not being suitable for tram operation due to their heavy bogies. As of April 19, 1926, only the lighter n ₁ sidecars were used on line 18G . In contrast, the series of railcars, sidecar and railcars, which is common in pure light rail operations, sometimes also for short three-car trains, was not used in mixed traffic, i.e. there was generally no multiple traction in the tram network at that time.

After the electrified light rail system proved more successful than expected, the short trains on Line 18G quickly reached their capacity limits. The reason for this was not least a joint tariff with the tram, also introduced on October 20, 1925. As early as October 27, 1925, a request was made to the responsible supervisory authority to be allowed to change over to the tram network on line 18G with the appropriate frequency with five-car trains. On November 6, 1925, a test run of such a train took place between Idagasse, which has been called Pater-Schwartz-Gasse since 1936, and the Süd- and Ostbahnhof. As a result, the authorities of the municipality of Vienna - city trams issued a trial permit for three months. For reasons not known in detail, however, such trains were not used in practice. Alternatively, from February 14, 1926, operation of line 18G was discontinued on Sundays and public holidays in the afternoons in favor of light rail line G in order to be able to cope with the heavy excursion traffic on non-working days at the time.

But the Saturday football games in the Hohe Warte stadium also caused capacity problems on line 18G. To this end, she drove from March 20, 1926 with six-car trains in the sequence of railcars - sidecars - sidecars - railcars - sidecars - sidecars in Heiligenstadt, which were divided into two three-car trains in the connecting track on Gumpendorfer Strasse and then continue one after the other to the south and east station. In the opposite direction, the two short trains on Idagasse were reunited into one long train. This type of business existed until 1934.

It was only with the conversion of the signal system on the belt line for a minimum train sequence of 90 seconds that line 18G was able to run again on all weekdays from October 3, 1926.

Short tour to Alser Straße (1927)

Through the Severingasse underpass, the short-run trains of line 18G changed from the west to the east side of the Stadtbahn belt line from 1927

Route plan from 1928 with reference to the short route 18G

But even during the rush hour on working days there were increasing capacity problems. For this reason, from July 5, 1927, line 18G no longer drove to Heiligenstadt during rush hour, instead the Alser Straße station was the last stop on the belt line. Alternatively, the tram line G ran to Heiligenstadt. After Alserstraße the short-run trains left the line 18G the light rail depot Michelbeuern where this allowed an additional control center was at the confluence of the Schumanngasse available, the city railway line and then used the public streets into a loop drive via the outer and inner Währingergürtel back to Michelbeuern depot. The light rail line was crossed under the underpass at the level of Schopenhauerstraße or Severingasse, the return to the light rail network was via another new ramp from the Inner Währinger Gürtel, which was located at the level of the Michelbeuern market hall. In total, line 18G had four connecting tracks with a total length of 892 meters:

• Stadtbahn> Tram at Gumpendorfer Straße: 188 meters
• Tram> Stadtbahn at Gumpendorfer Straße: 148 meters
• Stadtbahn> Tram at Schumanngasse: 116 meters
• Tram> Stadtbahn at Severingasse: 440 meters

The three additional tram stops Kreuzgasse (fixed stop), Schopenhauerstraße (only line 18G) and Severingasse were in the area of ​​the loop journey in Michelbeuern, which was carried out with passengers. The last stop also took place on the latter, although the trains were marked with "Alser Straße". At the time of the short tour to Severingasse, which was marked with a crossed line signal , the tram conductors stayed on the train throughout, among other things to operate the switch on the belt. Nonetheless, the tram attendant boarded the Gumpendorfer Strasse as usual, so that the train crew up to Burggasse consisted of five people. With regard to the driver's seat and collecting basket, the same rules also applied on the loop journey via Währinger Gürtel as in the section Süd- und Ostbahnhof-Gumpendorfer Straße.

Another operational problem was the special wheel tire profile of the light rail vehicles. After a relatively short time it became clear that this was causing problems on the tram sections in the area of ​​switches and crossings. In order to reduce the wear and tear, the WStB therefore equipped the tram sets used on line 118 with light rail tires between 1928 and 1935.

After the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938

After the "Anschluss" to the German Reich on March 12, 1938, road traffic in Vienna and thus also the tram network was switched from left-hand to right-hand traffic on the night of September 18 to 19, 1938 . The Viennese Stadtbahn remained unaffected by this, like many other Austrian railway lines, it operated for many more decades in the usual left-hand traffic.

Consequently, had the traits of the line 18G from 1938 no longer the respective opposite track tram crossing before they entered into the city rail line (Outside Mariahilfergürtel) or shortly after they left the city railway (Inner Mariahilfergürtel). For the short-haul trains to Severingasse, which even had to change their driving side twice in the course of a journey, the track crossings on the Outer Währinger Gürtel (after leaving the urban railway line) and on the Inner Währinger Gürtel (before re-entering the urban railway line) were omitted the track crossing at the confluence of the Schopenhauerstraße in the Währinger belt.

Another consequence of the “Anschluss” was the introduction of the German Tram Construction and Operating Regulations (BOStrab), which came into force on April 1, 1938 and also applied in Austria from July 1, 1938. A direct consequence of this was the equipping of the railcars with direction indicators from March 1, 1939. To save costs, only the 25 cars with the numbers 2701–2706 and 2732–2750 of the total of 180 light rail vehicles were given indicators. They also lost the heavy multiple cable that was only used for the power supply for the sidecar lighting on line 18G. Instead, single-pole, so-called Zurich light couplings were installed. This also happened in the same way with a total of 75 n ₁ sidecars with the numbers 5701-5775, which could therefore no longer be used on pure light rail lines.

In return, the majority of light rail vehicles could no longer be freely used in the tram network. This in turn meant that the wagons no longer used in mixed traffic gradually lost their tram-typical additional equipment such as roof bells, bell belts , tactile grids and collecting baskets.

attitude

The connecting track at Gumpendorfer Strasse 1965, the year it was closed

As a result of the Second World War , line 18G could no longer run to Severingasse in some cases from July 16, 1944; alternatively, it was already turning at the Michelbeuern depot. From September 11, 1944, it happened again and again that line 18G no longer ran on the urban railway line, but instead shuttled between the Marsanogasse loop at the Gürtel depot and the southern and eastern stations, remaining entirely in the street. On February 19, 1945, it then had to be completely abandoned before the rest of the light rail service was finally stopped on April 7, after the tram had stopped running since April 1.

Although both modes of transport resumed operation quite soon, the tram on April 28, 1945 and the light rail on May 27, 1945, line 18G was permanently shut down. This was due, among other things, to the fact that on the one hand the route to Heiligenstadt, which was badly damaged by the war, could not go back into operation until 1954 and, on the other hand, the new N ₁ and N ₂ cars that were put into service from 1954 were no longer intended for the transition to the tram network.

The track connection on Gumpendorfer Strasse was available again from November 19, 1945, after the war damage had been repaired, but from then on it was only used for internal purposes and was finally discontinued when the signal box there was closed on August 2, 1965. In November 1948 the connecting track at Severingasse and in 1956 the one at Schumanngasse went out of service. Irrespective of this, however, tram sets were still in use on tram line 60 until June 14, 1968.

The link at the Michelbeuern depot, however, is still in operation today. Its main purpose is to be able to transfer the U6 vehicles to the main Wiener Linien workshop in Simmering . For this purpose, the type T and T ₁ railcars used exclusively on this line are the only Viennese underground vehicles to have direction indicators.

Web links

• Description of line 18G on strassenbahnjournal.at

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 141.
2. ^ The Viennese electric Stadtbahn by engineer Ludwig Spängler, director of the Viennese urban trams, special print from the Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, issue 39, 1927, Julius Springer, Berlin
3. ^ Harald Helml: Stadtbahn and U-Bahn in Vienna. On the history of a delayed means of mass transport . Thesis. Vienna 2011, p. 77-85 ( univie.ac.at [PDF]).
4. ^ Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wagner's work for Vienna. Total work of art Stadtbahn (= International Archive for Locomotive History. Volume 44). Slezak, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85416-185-9 , p. 42
5. ↑ The history of the former Viennese Stadtbahn (1898–1989). In: public-transport.at. Steve Stipsits, February 15, 2015, accessed September 30, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Local transport in Vienna . November 1, 1932 ( findbuch.at [PDF]).
7. ↑ Timetable from May 1941
8. ^ Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wagner's work for Vienna. Total work of art Stadtbahn (= International Archive for Locomotive History. Volume 44). Slezak, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85416-185-9 , p. 157
9. ↑ Erich Vorrath: The "hybrid" . In: Wiener Stadtwerke (Ed.): 24 hours for Vienna . No. 226 , May 2012, p. 16 ( wienerstadtwerke.at [PDF]).
10. ^ Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wagner's work for Vienna. Total work of art Stadtbahn (= International Archive for Locomotive History. Volume 44). Slezak, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85416-185-9 , p. 155
11. ^ Trams, Austria. Vienna. (No longer available online.) In: erlebnisbahn.at. Sebastian Erben, archived from the original on December 9, 2011 ; accessed on September 30, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ ^{A b c d} Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 153.
13. ↑ Städtewerk: Das neue Wien , Elbemühl, Vienna, 1928, pp. 98–115
14. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 139.
15. ^ Hans Peter Pawlik, Josef Otto Slezak: Wagner's work for Vienna. Total work of art Stadtbahn (= International Archive for Locomotive History. Volume 44). Slezak, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85416-185-9 , p. 153
16. ↑ Enamel signs for the tram. In: schilderjagd.de. Retrieved October 3, 2017 . 
17. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 143.
18. ↑ Via the Meidling Remise (Aßmayergasse superstructure workshop). In: stefanskibude.com. Stefan Kreyl, accessed September 30, 2016 . 
19. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 171.
20. ^ Directorate of Urban Trams. Tram and light rail transport network. Edition 1933: Section limits for tram rides by 20 groschen. Valid on working days from 8 a.m. on December 1, 1933.
21. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 159.
22. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , pp. 156–157.
23. ^ Alfred Horn: Wiener Stadtbahn. 90 years of light rail, 10 years of underground. Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7002-0678-X , p. 157.
24. ^ Markus Kaiser: The history of the Viennese transport company from 1903 to 1938 . Thesis. Vienna December 2012, p. 25-26 ( core.ac.uk [PDF]).
25. ^ Line 18G. In: strassenbahnjournal.at. Retrieved September 30, 2016 . 
26. ↑ Line openings of the Viennese electric light rail. On: strassenbahnjournal.at. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
27. ↑ light rail. In: strassenbahnjournal.at. Retrieved September 30, 2016 . 
28. ↑ picture galleries. Trams in Austria. In: bahnbilder.warumdenn.net. Wolfgang Moll, accessed on September 30, 2016 .